Best Distance Crews: Boys Week One

For this week’s version of the distance crews, I only included the 800m and 1600m. The next iteration will bring in the 3200m and 4x800m. The majority of meets thus far this season have been indoors, and they’ve either not featured the relay, not had a 3200m, or had a 3000m instead. Then half of the invitationals are listed as “indoor” for athleticnet lists (or just not listed at all), making my task more difficult, but I won’t complain too much.

To review, these “best crews” were started last year to try to recognize the best teams in each event area, whether that’s the jumps here, or sprints or throws elsewhere. Last year’s version was more complex and relied on having three participants in each event. I’ve changed things a bit this year, mostly to ease the process on my end and have the ability to include more teams.

Here’s the process:

Over the winter, I created my own version of World Athletics Tables, but for Michigan athletes. These are based on times/marks from the 2022 Outdoor Season throughout the US.

GIRLS TABLES

BOYS TABLES

There are two guidelines for being included. Your mark has to be from this outdoor season and it has to be better than the Regional Additional Qualifying Mark. Here are those qualifiers for the individual events. Obviously, every team can run a relay at Regionals. For the 4×800, this standard is my own (not MHSAA’s) and the equivalent of if there was a standard.

Event	D1 Girls	D2 Girls	D3 Girls	D4 Girls
800m	2:28	2:35	2:41.2	2:48
1600m	5:35	5:45	6:03	6:20
3200m	12:10	12:35	13:10	14:00
4x800m	10:21	10:44	11:22	11:49

Event	D1 Boys	D2 Boys	D3 Boys	D4 Boys
800m	2:03	2:07	2:12	2:15
1600m	4:38	4:47	5:00	5:10
3200m	10:00	10:30	11:05	11:30
4x800m	8:28	8:48	9:12	9:28

Marks from this season are taken from the athletic.net performance lists. There will likely be some instances where someone has run a time, but it’s not included on that list. I can’t help that! Please contact the necessary folks to get your name on there.

For each event, with a maximum of four athletes, those scores are added together. Then within a category, those events are added together. There is some scaling done for relays and more than four athletes included if you’re especially dominant in an event, but we’ll get to those in time. For example, Hart’s 800m boys:

Grade	Name	Time	Seconds	Team	Division	Points
12	Wyatt Dean	2:07.0	127.0	Hart	3	267
12	Easton Vander Zwaag	2:10.1	130.1	Hart	3	218
12	Caleb Bitely	2:10.2	130.2	Hart	3	217

They received 702 points and were the only boys 800m squad with three under the regional qualifier.

I’ll try to give a shoutout or mention for each division (and when our friends north of the bridge start competin’, do the same for their divisions). We also have the Michtrack Newsletter and Jacob Tanner’s Three Stars mentioning outstanding performances. I’ll do my best to mention athletes not previously written about.

Also would like to give thanks to Miles Postema for use of his photo galleries. His photos are the backgrounds for many of my edits. In our Michigan Track/XC Coaches facebook group, Miles has given us free access to download and use these. As someone who is doing this for free and not looking to profit off high schoolers, a cost-effective way to promote our sport is invaluable.

These lists are comprised of meets through Monday. Sadly the Aquinas Challenge is not included.

Last fall’s cross season missed out on a sure top-10 finish from Grand Haven, Nolan Clark having to sit out the final six weeks of the season. In spite of that half season, Nolan’s bio has plenty of accolades. All-State in cross as a junior, 4^th in the 3200m last spring. Early returns suggest he’ll make up for lost time, 1:56 in a rustbuster is mighty impressive.

D1 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	Score
1	Grand Haven	441	790	1231
2	Plymouth	0	708	708
3	Zeeland West	698	0	698
4	East Kentwood	0	660	660
5	Rockford	408	0	408
6	Saginaw Heritage	384	0	384
7	Bay City Western	375	0	375
8	Portage Central	0	361	361
9	Ann Arbor Pioneer	347	0	347
10	East Lansing	0	321	321

Earlier in the month, I mentioned how I was already anticipating the D1 Boys 800 matchup. Similar excitement exists for the D2 one. Nik Schilling has exponentially rose these past few months, Aiden Sullivan looks to defend on his home track, and Tyler Heath laid down some burners during indoor. His 1:55.9 was good for 7^th at Indoor State and a 2:02 opener shows he’s still in prime form.

D2 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	Score
1	Clio	616	255	871
2	Monroe Jefferson	267	407	674
3	Dearborn Divine Child	280	308	588
4	Otsego	0	574	574
5	Saginaw Swan Valley	317	241	558
6	Whitehall	0	543	543
7	Spring Lake	0	520	520
8	Hamilton	287	228	515
9	Freeland	408	0	408
10	Ortonville Brandon	357	0	357

I know they’re two separate people, but I can’t help but think of the similarities. Blonde hair, Virginia Tech, and the propensity to shock you in their senior year. For Garrett Winter, it was that cross performance that we all remember. For William Winter, it was another cross performance and the 4:18 he laid down in New York. Folks, he’s not done yet. May have had the best double of this early season with his 2:01/4:22 at the Laker Challenge.

D3 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	Score
1	Hart	702	502	1204
2	Centreville	474	316	790
3	Parchment	363	407	770
4	Clare	0	530	530
5	Constantine	219	304	524
6	Grandville Calvin Christian	0	346	346
7	Kent City	0	316	316
8	Remus Chippewa Hills	0	264	264
9	Holland Black River	260	0	260
10	Caro	0	245	245

I spend most of my time trying to find darkhorses, overlooked talent, nameless runners from schools that are unthought of. Over in Marine City lies a tiny Catholic school named Cardinal Mooney. Tyler Lenn is their main star and he had a marvelous indoor season, crushing his 3200m at State, racing to a 9:17. Beyond him, I wouldn’t be shocked if their 4x800m makes some noise. They return everyone from a 9^th place squad and Isaac Zammit just ran a 3 second personal best in his opener.

D4 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	Score
1	Marine City Cardinal Mooney	179	387	566
2	Kalamazoo Hackett	215	342	557
3	Montabella	0	366	366
4	Vestaburg	0	234	234
5	Southfield Christian	0	217	217
6	Holland Calvary Christian	0	126	126
7	The Potter’s House	0	110	110