Click the thumbnails to see photos and interviews with Drew Hughes, Aaron Hughes, Tanner Howes, Alex Eilola, and Coach Gary Whitmer.

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone High School boys cross country team is looking to make waves in the upcoming season,

Last year, the Marquette Redmen easily won the MHSAA Division One Upper Peninsula championship, while the Braves were tied for fourth with Escanaba, well off the pace on the team scoreboard. But the Braves are hoping to close the gap on Marquette this year, with four of their top five runners back, and the fact that Gladstone will be hosting the U.P. Finals in October on the Flat Rock course.

Back for his senior year is Drew Hughes, who ran off quite a streak last year as he won eleven straight invitational meets. But at U.P. Finals in Marquette, he finished third, with a time of 17 minutes, 23 seconds, well slower than his normal times during the season.

"I'm feeling really confident about how it's going to go," Hughes said. "We've got a really young team, but we're quick. I've been doing a lot of running during the summer, a lot of speed workouts, a lot of workouts in general."

"Drew ran the fastest time in the whole U.P. last year, 16:22, and he went downstate and won the Holly Meet," Braves Head Coach Gary Whitmer said. "He does have some stiff competition this year. The Marquette runners have been chasing him the last couple of years. But I think Drew is gonna get in even better shape as the year moves on."

And what about that rough (by his standards) performance at U.P. Finals?

"I think I was just thinking too much about that race," Hughes said. "Just overthinking it."

The Braves will be counting on junior Tanner Howes to crack the Top 15, after finishing 28th a year ago. He's hoping to shave some time off of that 19:20 he turned in at U.P. Finals.
 

"I'm feeling really great about it," Howes said. "I mean, I've trained a lot this summer, maybe 30, 40 miles a week. and I'm just really confident overall. I feel like I kind of did my part this summer by training, and you've just got to stay in the moment."

Hughes' younger brother, Aaron, had a strong freshman year in 2021, finishing 34th at U.P. Finals and running neck-and-neck at times with his older brother. Hughes will also be doing something that's rare at Gladstone High School: play two sports at one time. Hughes will play football as well as run cross country this fall.

"I just want to hit someone, honestly," Hughes said of playing football in addition to running. "We have running in the morning, and during the summer, there was summer workouts for both sports. I ran in the morning, and I did weightlifting later on for football. I hope my times are faster this year."

Also back for his senior year is Alex Eilola, who was 49th last year at U.P. Finals.

"I've been running a lot with Drew," Eilola said, then laughed, "but he's way faster, so I'm just dragging behind. But I"m feeling good. We have Drew and Tanner, and Aaron's there, and he's usually pretty good, plus the rest of the team looks pretty good, too."

The guys are excited to have the U.P. Finals in Flat Rock on the Braves' home course.

"It's awesome," Howes said. "I mean, you don't got to go far and you have all these teams coming to your home course, it's great. I'm definitely going over there to train a lot. The course, I mean, it's a little rocky and there's roots in the woods. But running on that course a lot will definitely get me in shape for that course."

The Braves also have a girls team this year.

"We have five girls," Whitmer said. "It's one of the smallest girls teams we've ever had. But hopefully, we'll have more girls come out. The bright thing is we have 15 kids on the team (boys and girls combined) and seven of them are freshmen. Two girls and five boys. That's real encouraging that we have such a large freshman class."