You’ll notice the summaries are a bit shorter here. Written at 2am on Friday morning, after 300,000 words (about a 1200 page novel) and 4.5 months of work, I’m a little tired. I hope you understand. 🙂

I’ll see you all on Saturday. I’ll be hanging out in the Michigan Room, where the All-State athletes and Top 2 Teams congregate before going on stage. The MHSAA asked me to do this and it was a no-brainer. I get to meet so many of these great athletes I look up to and have covered throughout their careers.

Have a great weekend and THANK YOU.

Girls Team

Place	Team	Score	1st Girl	2nd Girl	3rd Girl	4th Girl	5th Girl	6th Girl	7th Girl
1	Ann Arbor Pioneer	59	3	6	10	11	29	35	92
2	Holland West Ottawa	134	1	4	14	55	60	61	84
3	Saline	151	13	22	34	38	44	47	69
4	Traverse City Central	179	2	23	41	50	63	117	144
5	Northville	221	8	27	31	58	97	114	127
6	Brighton	250	12	43	57	67	71	86	107
7	Romeo	297	18	36	51	91	101	131	134
8	Plymouth	332	9	33	49	120	121	165	185
9	Grand Haven	352	26	65	75	76	110	135	149
10	Temperance Bedford	357
11	Oxford	364
12	Ann Arbor Skyline	373
13	Bay City Western	374
14	South Lyon East	389
15	Walled Lake Northern	391
16	Forest Hills Northern	410
17	St. Joseph	423
18	Rockford	436
19	Macomb Dakota	459
20	Zeeland West	461
21	Salem	477
22	Highland-Milford	489
23	Troy	511
24	H.H. Dow	516
25	Saginaw Heritage	552
26	Grand Blanc	570
27	Birmingham Seaholm	617
28	Royal Oak	720

Ann Arbor Pioneer – the emergence of Natalie Mello.  She didn’t run cross as a 9^th grader and has quickly acquitted herself to the sport, stepping in as their 5^th girl capable of running in the low-19’s. 

Holland West Ottawa – Abby & Sophie Bonnema. Their improvement each and every year is a great backbone for the talent that West Ottawa possesses.  Although Sophie has run into some injury trouble, she’ll still be a valuable contributor Saturday.

Saline – the steady career of Madison Stern.  She’s finished in the top-10 in the SEC every year, top-100 in the State as well.  She’s had her best season to date time-wise, and has put herself in position to step onto the All-State podium

Traverse City Central – the freshman to sophomore leap of Alexis Ball.  Compare similar courses and meets and you’ll see the dramatic drop.  At Bluejay, 20:01 to 18:28.  Big North Conference, 16^th place to 4^th place. 

Girls Individual

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	11	Arianne Olson	Holland West Ottawa	177.2
2	12	Julia Flynn	Traverse City Central	174.2
3	10	Rachel Forsyth	Ann Arbor Pioneer	172.9
4	9	Helen Sachs	Holland West Ottawa	167.6
5	12	Madison Foster	Temperance Bedford	162.6
6	11	Allie Arnsman	Grandville	160.4
7	12	Sarah Forsyth	Ann Arbor Pioneer	156.6
8	10	Jayden Harberts	Macomb Dakota	155.9
9	12	Jennie Line	Northville	155.8
10	12	Lauren Kiley	Plymouth	154.9
11	12	Lisa Luecke	Allen Park	152.9
12	12	Cookie Baugh	Ann Arbor Pioneer	152.3
13	11	Emily Cooper	Ann Arbor Pioneer	152.0
14	9	Lucy Cook	Rochester	150.5
15	11	Mackenzie Wright	Howell	149.6
16	12	Katie Carothers	Brighton	148.2
17	12	Maddie Stern	Saline	148.0
18	12	Abby Bonnema	Holland West Ottawa	148.0
19	11	Annika Sandman	Lowell	147.6
20	12	Chloe Wall	Waterford Kettering	146.7
21	11	Allison Cornell	Forest Hills Northern	145.8
22	12	Madi Szymanski	Alpena	145.6
23	10	Mia Bateson	Forest Hills Central	145.5
24	11	Isabell Kulick	Salem	145.2
25	11	Anna Delgado	East Lansing	144.5
26	10	Ava King	Traverse City West	143.6
27	12	Adit Dau	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	143.5
28	11	Lola Thomas	Grand Blanc	143.0
29	11	Madison Clor	Romeo	142.3
30	10	Mariah Belmont	Macomb Dakota	142.2
31	10	Alexandra Brigham	Clarkston	142.2
32	9	Ashley Sobczynski	Holly	142.1
33	11	Liliane Aittama	South Lyon East	142.1
34	9	Mallory Bigelow	Oxford	141.3
35	11	Taylor Pangburn	Grand Ledge	141.3
36	12	Madi Wood	Saline	141.2
37	10	Alexis Ball	Traverse City Central	141.2
38	9	Jordyn Klaasen	Zeeland West	140.5
39	12	Lauren Sancrant	Temperance Bedford	140.4
40	10	Selma Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	140.1
41	11	Genavieve Kushner-Lopez	Walled Lake Western	139.4
42	9	Valerie Beeck	Grand Haven	139.3
43	9	Cassie Garcia	Northville	139.2
44	9	Isabelle Becker	Bay City Western	139.2
45	10	Natalie Mello	Ann Arbor Pioneer	139.2
46	10	Katie Watkins	H.H. Dow	139.0
47	10	Ella Christensen	Northville	138.3
48	12	Kate Jenkins	Bloomfield Hills	138.0
49	11	Emma Netzel	Holt	137.7
50	11	Caroline Vance	Ann Arbor Skyline	137.5

