Local runners competing in cross country state finals today

ALPENA -- Last year, Elijah Allen got a good up-close look at the state finals cross country course at Michigan International Speedway.

Now Allen will have a chance to race that course himself.

The Alpena High senior will compete in the Division 1 boys cross country finals today at MIS in Brooklyn and hopes to finish his season with an all-state, top-30 finish.

His brother Hayden Allen competed last year, so Elijah Allen had a chance to see just how competitive the race is and what kind of conditions competitors are up against.

"Yeah, I saw the course because I went with my brother who made it," Allen said. "So I know that it's a hard course, a lot of hills, really tough competition...I'm just excited to run the hard course."

Allen is one of several Northeast Michigan runners who will compete today. In the Division 1 girls race, Alpena junior Emma Dickins will compete for the second consecutive season. Rogers City freshman Cole Brege and Alcona brothers, junior Carter Upper and freshman Cole Upper, will all compete in the Division 4 boys race.

Dickins got a feel for the course and the race as a competitor last year. She finished 177th in 20:21.1 and turned in her second-best time of the season. This year, Dickins has run her best races late in the year, including a season-best time of 18:56 at last month's regional.

With that experience under her belt, Dickins hopes to keep her late-season momentum going to end up with all-state honors. This season, she has five top-10 finishes and one win.

Madi Szymanski was Alpena's last all-state finisher, earning that honor in 2021.

"At first it was looking like I wasn't going to make states, but then, like the past two meets with the help of my encouragement of my coaches and stuff, I pushed harder and I got better times," Dickins said. "It was scary last year especially with all the people starting, but then I got to the course and I felt good. I'm going to just relax and just try my best."

Carter Upper is the other finals returner in this season's group of local qualifiers. He finished 144th in 18:59.88 last season and finished 18th at regionals. Cole Upper and Brege finished 11th and 23rd respectively in the same regional.

Allen has been one of Alpena's top finishers all season, including one win and seven top-10 finishes. The Alpena speedster qualified in the hurdles during track season in the spring and hopes to keep his own momentum going this weekend.

Alpena last had an all-state boys finisher in 2018 when three Wildcats finished in the top 30.

"I'm pretty excited because (I saw) the course last year and I really wanted to run it, so I worked a lot harder over the summer and I'm just really excited," Allen said. "After I made it for track, I worked a lot harder over the season and a lot harder over the summer because I want to see what I can do in the cross instead of track. So I just worked as hard as I could to see what I could manage."

Expectations were understandably high for both Allen and Dickins this season, but, nonetheless, Alpena coach Joe Donajkowski said it was still satisfying to watch their talent and hard work pay off with a berth in the finals.

We looked at them as being qualifiers right from the first first week of the season. We know we had it and, of course, Emma made it last year and she was highly ranked in our view," Donajkowski said. "Eli too, based on what he ran last year, we could see him doing what he did. It wasn't a surprise and it was real satisfying to see both those kids do as well as they did."