2022 Mid-Season Regional Projections – Portage

REGION 32

SUMMER PREVIEW

• A few teams that have outperformed those summer thoughts (they’re really just numbers, but I’ll take the brunt of it) are the Concord boys and Colon girls
  • Concord of course added Cole Bates over from Hillsdale Academy
    • Cole had a rough go of it at their home invite, besides that, he’s been the kid that helped spur HA to a state title last fall, with multiple mid-18 runs
    • For a kid that’s been through (I think), three schools, the ability to adapt and keep ticking is truly special
  • Newcomers have made a stunning impact on the Magi girls
    • That could be a freshman such as Lily Preston
    • Or a junior in her first year in the program, Lilli Stanzel, who’s finished top-5 in the majority of her races
• Other than those two, it’s been chalk chalk chalk
  • Kalamazoo Hackett started a little slow, breaking in their freshman girls, they were able to get acquainted enough to the high school scene by their first SAC Jamboree, where the Irish placed 5^th amongst a field of D3 teams
  • Battle Creek St. Philip is locked right in that boys race too, no doubt helped by Owen Nofs’s massive transformation
    • At this point last year, Owen was a 25:00+ kid, now he’s running in the low-19’s and is a contender for a medal. We love to see it.

Place	Team	Score	1st Boy	2nd Boy	3rd Boy	4th Boy	5th Boy	6th Boy	7th Boy
1	Concord	47	2	5	6	16	18	22	28
2	Kalamazoo Hackett	50	3	7	8	12	20	23	24
3	Battle Creek St. Philip	51	1	4	10	17	19	26	29

Place	Team	Score	1st Girl	2nd Girl	3rd Girl	4th Girl	5th Girl	6th Girl	7th Girl
1	Kalamazoo Hackett	39
2	Concord	67	3	8	16	18	22	26	27
3	Colon	73	5	9	11	14	34
4	Mendon	80	1	2	20	25	32

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	11	Luke Sprague	Battle Creek St. Philip	169.4
2	12	Adair Artis	Concord	166.1
3	9	Marek Butkiewicz	Kalamazoo Hackett	165.2
4	11	Max Shugars	Battle Creek St. Philip	155.8
5	9	Cole Bates	Concord	155.6
6	12	Isaac Waldron	Concord	149.2
7	11	Gavin Sehy	Kalamazoo Hackett	146.4
8	9	Sean Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett	142.1
9	10	Landon Vanwormer	Mendon	135.9
10	10	Owen Nofs	Battle Creek St. Philip	130.3
11	10	Chandler Lafler	Colon	122.4
12	11	Sean Pierucci	Kalamazoo Hackett	122.1
13	9	Jesse Fielis	White Pigeon	121.8
14	10	Ben Iobe	Mendon	121.7
15	9	Dalton Williams	Colon	113.4
16	9	Maddox Hutchinson	Concord	112.8
17	11	Ryan Casterline	Battle Creek St. Philip	110.8
18	10	Lleyton Bauman	Concord	104.0
19	10	Sawyer Weiss	Battle Creek St. Philip	102.5
20	10	Julian Barry	Kalamazoo Hackett	99.9

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	10	Presley Allen	Mendon	136.3
2	9	Rowan Allen	Mendon	106.5
3	9	Cieara Barrett	Concord	85.3
4	12	Dani VanLente	Tekonsha	81.7
5	12	Sydney Van Es	Kalamazoo Hackett	77.5
6	11	Lilli Stanzel	Colon	63.0
7	9	Emma Riker	Kalamazoo Hackett	49.9
8	9	Katelyn Van Es	Kalamazoo Hackett	45.6
9	11	Riley Adams	Concord	42.5
10	11	Addie Curtis	Marcellus	37.1
11	11	Macey Burgess	Colon	36.3
12	9	Julianne Mounce	Kalamazoo Hackett	32.0
13	11	Reese Williams	Colon	19.7
14	12	Breanna Franks	Decatur	19.0
15	10	Abby Ulbrich	Kalamazoo Hackett	14.8
16	9	Bethany Carpenter	Kalamazoo Hackett	13.3
17	9	Lily Preston	Colon	10.9
18	11	Chloe Badger	Athens	10.8
19	11	Mimi Hibbard	Battle Creek St. Philip	10.1
20	11	Carissa Shedd	Tekonsha	7.6

REGION 3

SUMMER PREVIEW

So much to unpack here, I have to get to a meet. I mean, I don’t have to, but it’s my day off and there’s XC in the weather, XC on the schedule.