Arianne Olson – took a bit of a hit last cross season, has avenged that and more.  Undefeated and hitting absurd times. 

Julia Flynn – had some heel trouble late in track season, laid down some impressive times early in the year.  She’s been similarly dominant.  Also undefeated, but I don’t get the sense she has gone all out that often this year.

Rachel Forsyth – has the speed, range, and numerous results.  Tested Olson and Flynn for the first few miles at Portage and Pete Moss.

Helen Sachs – the unshakeable freshman almost nipped Forsyth at the line at Portage.  I had her as the #5 freshman coming in, she’s far and away exceeded those expectations. 

Madison Foster – Portage and Regionals are portals into her potential.  Although a bit of a gap between Forsyth/Sachs and Madison, she’s still the leader of the rest of the pack.  7^th place last year and owner of a 17:49 PB.

Boys Team

Place	Team	Score	1st Boy	2nd Boy	3rd Boy	4th Boy	5th Boy	6th Boy	7th Boy
1	Brighton	160	10	15	29	51	55	68	80
2	Caledonia	193	16	33	39	41	64	70	106
3	Northville	204	20	26	36	59	63	78	84
4	Romeo	212	3	5	34	35	135	163	173
5	Lake Orion	223	27	30	32	45	89	104	137
6	Traverse City Central	240	2	23	31	74	110	148	149
7	Hartland	247	1	21	44	53	128	134	151
8	Grand Haven	253	7	11	75	79	81	92	176
9	White Lake Lakeland	280	22	28	62	71	97	132	156
10	Livonia Churchill	335	37	47	58	91	102	124	127
11	Walled Lake Northern	336
12	Ann Arbor Pioneer	340
13	Portage Central	348
14	Rockford	350
15	Saline	352
16	Highland-Milford	363
17	East Lansing	378
18	Plymouth	386
19	Battle Creek Lakeview	402
20	Lowell	403
21	Davison	410
22	Grosse Pointe South	535
23	Port Huron Northern	549
24	Saginaw Heritage	552
25	Royal Oak	629
26	Monroe	644
27	Troy	743

Brighton – On a team that is quizzically polarizing, Tyler Langley is a source of levity.  His ratings are consistently in the 192-196 range.

Caledonia – Josh Oom’s sprint to the finish.  His last three races have been 16:04, 15:57, 15:55, with the latter being a Region 3 victory.

Northville – Freshman Ethan Powell’s consistency (side note – what is with these freshman being so darn reliable?).  He’s been a force at the front of championship races, finishing 5^th at Wayne County, 7^th at KLAA, and 3^rd in Region 6

Romeo – the late season emergence of Bryce Goodsell.  He’s improved by leaps and bounds in his last two races and if he runs what he did at Regionals, Romeo has a shot at the team title.

Lake Orion – The single year improvement of Clayton Kuiper.  Once again, we compare courses.  2020 Regionals were at Clintonwood, he ran 16:50, finishing 30^th.  2021’s OAA Red Championship on the same course, 16:10.

