The MHSAA cross country lower peninsula championship is a great event held at a remarkable venue: Michigan International Speedway. It’s become one of my favorite events to shoot, in part simply because of the venue.

Like last year, both Chelsea boys and girls qualified for the championship. Here you can see the division 2 girls race starting with the racetrack in the background. (The Bulldogs are in the center of the photo in the yellow and white uniforms.)

After getting a few photos at the start, I took up residence at the finish line.

A little while later, the division 2 boys race made its way through the course and approached the finish line. When the lead runners rounded the final bend and came into my view, do you know who was leading the way to the finish line? Well…you might. But if you don’t, I’ll tell you: it was Chelsea’s own Bryce Bradley!

In the following photo, you may notice that his knee brace is no longer bracing his knee. Instead, it’s bracing his ankle.

Despite his knee brace’s well-intentioned but entirely unhelpful relocation, Bradley crossed the finish line in first. And not only did he finish in first, but he had the fastest time across all four divisions. In other words, Bryce Bradley was the fastest high school cross country runner in the lower peninsula. Is that impressive? Oh man, that’s impressive. That’s impressive.

(If you’re curious, his championship time was 15:20.6.)

At the awards ceremony, Bradley received congratulations from the second-place finisher.

He then smiled just a little bit. Just a little tiny bit.