2023 Mid-Season Projections: Portage Central Regional

Hard to fathom, but we’re a month out from Regionals. Championship Season is coming soon, starting this week with the Battle Creek City Meet, Berrien County, then next week with Oakland County and Wayne County, advancing further on with our many area and conference championships. The weather is beginning to turn, mornings becoming cooler, leaves transforming into their beautiful fall hues, and most important – times are quickening and competition is heating up.

Given this juncture, time for another look at the regional projections. These follow many of the same rules as the division rankings. Using an individual’s races from here, a total rating is created by taking the top 75% of a runner’s races and weighing them toward more recent meets. Those ratings are then ranked for each region/division, spitting out a score that is used for the rankings. One added factor this week – filtering out athletes that haven’t competed over the past month, which I sadly have to assume are injured or no longer competing.

These might be much different than the athletic.net hypothetical meet. Anet uses the best performance from the season. I take more races into account, as I feel the entire resume speaks a greater volume about someone. Anet uses jamborees and duals, for which I don’t have time to calculate. Anet doesn’t account for course differences. If you take the 160 boys that ran at both Holly and Jackson, on average the Jackson times were 30 seconds faster. We have great coaches in this state that promote week-to-week improvement, but clearly there are differences in courses (and there are short/questionable ones too)! I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that I prefer my own and my bet is that they’ll be more accurate when we do this again next month.

REGION 32 SUMMER PREVIEW
REGION 3 SUMMER PREVIEW

Major Movers

Those that have moved up a considerable amount or are unforeseen additions

White Pigeon Boys

Emma Gaylor, Heritage Christian Academy

Analiese Miller, White Pigeon

Abigail Ulrich, Kalamazoo Hackett

Mimi Hibbard, Battle Creek St. Philip

Jamielyn Delarye, White Pigeon

Gwen Bulko, Concord

Gabriella Siems, Kalamazoo Hackett

Kellen Siems, Kalamazoo Hackett

Ethan O’Connor, Athens

Jerome Bastian, Battle Creek St. Philip

Ben Iobe, Mendon

Jesse Fielis, White Pigeon

Luke Sprague, Battle Creek St. Philip

Tiny Movers

Those that have moved up just a tiny bit, but have improved nonetheless.

Concord Girls

Centreville Girls

White Pigeon Girls

Battle Creek St. Philip Girls

Kalamazoo Hackett Boys

Riley Adams, Concord

Katelyn Van Es, Kalamazoo Hackett

Emma Riker, Kalamazoo Hackett

Haley Stimer, Concord

Charlie Gibson, Three Oaks River Valley

Gavin Sehy, Kalamazoo Hackett

Steady At The Top

May be most impressive of all, teams or individuals that were projected to win or qualify and are still in those spots. Much tougher to be the hunted than the hunter.

Presley Allen, Mendon

Marek Butkiewicz, Kalamazoo Hackett

Place	Team	Score	Division Rank
1	Concord	33	15
2	Kalamazoo Hackett	46	20
3	Centreville	73
4	White Pigeon	94
5	Battle Creek St. Philip	124
6	Athens	141
7	Three Oaks River Valley	193

Place	Grade	Name	Team
1	11	Presley Allen	Mendon
2	9	Haley Stimer	Concord
3	9	Gabriella Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett
4	10	Cieara Barrett	Concord
5	10	Emma Riker	Kalamazoo Hackett
6	10	Katelyn Van Es	Kalamazoo Hackett
7	12	Gwen Bulko	Concord
8	10	Ellie Reed	Centreville
9	12	Riley Adams	Concord
10	12	Addie Curtis	Marcellus
11	11	Jamielynn Delarye	White Pigeon
12	12	Mimi Hibbard	Battle Creek St. Philip
13	11	Abigail Ulbrich	Kalamazoo Hackett
14	12	Analiese Miller	White Pigeon
15	12	Emma Gaylor	Heritage Christian Academy

Place	Team	Score	Division Rank
1	Kalamazoo Hackett	39	6
2	Three Oaks River Valley	41	7
3	Battle Creek St. Philip	78	24
4	White Pigeon	136	50
5	Concord	142	54
6	Centreville	149	57
7	Athens	185	69
8	Eau Claire	201	72
9	Mendon	221	74

