Huron County View

Bad Axe’s Prescott leads area runners at USA Invite




Bad Axe’s Jelena Prescott (right) and Mayville’s Haley Rowbotham are side-by-side at the 2-mile marker of the USA Invitational, Monday at USA. Photo by Paul P. Adams

Bad Axe’s Jelena Prescott (right) and Mayville’s Haley Rowbotham are side-by-side at the 2-mile marker of the USA Invitational, Monday at USA. Photo by Paul P. Adams

SEBEWAING – Before, during and after the Unionville-Sebewaing Area invitational, Jelena Prescott was all smiles.

The almost always positive Prescott just couldn’t help herself.

In May, she had her stellar track campaign derailed by a devastating leg injury.

While competing at the Division 3 track & field regional, Prescott suffered a torn soleus muscle, a stress fracture and a strained Achilles. It robbed her of any chance at competing at the state level.

Monday, as she reached the finish line, she gave a thumbs up, accompanied by a big smile.

“It bothers me a little, but I feel like I’m training as well as I was last year,” Prescott said of the injury. “I think I’m pretty much back.”

Prescott’s time was 22:15.51, more than 15 seconds ahead of Cass City’s Riley Copeland.

Conditions on Monday were not ideal, with sunny skies, temperatures in the 80s, along with little or no wind.

The day before, Prescott was busy pushing her body for an upcoming triathlon in Switzerland.

She did an Olympic aqua bike (1,500- meter swim, 25-mile bike).

“I was doing back-to-back, to kind of test where my body is at,” Prescott said. “Coach told me to go out easy, and that’s what I did. After two miles, I made my move, and I felt really good at the end.”

Monday was hopefully the start of the big season for Prescott, a two-time allstate cross country runner.

With a career-best time of 19:01.00, she wants to break into the 18-minute range, while placing top 15, and helping her team qualify for the state finals.

“My biggest goal is staying injury-free, doing proper recovery and eat properly,” she said.

The overall team competition went to Reese (35), followed by Bad Axe (62), Cass City (63), Owendale-Gagetown (72) and Mayville (110).

Also scoring for the Hatchets were Madelyn Laskowski fourth (22:49.54), Emma Kociba 18th (25:11.28), Kara Cummings (26.42.23) and Franziska Guenther 24th (26:51.12).

Owen-Gage had Madelyn Haldane in 11th (24:19.59), Karsyn Gruehn 13th (24:51.09), Libby Ondrajka 14th (24:52.66), Allison Haldane 15th (24:53.56) and Amber Haldane 26th (27:39.96).

North Huron did not field a full team, but had Ellie Bender in 17th (24:58.65) and Emma Case in 33rd (30:44.34).

USA had a trio of runners, with Lauren Green in 19th (25:14.27), Isabella Mammel 29th (29:49.13) and Olivia Peter 34th (31:09.56).