BROWNSTOWN TWP — An unseasonably warm late afternoon was the setting for the Downriver League cross country championships at Lake Erie Metropark on Thursday.
The third of the three league meets this fall was one where both team and individual champions were still to be determined. Right in the mix were the boys and girls from Brownstown Woodhaven, whom as has been the case in years past asserted themselves once more by day’s end.
With first-place team finishes in both varsity races, Woodhaven continued its reign over the DL, earning its third consecutive conference title in the boys side and a fourth straight on the girls side.
The team champion in cross country is determined using a scoring system.
Teams are awared a point value for how they finish at each of the three league meets (one for first place, two for second, etc). Thursday’s championship jamboree sees that point value doubled, with then the lowest total score at season’s end determining an overall league champion.
Both the boys and girls for Woodhaven came into the meet tied for first place in the league standings before beating out the team they were knotted up with. The boys tallied 41 points, just ahead of runner-up Wyandotte Roosevelt (55). The girls turned in a perfect score of 15 points to cruise past second-place Gibraltar Carlson (54).
The rest of the boys team scores from Thursday consisted of Allen Park (75) narrowly ahead of Carlson (76) for third place, followed by Southgate Anderson (153), Trenton (160), and Lincoln Park (189).
The final girls leaderboard meanwhile saw Roosevelt (99) in third, followed by Allen Park (110), Anderson (120), and Trenton (126).
A big reason for why the Woodhaven girls, ranked No. 11 in Division 1 coming into the week, literally ran away from the league competition once more was the individual effort of Charley McKay.
An all-state honoree a season ago, McKay absolutely dominated the course at Lake Erie MP on Thursday to earn her third league individual crown in as many seasons. The junior turned in a time of 18:24, nearly one whole minute ahead of the runner-up finisher, teammate and classmate Annabelle Chan (19:17).
Woodhaven junior Charley McKay finished first overall in the girls varsity race of the Downriver League cross country championships on Oct 22, 2026. (ALEXANDER MULLER — MediaNews Group)
Incredibly McKay’s time would’ve been good for 26th out of 52 qualified runners in the boys varsity race on Thursday.
The DL prior to this season used a similar scoring system to determine an individual champion, much like its team champion. The league this fall instead decided to recognize the first-place finisher at the final meet as the overall solo champion.
Additionally, each of the top 14 placeholders would receive all-conference status.
McKay and Chan headlined what was five straight Woodhaven runners to pace the pack of 47 runners in the girls race. Two more juniors, Alexis Kmiecik (19:43) and Jaelynn Greene (19:51), finished third and fourth, respectively, while senior Hope Noal (19:52) rounded out the team scoring.
Albeit a little bit further down the leaderboard, Carlson saw its top five runners each receive all-DL status.
A trio of Marauders — Giada Fioritto (20:24), Ada Cain (20:27), and Madison Slade (20:32) — finished consecutively in eighth through tenth place, while a pair of juniors in Harper Jackson (21:19) and Livia Boucher (21:29) finished back-to-back in 13th and 14th.
Four schools — Roosevelt, Anderson, Trenton, and Allen Park — each had one all-conference honoree by the end of the girls race.
Roosevelt’s Emma Puscas (19:59) and Anderson’s Joy Schuck (20:20) finished consecutively in sixth and seventh place. The sophomore Puscas finished runner-up at the first DL meet back on Sep 23, while the junior Schuck logged sixth-place finishes at each of the first two conference jamborees.
Elsewhere, Trenton’s Jamie Glatfelter finished in 11th place (20:34), one spot ahead of Allen Park’s Adrianna Zub (20:40). The former picks up all-league honors after narrowly missing such recognition in 2025. The latter meanwhile improved her final finish by five places for the second time in as many league meets this fall.
Unlike the girls side where it was largely clogged up by two schools, the boys race offered a lot more parity. While it was a lot of the same schools represented, four teams saw seeing multiple runners earn all-conference honors.
Carlson junior Jack Dunwoody finished first overall in the boys varsity race of the Downriver League cross country championships on Oct 22, 2026. (ALEXANDER MULLER — MediaNews Group)
Headlining that bunch was the individual champion, Carlson’s Jack Dunwoody. The junior, who settled for runner-up honors at each of the first two league meets earlier in the season, logged a final time of 16:04.
In fact, it was a 1-2 finish at the top for Carlson with Dunwoody beating out teammate Wyatt DelValle. The sophomore occupied the top spot of the boys race at that Sep 23 league meet.
Despite the Marauders claiming first and second-place honors, the depth of Woodhaven prevailed again as they had all five of its scoring runners collect all-DL placings. That included Zawadi Mwathi, who led his team in third place overall (16:17).
Also picking up all-conference recognition for the Warriors was Vincent Jones (16:27) in seventh, Gavin Herrera-Hammerle (16:53) in ninth, and Lucas Machlik (17:02) and Peter Gachonjo (17:03) consecutively in 11th and 12th.
A perennial contender at the league meets, Roosevelt certainly gave the eventual league champion Warriors a push with three runners inside the top eight overall. That included senior staple Noah Amori (16:19) in fourth place, one spot and a handful of seconds ahead of junior teammate Zachary Greene (16:23).
The Bears elsewhere saw another senior in Allen Decaminada (16:46) finish in eighth place.
Photo gallery of the 2026 Downriver League boys and girls cross country championships
Allen Park matched Roosevelt with a trio of all-conference honorees. Sophomore Jaden Hill was the best of the bunch in seventh place (16:31), while srnior Deacon Ashmore (17:03) and junior Ivan Yepez (17:14) rounded out the group of all-DL recipients in 13th and 14th.
Anderson got another encouraging effort from Parker Wisniewski. The sophomore, who placed top-10 at each of the first two league meets, logged such a finish and a new personal-best time at Thursday’s conference finale for the season (16:57).