Lila came into the high school scene projected to be a top freshman and she’s lived up to those expectations
At the middle school level, she won multiple races, got into the 12’s in cross country, and broke 6:00 in 8th grade
On the track, she’s continued that progress into track, improving from 5:43 to 5:16 and displaying some 800m speed along the way
Last fall, she eased into the season with a few introductory races, then just started shattering barriers one after another: sub-20 at Central Montcalm, sub-19 at Shepherd
And along the way, became the #1 girl on a Kent City squad that got better as the year went along, all the way to a 2nd place finish at MIS
Lila just knows success, as she’s a prominent part of a basketball team that finished as state runners-up as well
Grade
Name
Time
Rating
Meet
Course
Date
9
Lila Volkers
19:35.1
136.0
CM Hornet
Central Montcalm HS
11-Sep
9
Lila Volkers
19:29.9
124.0
Sparta
Fruitridge Hayrides
18-Sep
9
Lila Volkers
18:57.0
140.0
Bluejay
Shepherd HS
2-Oct
9
Lila Volkers
18:59.6
144.1
Portage
Portage West MS
9-Oct
9
Lila Volkers
19:10.9
147.0
Kent Ottawa
Gainey Fields
16-Oct
9
Lila Volkers
18:47.7
135.4
21 Allendale
Allendale HS
30-Oct
9
Lila Volkers
18:54.6
133.8
D3 State
MIS
6-Nov
9
Lila Volkers
19:07.1
135.3
MMOC
Shepherd HS
13-Nov
Grand Rapids Christian sure just turns them out, huh? Last year, you had Tinsae and Zwart, Reuben is coming into his own, and you’ve got more in the pipeline as well
Reuben is just one of those that has stuck around and made progress throughout every year, now that progress has turned into reliability and occasionally, greatness
As a freshman and sophomore, he showed glimpses of speed, breaking 18:00 in both campaigns, but never establishing a consistency
But from October 2nd 2021 on, all his performances were sub-17:00, coinciding with the Eagles run towards a top-5 finish at MIS.
Even on a regional day where most of the state trudged through swamps, he still ran 16:48 to finish 7th at Allendale
But back to that improvement, his best time as a sophomore was 17:32, his best as a junior, 16:32
Which plays out in the ratings too, in championship season, his average drop was more than a minute per race
Similar jumps abounded during track as well, 2:16 to 1:59 and 4:45 to 4:21
As a late bloomer, can that be 1:55 and 4:15 next year? I’m betting on it
Michigan XC Speed Ratings 
1 thought on “50 Tickets to Brooklyn: #45”