Best Sprint Crews: Girls Week Two

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. Their purpose is to compare across events. Here are the girls tables:

GIRLS 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. 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. Relays are scaled to match their importance within a meet. Often, at the state level, teams score more points from a relay than they would with four individuals running that event, so they’re given a bit more importance here.

Here’s an example of one of the better early season crews, the Divine Child girls 200m bunch:

Grade	Name	Time	Points	Team	Score
11	Meghan Koss	26.41	358	Dearborn Divine Child	945
10	Kathryn Kurtinaitis	27.36	301	Dearborn Divine Child
11	Olivia Velazquez	27.60	286	Dearborn Divine Child

These are from this season only, containing meets up until Saturday. Some invites aren’t listed on the athletic.net lists (GVSU and SVSU meets), but results from there are included here. Since the early season meets omit a few events, what I did was take a team’s best three event scores. Future versions will include all events.

Soleil Moore spent all of her sophomore year and the first part of her junior year running above 60 in the 400m. Then come late April, she was able to slip under a minute, that breakthrough leading to a run that included an OK Red title, Region 3 title, and 7^th place at D1 State. That 400m has always been her calling card, which is scary, because it appears she’s added a little speed to her repertoire. Her 25.79 indoors is a full second faster than her previous 200m best. Extrapolate to twice the distance and you’ve got a girl who is a factor come June.

D1 Rank	Team	100m	200m	400m	4x100m	4x200m	4x400m	Total
1	East Kentwood	0	700	0	0	989	812	2501
2	Forest Hills Central	612	0	0	0	960	0	1572
3	Holland West Ottawa	0	0	755	0	0	755	1509
4	Saline	0	0	409	0	0	912	1321
5	Ypsilanti Lincoln	0	0	342	0	827	0	1169
6	Ann Arbor Pioneer	0	0	0	0	0	1101	1101
7	Walled Lake Northern	0	346	613	0	0	0	959
8	Wayne Memorial	0	0	0	0	886	0	886
9	Woodhaven-Brownstown	0	0	0	0	861	0	861
10	East Lansing	0	747	0	0	0	0	747

Grade	Name	Time	Points	Team	Event
		1:48.2	989	East Kentwood	4×2
		4:16.7	812	East Kentwood	4×4
12	Soleil Moore	25.79	395	East Kentwood	200m
9	Arianna Carter	27.30	304	East Kentwood	200m

The Detroit girls may get much of the attention (and rightfully so), but Sturgis’s Keyanna O’Tey had herself a freshman year on par with many of them. Region 3 Champ and State Qualifier in the 100m, a top-10 mark amongst all freshman in the 200m. Early returns suggest an improvement in the 100. She didn’t reach 12.3 until mid-May of 2022. Her sophomore form nailed 12.3 in the cold, wind, and rain. With Sturgis’s move to D2, that 100m field looks to be stacked – Elizabeth Anderson, Kylin Griffin, Victoria Miller will all be there to challenge.

D2 Rank	Team	100m	200m	400m	4x100m	4x200m	4x400m	Total
1	Dearborn Divine Child	0	945	736	0	764	728	2445
2	Sturgis	414	0	0	717	744	0	1874
3	Hastings	265	533	0	0	797	0	1595
4	Summit Academy	0	0	296	0	766	0	1062
5	Monroe Jefferson	0	0	319	0	0	599	919
6	Spring Lake	0	0	366	0	0	543	909
7	East Grand Rapids	0	0	0	0	0	857	857
8	Tecumseh	0	0	0	0	811	0	811
9	Mason	0	0	0	0	681	0	681
10	Linden	0	622	0	0	0	0	622

Grade	Name	Time	Points	Team	Event
		1:52.4	764	Dearborn Divine Child	4×2
		4:20.4	728	Dearborn Divine Child	4×4
10	Kathryn Kurtinaitis	59.85	392	Dearborn Divine Child	400m
11	Meghan Koss	26.41	358	Dearborn Divine Child	200m
11	Samantha Black	61.96	343	Dearborn Divine Child	400m
10	Kathryn Kurtinaitis	27.36	301	Dearborn Divine Child	200m
11	Olivia Velazquez	27.60	286	Dearborn Divine Child	200m

Devin Johnston had herself a DAY at the SVSU D3/4 Invite. She grabbed titles in both the 60m and 200m, that 200m time a good two full seconds better than any D3 competitor has run thus far in 2023. Last year, she was able to double and grab medals in both the 100m and 200m at D3 State. Can she repeat the feat?

D3 Rank	Team	100m	200m	400m	4x100m	4x200m	4x400m	Total
1	Saginaw Valley Lutheran	0	519	662	0	0	0	1181
2	Lawton	0	272	319	0	0	455	1046
3	Hillsdale	0	0	249	0	681	0	930
4	Lansing Catholic	0	0	0	0	554	0	554
5	Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard	238	0	226	0	0	0	464
6	Almont	0	400	0	0	0	0	400
7	Ithaca	0	0	342	0	0	0	342
8	Manistee	0	0	342	0	0	0	342
9	Delton-Kellogg	0	0	249	0	0	0	249
10	Manton	0	220	0	0	0	0	220

Grade	Name	Time	Points	Team	Event
11	Claire Neumann	61.00	366	Saginaw Valley Lutheran	400m
11	Claire Neumann	27.41	298	Saginaw Valley Lutheran	200m
12	Sarah Mills	64.00	296	Saginaw Valley Lutheran	400m
12	Emma Britton	28.67	222	Saginaw Valley Lutheran	200m

Kenzie Fedewa enters her sophomore year looking to improve upon her 6^th place finish at the D4 400m. During her freshman year, she was able to progress from 67+ opener to a 62.2 at the State Finals. In this 2023 season, she’s opened with a 63.4 (on a 200m flat track, mind you). With 3 of the top-5 spots having graduated, there are many opportunities to move up.

D4 Rank	Team	100m	200m	400m	4x100m	4x200m	4x400m	Total
1	Portland St. Patrick	0	501	319	0	0	563	1383
2	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	0	187	452	0	0	0	639
3	Lawrence	291	0	0	0	0	0	291
4	Southfield Christian	0	0	273	0	0	0	273
5	Rochester Hills Lutheran NW	0	0	226	0	0	0	226
6	Marine City Cardinal Mooney	0	204	0	0	0	0	204
7	The Potter’s House	0	151	0	0	0	0	151

Grade	Name	Time	Points	Team	Event
		4:28.2	563	Portland St. Patrick	4×4
10	Kenzie Fedewa	63.00	319	Portland St. Patrick	400m
11	Rylee Scheurer	27.84	272	Portland St. Patrick	200m
11	Sophia Schrauben	28.54	230	Portland St. Patrick	200m