DETROIT, Mich. - For the first time in more than 40 years, a high school cross country race was held in the city of Detroit. 

And if anyone asks the runners if they'd like to return to the course next year, there's little doubt that the consensus would be a resounding 'Yes.' Fast times were contagious Friday at the Division 1 regional cross-country race at Chandler Park Golf Course. The course was flat and the conditions were great. And it translated into numerous personal-best times for competitors on every team.

De La Salle Collegiate was certainly not an exception. Of the 33 Pilots that took the course, 31 achieved personal-best times and 26 achieved their challenge goal set by coaches. The results were indicative of the teams' successes. The varsity team finished third among the 18 competing schools, qualifying for this upcoming weekend's state finals in Brooklyn. Zachary Jarski, Preston Earl, and Andrew Renaud all ran within two seconds of each other to finish in the Top 12. Peyton Ross ran a sub-17 minute race. Thomas Lanzi, Nicholas Schmidt, and Anthony Youngblood all broke 18 minutes, finishing among the top 68 in the race.

"Coaches Jill (Suminski), Jerry (Jackson) and I are extremely pleased with the boys' performances today," head coach Sandy Buchanan said. "They pack ran well and stayed focused on the job they had to do. We saw great leadership from our captains, Zachary Jarski, Nicholas Schmidt, and Frank Viviano."

The team's success may have finished up with the seven varsity boys, but it was kicked off by a tremendous performance from the rest of the team, which competed in an "Open" race to start the day.

The junior varsity team finished fifth place overall. Four members of the team finished among the Top 50, including freshman Brayds Vielle (31st), junior Mark Tanot Devereaux (33rd), sophomore Mario Salisbury (35th), and sophomore Oscar Thompson (49th). Each of the four ran personal bests.

In addition, three runners earned their varsity letters by running a sub-18 minute race. Youngblood (running in the varsity race) came in at 17:51. Vielle (17:56) and Devereaux (17:59) also achieved that feat.

Others to run PR times were Donovan Davis, Jamersen Lazyboy, Dylan Petruzzello, Joshua Arredondo, Austin Darr, Cameron Kessler, Tristan Lago, Ethan Arun, Aidan Morphew, Matthew Lachajewski, James Franz, Jack Viviano, Joshua Caldwell, Thomas Petruzzello, George Gardey, Michael Walczak, Alexander Hubbs, John Griffith, Pierce Dudek and Calvin Bacall.