We Gon’ Shock the State: Boys Spartan Elite Preview

As if we weren’t already shocked after Under the Lights.

Well, the time has come. The Potter’s House is making the trek east on 96, Marquette crosses the Mackinac Bridge down into troll land. Each with something to prove, each to show they can run with the state’s best, hell even showing they’re better than the state’s best.

During their program’s short time of existence, Potter’s House has amassed awards (3 straight State appearances, all top-12 finishes), a feeder program, and that combination has helped lead the Pumas to where they are today. Although the XC accomplishments have been many, the spring track season was a noticeable uptick in performance. Potter’s House claimed three State titles, two by Lezawe Osterink, one by their 4x800m squad.

Lezawe has been the man in D4 for the past year, now the depth began to form around him. Ian Palacios coming back from an injury that took away his 2021 season, Jackson Rodriguez coming over from soccer, Logan Swiney beginning to put it together. Those four together created the 4×8 team that won by 8 seconds, those four plus the ever improving Noah Finton comprise that astounding opening effort.

Among a field of D1 & D2 teams at South Christian, the Pumas racked up a mere 28 points. Zeeland West (2nd at Bredeweg, OK Green Jamboree 1 winner) and Jenison (SW Rustbuster Champ, 2nd at Lakeview) both have good shots of being top-10 type teams at MIS, so does Holland Christian (4th at Bredeweg) in Division 2. Comparing against competition, they’ve passed all the tests.

Time? Five under 17:06. Okay, okay, you rated the South Christian course as sorta fast (-2). Let’s look at those that finished ahead of Noah Finton, their 5th man:

Name	UTL Time	Best Other Time
Will Engbers	16:26	16:44 – Bredeweg
Sam Martini	16:35	16:20 – Central Montcalm
Chase Holwerda	16:36	16:47 – Bredeweg
Caleb Smith	16:48	17:10 – Bredeweg
Nathan Golding	16:51	17:09 – Bredeweg
Brendan Wangler	16:56	16:46 – SW Rustbuster
Seth Conner	16:58	16:31 – Lakeview

Super small sample size, I know, but I want to extrapolate. 15-20 second addition in comparing Under the Lights vs. Bredeweg, we’ll even go on the high end, a 20 second adjustment.

Name	UTL Time	Bredeweg Rough Projection
Lezawe Osterink	15:28	15:48
Logan Swiney	16:12	16:32
Jackson Rodriguez	16:34	16:54
Ian Palacios	16:36	16:56
Noah Finton	17:06	17:26

Throw those in the results and you have a team that competes with Grand Haven for the win, Grand Haven is currently ranked #4 in Division 1.

Marquette on the other hand has been THE team in the Upper Peninsula D1 scene for yerars. Historically and recently, the Redmen have it covered. They own 12 of the past 20 titles in the UP’s biggest division, they own the last 3 as well.

Sadly, we don’t get much of a competition comparison or time comparison as we would with Potter’s House. Historically, the Presque Isle course tends to be similar to a Kensington or Cass Benton down here (honestly, I have it in my mind that every course in the UP contains a mountain or three). In each of their three meets, all at Presque Isle, Marquette has put five runners under 18:20.

They have the frontrunner, Carson Vanderschaaf, he of a 9:24 3200m at New Balance. Working in their favor for a huge race such as this is the depth. Cullen Papin and Colin Vanderschaaf both have speed to their names, sub-2 on the track, Chase Thomsen is more of a strength guy, hitting low-10’s in the 3200m. Brady Ketzenberger finished 6th in the D1 State Finals in 2021, Kai Chouinard underwent a massive transformation in the past year.

The projections work similar to how I do regional and state projections, team rankings as well, listing the runners from the highest rating to the lowest, scoring it out as if it’s a cross country meet. These projections do NOT contain Ohio teams, as I don’t have any data on them (refer to Jacob Tanner’s article on their makeups). Given the lack of Ohio squads, this isn’t an overall projection for the meet, just a projection for Michigan-based teams.

Come Friday night, we should be able to filter out the Ohio teams from the results and see how “right” these are. Until then, we get to ponder and fear the Puma and Redman greatness.