• I thought Region 15 was a close-knit bunch, Region 3 is immediate family, quintuplets if you must
  • Portage Central and Byron Center have been the surprises of the bunch, Amanda Williams being her consistent, uplifting self and Sydney Law, running a number of personal bests and dipping into the 19’s
• Byron Center competes in the OK White, pound for pound, one of the better divisions in the state
  • GR Christian and East Grand Rapids duke it out at the top, but Forest Hills Nothern, Lowell, and Forest Hills Central constitute the middle section
    • At the first Jamboree, the order was – Central, Northern, Lowell
    • At the second Jamboree, a different order – Northern, Lowell, Central
    • The field here should be extremely similar to the field at these, perhaps the final two jamborees will provide greater clarity
• Jacob Tanner gave a little shoutout to the Red Arrow girls in his latest team of the week post
• And with these teams all appreciating each other so much, the 6^th and 7^th girls will find their roles enhanced, in this projection, Celia Pollock is the tiebreaker
• Those Ranger boys from Forest Hills Central are an underrated outfit in terms of the D1 Standings
  • That freshman to sophomore leap is a common one, but not always the case, Sawyer McCarthy IS the case. Sub-17 in all races, personal best in his latest one
• That latest one was a great regional preview, where Portage Central cruised to another win, aided by the return of Logan Begeman, who didn’t miss a beat after a month off racin’, 16:40 to 16:46
• Caledonia has laid low, a strategy that has worked for the Scots throughout recent history, Jordan Domany leading a prickly bunch of underclassmen set out to add to the novel that last year’s team created
• Recently, Kalamazoo Central has locked heads with Battle Creek Lakeview at SMAC East, where Lakeview came out on top and at Ottawa Hills, where they placed ahead of Lowell and East Kentwood

Place	Team	Score	1st Boy	2nd Boy	3rd Boy	4th Boy	5th Boy	6th Boy	7th Boy
1	Portage Central	63
2	Forest Hills Central	90
3	Kalamazoo Central	124	2	21	27	34	40	47	70
4	Caledonia	136	4	26	30	35	41	42	50
5	Battle Creek Lakeview	145	3	12	31	45	54	60	63
6	East Kentwood	151	9	11	15	43	73	78	88

Place	Team	Score	1st Girl	2nd Girl	3rd Girl	4th Girl	5th Girl	6th Girl	7th Girl
1	Forest Hills Central	111	3	15	19	36	38	45	57
2	Portage Central	113	11	20	24	27	31	39	46
3	Byron Center	122	9	21	25	32	35	56	68
4	Forest Hills Northern	122	2	14	17	40	49	61	62
5	Lowell	125	1	12	18	41	53	64	82

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	12	Benne Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	213.8
2	11	Jasper Cane	Kalamazoo Central	201.4
3	11	Aiden Moore	Battle Creek Lakeview	200.4
4	12	Jordan Domany	Caledonia	198.0
5	12	Ethan Krampe	Forest Hills Central	197.0
6	12	Joshua Gormley	Portage Central	196.3
7	12	Ben Hunter	Portage Central	194.7
8	11	Liam Walters	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	194.6
9	12	Owen Lawrence	East Kentwood	191.0
10	10	Sawyer McCarthy	Forest Hills Central	189.0
11	10	Isaac Tanis	East Kentwood	187.6
12	12	Caleb Bost	Battle Creek Lakeview	186.8
13	12	Gavin Voetberg	Portage Central	186.5
14	11	Parker Ludwig	Forest Hills Central	186.1
15	10	Evan Nickoles	East Kentwood	185.3
16	12	Benjamin Bromley	Lowell	185.0
17	11	Logan Begeman	Portage Central	184.2
18	12	Logan Post	Portage Northern	184.1
19	11	Levi Green	Byron Center	183.0
20	11	Nick Cabrera	Portage Central	181.5

Place	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	12	Annika Sandman	Lowell	151.9
2	12	Allison Cornell	Forest Hills Northern	151.6
3	11	Clara James-Heer	Forest Hills Central	140.6
4	11	Selma Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	139.4
5	12	Ana Dunfee	Kalamazoo Loy Norrix	131.3
6	9	Olivia Stacy	Portage Northern	126.1
7	12	Natalia Quigley	Caledonia	125.3
8	10	Annalise Alkema	Kalamazoo Central	123.8
9	10	Sydney Law	Byron Center	123.6
10	12	Cadence Schultz	East Kentwood	120.8
11	11	Amanda Williams	Portage Central	119.9
12	12	Katrina Sandman	Lowell	119.6
13	9	Ava Lawrence	East Kentwood	119.0
14	12	Julia Kozal	Forest Hills Northern	118.8
15	11	Peyton Ludwig	Forest Hills Central	118.6
16	12	Mary England	Kalamazoo Central	118.5
17	12	Kiann Schmottlach	Forest Hills Northern	114.9
18	12	Keira Sandman	Lowell	114.1
19	10	Anna Sybenga	Forest Hills Central	114.1
20	11	Addison Begeman	Portage Central	113.1