Trojan runners saw their early-season training pay dividends at Center Line's Early Bird Invite.  This was Clawson's second contest of the season and every runner improved their time from last week's Watermelon Invite.  The average improvement was more than 2 minutes faster.  Center Line has a lot of construction on their campus and the runners had to navigate a labyrinthine course.  All the runners--boys and girls, high school and middle school--raced at the same time.  

On the boys' side, Ryan Lodato had Clawson's top time, finishing in 20:24.  Jon Price, Jon Dickey, and Alex Lomeli all set season records for themselves. 
Royal Oak Shrine's Ellie Kendell, who took 3rd at the state meet last year, won the girls' race, but Claire Thomson crossed the line second with a time of 20:31.  Senior Sam Brown posted the fastest Early Bird Invite time of her career and Sarah Spielbusch improved her 5k time from last week by more than 4 minutes.

The Trojans' next race will be at Cass-Benton park in Northville on September 7th.  With 8 weeks left in the season, the team is hoping to recruit some runners as school starts next week.