Place	Team	Score	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th
1	Northville	75	2	10	15	17	31	32	40
2	The Potter’s House	125	3	16	25	27	54	100	114
3	Grand Haven	139	5	6	33	44	51	67	82
4	Brighton	151	11	29	34	38	39	52	65
5	East Grand Rapids	152	20	24	28	30	50	57	70
6	Chelsea	153	1	14	19	56	63	73	79
7	Marquette	239	13	43	58	59	66	69	77
8	Clarkston	242	9	21	26	80	106	108	122
9	Dearborn Divine Child	252	4	42	64	68	74	93	110
10	Walled Lake Northern	272	8	37	62	81	84	116	119
11	Port Huron Northern	296	18	36	41	92	109	118	120
12	Fraser	319	12	35	48	103	121	123	125
13	Rochester Hills Stoney Creek	326	45	46	72	75	88	89	102
14	Anchor Bay	338	7	47	76	96	112	113	124
15	Clio	347	22	53	60	97	115	117	126

Also, check out the difference between East Grand Rapids and Chelsea. Or all those Region 9 teams, Port Huron Northern through Anchor Bay, all battling for two spots behind Romeo.

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	11	Connell Alford	Chelsea	216.9
2	11	Brendan Herger	Northville	213.6
3	12	Lezawe Osterink	The Potter’s House	211.1
4	12	Michael Hegarty	Dearborn Divine Child	209.9
5	12	Nolan Clark	Grand Haven	208.1
6	11	Seth Norder	Grand Haven	205.2
7	11	Thomas Westphal	Anchor Bay	202.6
8	11	Ty Parker	Walled Lake Northern	201.3
9	11	Bryce Nowik	Clarkston	201.2
10	12	Brady Heron	Northville	199.9
11	11	Tyler Langley	Brighton	198.4
12	12	Justin Roose	Fraser	198.3
13	12	Carson Vanderschaaf	Marquette	197.8
14	12	Bram Hartsuff	Chelsea	197.2
15	10	Ethan Powell	Northville	197.0
16	12	Logan Swiney	The Potter’s House	196.5
17	12	Brock Malaikal	Northville	194.2
18	12	Glen Davis	Port Huron Northern	193.9
19	12	Zebedee Swager	Chelsea	192.7
20	11	Alex Thole	East Grand Rapids	192.3
21	12	Henry Poploskie	Clarkston	192.0
22	11	Elliott Sirianni	Clio	191.4
23	12	Jaben Bakker	Hudsonville	190.8
24	11	Ryan Brinker	East Grand Rapids	189.5
25	11	Jackson Rodriguez	The Potter’s House	189.3
26	10	Jaxson Nowik	Clarkston	188.6
27	11	Ian Palacios	The Potter’s House	188.4
28	12	Elijah Robinson	East Grand Rapids	186.8
29	12	Brayden Morris	Brighton	186.7
30	9	Jonah Workman	East Grand Rapids	186.1
31	12	Brandon Latta	Northville	186.0
32	11	Nicholas Yaquinto	Northville	185.7
33	10	Ben Held	Grand Haven	185.3
34	11	Luke Campbell	Brighton	185.1
35	9	Lance Edghill	Fraser	184.8
36	11	Luke Maher	Port Huron Northern	184.2
37	11	Evan Rice	Walled Lake Northern	183.5
38	12	Brady Matuszewski	Brighton	183.1
39	12	Dylan White	Brighton	183.0
40	12	David Whitaker	Northville	182.8
41	11	Luke VanderHeuvel	Port Huron Northern	182.2
42	10	Colin Murray	Dearborn Divine Child	181.6
43	12	Brady Ketzenberger	Marquette	181.6
44	12	Logan Vining	Grand Haven	180.7
45	12	Evan Lord	Rochester Hills Stoney Creek	180.7
46	12	Zachary Larson	Rochester Hills Stoney Creek	180.1
47	11	Zachary Rubicz	Anchor Bay	179.9
48	11	Tyler Donovan	Fraser	179.4
49	12	Sam Elder	Grand Ledge	179.4
50	12	Davis Head	East Grand Rapids	179.3