Best Distance Crews: Girls Week Four

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 similar marks across events. Here are the boys and girls tables:

BOYS 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 (unless you’re elite, in that case you’re limited to 10 points from that event), so they’re given a bit more importance here.

Here’s an example of one of the better early season crews, the Pioneer milers, who’ve been the best in three of the four distance events thus far in 2022:

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Points	Event	Total
11	Rachel Forsyth	4:53.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	494	1600m	1747
12	Emily Cooper	5:00.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	463	1600m
11	Sylvia Sanok Dufallo	5:01.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	459	1600m
11	Lydia Bowman	5:31.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	330	1600m

The rankings are composed of results listed on athleticnet by 7pm SATURDAY NIGHT.

As Oak Park begins their quest for a 7^th State Title in the past 10 years, they’ll need contributors from all events. They’ve got the hurdlers to pick up the majority of points, but any other contributor will be helpful. Last June, Kylee King put it all on the line to try to regain some ground on Renaissance, running a gutsy 2^nd place effort in the 800m. Coach Jiles has a great track record of getting his mid-distance runners to peak at the right time and her 2:16 now is right on pace to put her in contention for a third straight podium finish.

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Points	Event
		9:11.3	Ann Arbor Pioneer	1608	4x800m
11	Rachel Forsyth	4:53.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	494	1600m
11	Rachel Forsyth	2:14.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	470	800m
12	Emily Cooper	5:00.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	463	1600m
11	Sylvia Sanok Dufallo	5:01.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	459	1600m
12	Emily Cooper	2:18.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	433	800m
11	Sylvia Sanok Dufallo	2:20.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	415	800m
11	Natalie Mello	11:25.4	Ann Arbor Pioneer	405	3200m
12	Allison Nutt	11:46.8	Ann Arbor Pioneer	369	3200m
11	Katie Hume	11:56.7	Ann Arbor Pioneer	352	3200m
11	Natalie Mello	2:27.6	Ann Arbor Pioneer	346	800m
11	Lydia Bowman	5:31.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	330	1600m
11	Lydia Bowman	12:09.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	330	3200m
12	Allison Nutt	5:34.0	Ann Arbor Pioneer	318	1600m

D1 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	3200m	4×8	Total
1	Ann Arbor Pioneer	1665	1747	1456	1608	6475
2	Saline	0	1087	1493	1273	3854
3	Northville	808	721	787	1192	3507
4	Romeo	348	742	1123	1112	3325
5	St. Joseph	762	773	729	873	3136
6	Traverse City West	760	416	419	970	2565
7	Highland-Milford	755	652	0	1146	2554
8	Lowell	787	862	872	0	2522
9	Zeeland East	373	718	415	1000	2506
10	Holland West Ottawa	1238	887	377	0	2502
11	Oxford	361	737	337	966	2401
12	Livonia Stevenson	362	705	370	848	2284
13	Howell	0	373	676	1192	2241
14	H.H. Dow	352	675	332	871	2229
15	Brighton	0	987	0	1208	2196
16	Jenison	353	352	367	1079	2151
17	Grand Haven	821	0	0	1134	1955
18	Ann Arbor Skyline	353	805	717	0	1875
19	Lake Orion	374	405	0	919	1699
20	Livonia Franklin	352	0	332	1008	1692
21	Walled Lake Western	352	318	0	960	1629
22	Macomb Dakota	0	318	346	940	1604
23	Kalamazoo Loy Norrix	0	322	342	853	1518
24	South Lyon East	361	710	342	0	1413
25	Grand Ledge	406	429	428	0	1263

The 1600m at the Lakewood Invite was loaded with familiar D2 names. Janesak, Germain, DeVries, Mitchell, Hoffman. But one old familiar name came through at the end: Meghan Ford. The Mason junior ran her fastest time she’s ever raced in the first half of April. Although her sophomore track season wasn’t the greatest, we should still remember she’s been 3x All-State in cross and was 3^rd in the 3200m as a freshman.

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Points	Event
		10:18.6	Otsego	865	4x800m
11	Megan Germain	11:18.3	Otsego	418	3200m
9	Emma Hoffman	11:24.3	Otsego	407	3200m
11	Megan Germain	5:14.0	Otsego	403	1600m
9	Emma Hoffman	5:23.9	Otsego	361	1600m
11	Megan Germain	2:27.6	Otsego	346	800m
9	Emma Hoffman	2:32.1	Otsego	306	800m
11	Logan Brazee	2:33.5	Otsego	293	800m
10	Taylor Mitchell	5:40.9	Otsego	288	1600m
11	Logan Brazee	5:45.0	Otsego	270	1600m

D2 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	3200m	4×8	Total
1	Otsego	944	1323	825	865	3957
2	East Grand Rapids	1064	1055	673	1102	3893
3	Grand Rapids Christian	707	765	1038	1050	3560
4	Spring Lake	732	682	311	897	2622
5	Monroe Jefferson	346	616	658	956	2576
6	Shepherd	324	578	313	1041	2255
7	Tecumseh	352	344	374	1022	2092
8	Freeland	291	287	630	865	2073
9	Goodrich	370	590	320	767	2047
10	Ludington	281	292	610	821	2005
11	Petoskey	306	592	363	733	1995
12	Adrian	287	326	290	873	1777
13	Whitehall	649	629	339	0	1617
14	St. Johns	0	331	354	877	1563
15	Mason	352	408	0	691	1451
16	Sparta	370	391	650	0	1411
17	Sturgis	645	356	304	0	1305
18	GR West Michigan Aviation	0	399	0	825	1224
19	Forest Hills Eastern	0	313	0	892	1205
20	Alma	354	336	379	0	1069
21	Stevensville Lakeshore	353	0	0	712	1065
22	Dearborn Divine Child	288	0	0	746	1034
23	Chelsea	300	352	345	0	997
24	Grand Rapids South Christian	0	0	315	655	969
25	Grand Rapids Catholic Central	343	313	289	0	945

