Courtesy Photo The Alpena High School cross country program honored four senior boys, who recently finished their careers as Wildcats. Brendan Stepaniak (career best, 18:24), Eli Rondeau (19:06), Ben Poli (19:17) and Blake MacDonald (18:29) have run for the past six or seven seasons, and were highly valued leaders on coach Joy Bullis’ squad, running warmups and other workouts for the team during the season.

The Alpena High School cross country program honored four senior boys, who recently finished their careers as Wildcats. Brendan Stepaniak (career best, 18:24), Eli Rondeau (19:06), Ben Poli (19:17) and Blake MacDonald (18:29) have run for the past six or seven seasons, and were highly valued leaders on coach Joy Bullis’ squad, running warmups and other workouts for the team during the season.

The four earned many medals and trophies with their team throughout their four years in high school. One of the biggest highlights was when they were sophomores and were part of the team winning the Big North Conference championship, the regional championship and finishing seventh at the Division 1 State Finals.

Stepaniak earned the Most Improved Runner 2019 and 2020. Poli earned the Coaches Award in 2020 and Stepaniak, Poli and MacDonald were part of Alpena’s varsity squad this season.