Boys Individual

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	12	Riley Hough	Hartland	227.4
2	12	Jeremy Williams	Lapeer	212.6
3	12	Luke Venhuizen	Traverse City Central	211.5
4	12	Peter Baracco	Farmington	210.3
5	12	Jack Kelke	Romeo	210.1
6	12	Owen Johnson	Ann Arbor Pioneer	208.2
7	12	Owen Sharnas	Romeo	207.8
8	12	Matthew Zeleke	East Lansing	205.9
9	12	Matthew Crowley	Midland	205.2
10	10	Seth Norder	Grand Haven	204.3
11	11	Benne Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	202.8
12	12	Klay Grant	Muskegon Reeths-Puffer	201.8
13	12	Brady McArdle	Davison	201.4
14	12	Easton Williams	Highland-Milford	201.2
15	12	Quinn Cullen	Brighton	201.0
16	11	Nolan Clark	Grand Haven	200.2
17	11	Jonah Hochstetler	Traverse City West	199.9
18	11	Nicholas Negru	Walled Lake Central	199.9
19	12	Parker LaGro	Battle Creek Lakeview	199.7
20	11	Sean Byrnes	Plymouth	199.3
21	11	Luke Butler	Monroe	198.8
22	12	Blake Chipman	Flushing	198.4
23	12	Jack Campbell	Brighton	198.4
24	12	Juan David Hernandez	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	198.2
25	12	Josh Oom	Caledonia	198.1
26	12	Ryan O’Rourke	Highland-Milford	198.0
27	12	Anders Howe	Okemos	197.7
28	12	Kenny Minto	Davison	197.5
29	12	Michael Williams	Lapeer	197.4
30	12	William Thomas	Walled Lake Northern	197.4
31	10	Brendan Herger	Northville	197.3
32	12	Luke Nelson	Salem	197.1
33	12	Liam Elder	Grand Ledge	196.8
34	12	David Samson	Hartland	196.7
35	12	Alex Sullivan	White Lake Lakeland	196.4
36	11	Micah Bauer	Traverse City Central	196.4
37	12	Jayden Page	East Lansing	196.4
38	11	Logan Detweiler	Grosse Pointe South	196.1
39	9	Ethan Powell	Northville	195.9
40	12	Adam Hafeli	Lake Orion	195.2
41	12	Sam Yeager	Forest Hills Central	195.2
42	11	Jared Platt	White Lake Lakeland	195.0
43	10	Tyler Langley	Brighton	194.9
44	11	Nicolas Fry	Ann Arbor Skyline	194.8
45	12	Clayton Kuiper	Lake Orion	194.5
46	11	Joe Muha	Traverse City Central	194.4
47	12	Hong Bing Tang	Lake Orion	194.3
48	11	Jordan Domany	Caledonia	194.2
49	12	Jack Wallace	Romeo	193.8
50	10	Connor Clor	Romeo	193.5

Riley Hough – Untouched and unchallenged on grass this year.  I don’t look at any national rankings or ratings, but I can’t imagine there’s anyone better in the nation right now.

Jeremy Williams – Is not a mudder.  Missed last year’s edition due to contact tracing, is back and ready to capture his first All-State.  Other than Regionals, incredibly consistent even if it’s not always a winning effort (this is a compliment – he seeks out competition).

Luke Venhuizen – 15:03 at Shepherd and it’s been on from there.  Defeated Williams at Regionals, does he benefit from the thick, plush grass of the Speedway?

Peter Baracco – Has molded his whole season around capturing the State title.  In June’s 3200m final, the strategy was a move at an unconventional time, 900 to go.  What will the curveball be this time?

Jack Kelke – hit times early and championships late.  MAC Division, Macomb County, and Region 9 all belong to him.

TUCK COMIN’

This section is dedicated to all the college football coaches, players, and teams that are rollin’ hot through the season, ready to beat Ohio State in November and crash the MIS party on Saturday.

Plymouth Girls – Claudia Swenson and Megan Olsen have stepped up as reliable 4^th and 5^th runners.  That depth helped them procure the upset win over Northville in Region 6.

Mia Bateson – Sub-19:00 for seven consecutive races, including a 18:18 at OK White 4.

Milford Boys – Never doubt Sal’s Magic.  Upset win over Lakeland and Walled Lake Northern at Region 7.  I have the Mavericks below those two again, can they repeat?

Seth Norder – The sophomore has been handily beating upperclassmen come championship season.  Back to back victories at OK Red and Region 1.