Did we get an early state finals preview in the 800m? I think we did. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that Emmry Ross and Madison Osterberg will face again until June, but this matchup contained all the drama. Ross came off her 400m win, Osterberg off her 1600m win. Ross came back in the final 10m to snatch a victory. What’s impressive to me is that she showed she can pull off this difficult double, coming back from sprinting a 57.7. What intrigues me is the confidence gained from doing so and the thorn placed in Madison’s side that will surely be motivation for revenge come June.

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Points	Event
		10:26.3	Hart	794	4x800m
10	Jessica Jazwinski	4:57.0	Hart	476	1600m
10	Jessica Jazwinski	10:47.0	Hart	472	3200m
10	Jessica Jazwinski	2:19.0	Hart	424	800m
11	Alyson Enns	5:17.0	Hart	390	1600m
11	Alyson Enns	2:24.0	Hart	379	800m
11	Alyson Enns	11:42.0	Hart	377	3200m

D3 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	3200m	4×8	Total
1	Hart	803	867	849	794	3313
2	Pewamo-Westphalia	1261	575	0	763	2599
3	Jackson Lumen Christi	479	689	280	1022	2470
4	Onsted	481	395	362	955	2193
5	Stanton Central Montcalm	487	680	524	459	2151
6	Caro	320	592	285	661	1858
7	Lansing Catholic	694	768	356	0	1819
8	Kent City	297	584	304	436	1621
9	Reese	263	438	234	681	1615
10	St. Louis	314	320	513	456	1604
11	Elk Rapids	292	286	338	678	1594
12	Ida	361	438	246	533	1578
13	Boyne City	386	389	266	481	1522
14	Remus Chippewa Hills	260	266	276	669	1471
15	Hanover-Horton	533	280	0	593	1406
16	Benzie Central	0	352	349	590	1291
17	Lawton	713	401	0	0	1114
18	Ithaca	0	227	251	627	1105
19	Erie Mason	244	195	0	615	1055
20	Morley-Stanwood	297	328	353	0	978
21	Grand Traverse Academy	0	266	242	447	956
22	Bridgman	0	250	240	451	942
23	Olivet	243	0	0	531	774
24	Saranac	370	378	0	0	747
25	Charlevoix	232	236	273	0	741

Her freshman year openers were 2:33/5:32. Her sophomore year openers were 2:30/5:28. Her junior year openers blow those two out of the water: 2:16/5:05. Considering she ended her freshman year with one state title, her sophomore year with two state titles, D4 is likely in for more of the same result. Aiden Harrand is back, this time with her merry band of Buckley Bears. Can she pull off the distance triple? That’s not my decision, but definitely within her wheelhouse. One thing for sure, their 4×4 might be able to score points. Their 4:18 now ranks 3^rd in D4, if placed in the 2022 Finals, that time is on the medal stand. We saw last year how Western Michigan Christian won a title largely from their distance folks, perhaps Buckley can do the same.

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Points	Event
		10:24.6	Fowler	810	4x800m
12	Grace Epkey	2:32.0	Fowler	306	800m
10	Kelcie Pung	2:36.4	Fowler	266	800m
10	Kelcie Pung	12:55.2	Fowler	250	3200m
10	Kelcie Pung	5:52.0	Fowler	240	1600m
10	Ella Hufnagel	2:41.0	Fowler	224	800m

D4 Rank	Team	800m	1600m	3200m	4×8	Total
1	Fowler	797	240	250	810	2097
2	Muskegon Western Mich. Christian	750	366	0	685	1801
3	Hillsdale Academy	645	440	370	264	1719
4	Pittsford	485	163	277	612	1537
5	Petoskey St. Michael	468	435	554	0	1457
6	Adrian Lenawee Christian	545	300	0	495	1341
7	Portland St. Patrick	664	0	0	569	1233
8	Breckenridge	187	269	0	589	1046
9	Brown City	233	197	205	302	937
10	St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake Catholic	0	267	289	373	928
11	Buckley	448	442	0	0	890
12	Kalamazoo Hackett	243	236	0	364	843
13	Genesee	217	297	278	0	791
14	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	357	204	216	0	777
15	Libertas Christian	163	132	0	425	720
16	The Potter’s House	0	193	0	509	702
17	Addison	449	229	0	0	677
18	Allen Park Cabrini	0	300	373	0	674
19	Morenci	0	0	0	631	631
20	Ubly	188	0	208	233	629
21	Marcellus	215	167	234	0	616
22	Big Rapids Crossroads Academy	215	202	197	0	614
23	Leland	0	0	253	335	588
24	Kingston	0	214	0	364	578
25	Deckerville	179	227	166	0	572

And of course, the UP:

UP Rank	Team	800m	1600m	3200m	4×8	Total
1	Sault Ste. Marie	422	129	209	357	1117
2	Manistique	0	0	0	330	330