On a cool early October Saturday morning, with the sun just rising over the tree-line in Otsego, West Ottawa's men's cross-country team shattered records and defied the online predictions to finish in 4th place out of 22 teams in the Division 1 race at the 25th Annual Bulldog Invitational. The 18 teams that the Panthers defeated included 10 of their state regional opponents, which bodes well for late October. Sophomore superstar Max Post led the way by breaking an 18 year old school record and becoming the fastest man to race a 5k in school history. Max finished 13th overall, earning a medal as well as a new school record and new WO sophomore record of 15:48. The previous school record of 15:59 was set in 2008 by Stephen Rich. Senior co-captains Sebastian Ruiz (23rd) and Boston Wilkinson (28th) followed quickly with medal earning times of 16:02 and 16:11 respectively. Ruiz is now the 3rd fastest man in school history and the 2nd fastest senior for West Ottawa while Wilkinson moved up to 9th place on the ALL TIME record board and grabbed the number 5 spot on the senior list. Freshman hotshot Silas Pinney (38th) broke the WO freshman record set last year by Post and finished in 16:25, making him the 20th fastest runner of all time at West Ottawa. Junior co-captain Brody Mulder (48th) set a personal record of 16:36, good enough to earn the 17th fastest junior time at WO while junior speedster Thiago Solis (70th) earned a personal record of 16:58, becoming the 30th fastest junior of all time at WOHS. The top 7 was rounded out by sophomore standout Henry Frederick (90th) who broke his own record with a time of 17 minutes and 11 seconds. Between the varsity and the JV runners, West Ottawa men enjoyed the cool temps and earned 20 personal records. Their hard work this summer is paying off in a huge way as the team heads into the final third of the season.