Place	Grade	Name	Team
1	10	Marek Butkiewicz	Kalamazoo Hackett
2	12	Gavin Sehy	Kalamazoo Hackett
3	10	Charlie Gibson	Three Oaks River Valley
4	12	Luke Sprague	Battle Creek St. Philip
5	12	Austin York	Three Oaks River Valley
6	10	Jesse Fielis	White Pigeon
7	10	Landon Rogers	Three Oaks River Valley
8	11	Adam Slavens	Three Oaks River Valley
9	10	Sean Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett
10	11	Ben Iobe	Mendon
11	12	Max Shugars	Battle Creek St. Philip
12	12	Nick Doerr	Kalamazoo Hackett
13	11	Jerome Bastian	Battle Creek St. Philip
14	10	Ethan O’Connor	Athens
15	9	Kellen Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett

Major Movers

Those that have moved up a considerable amount or are unforeseen additions

East Kentwood Girls

Forest Hills Northern Girls

East Kentwood Boys

Enna Wainer, Ottawa Hills

Claire Mathison, Forest Hills Central

Lilamae Frank, Battle Creek Lakeview

Rhea Mouw, Portage Central

Alyssa DeFields, Caledonia

Izzy Fazio, Forest Hills Northern

Annie Alkema, Kalamazoo Central

Ty Billings, Kalamazoo Central

Mitchell Jeruzal, Byron Center

Jonah Bills, Battle Creek Lakeview

Tiny Movers

Those that have moved up just a tiny bit, but have improved nonetheless.

Byron Center Girls

Ottawa Hills Girls

Caledonia Girls

Emilee Rudlaff, Kalamazoo Central

Peyton Ludwig, Forest Hills Central

Anna Sybenga, Forest Hills Central

Ava Lawrence, East Kentwood

Joseph Spada, Kalamazoo Central

Dylan Duguay, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix

Samuel Baker, Kalamazoo Central

Sawyer McCarthy, Forest Hills Central

Isaac Tanis, East Kentwood

Evan Nickoles, East Kentwood

Liam Walters, Ottawa Hills

Jasper Cane, Kalamazoo Central

Aiden Moore, Battle Creek Lakeview

Steady At The Top

May be most impressive of all, teams or individuals that were projected to win or qualify and are still in those spots. Much tougher to be the hunted than the hunter.

Forest Hills Central Girls

Portage Central Girls

Kalamazoo Central Boys

Forest Hills Central Boys

Selma Anderson, Ottawa Hills

Place	Team	Score	Division Rank
1	Forest Hills Central	49	6
2	Portage Central	113	26
3	Byron Center	134
4	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	149
5	East Kentwood	163
6	Caledonia	168
7	Forest Hills Northern	184
8	Kalamazoo Central	186
9	Portage Northern	189
10	Battle Creek Lakeview	190
11	Kalamazoo Loy Norrix	272
12	Lowell	285
13	Mattawan	295

Place	Grade	Name	Team
1	12	Selma Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills
2	12	Clara James-Heer	Forest Hills Central
3	11	Annie Alkema	Kalamazoo Central
4	12	Izzy Fazio	Forest Hills Northern
5	10	Ava Lawrence	East Kentwood
6	11	Anna Sybenga	Forest Hills Central
7	12	Peyton Ludwig	Forest Hills Central
8	12	Emilee Rudlaff	Kalamazoo Central
9	11	Sydney Law	Byron Center
10	12	Alyssa DeFields	Caledonia
11	10	Rhea Mouw	Portage Central
12	10	Lilamae Frank	Battle Creek Lakeview
13	9	Roxanne Jorgensen	Portage Northern
14	11	Clare Mathison	Forest Hills Central
15	10	Enna Wainer	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills

Place	Team	Score	Division Rank
1	Kalamazoo Central	61	9
2	Forest Hills Central	73	12
3	East Kentwood	115	21
4	Portage Central	118	23
5	Byron Center	132	26
6	Battle Creek Lakeview	156
7	Caledonia	188
8	Forest Hills Northern	216
9	Kalamazoo Loy Norrix	230
10	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	236
11	Lowell	275
12	Portage Northern	276
13	Mattawan	320

Place	Grade	Name	Team
1	12	Aiden Moore	Battle Creek Lakeview
2	12	Jasper Cane	Kalamazoo Central
3	12	Liam Walters	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills
4	11	Evan Nickoles	East Kentwood
5	11	Jonah Bills	Battle Creek Lakeview
6	11	Isaac Tanis	East Kentwood
7	12	Logan Begeman	Portage Central
8	11	Sawyer McCarthy	Forest Hills Central
9	9	Samuel Baker	Kalamazoo Central
10	11	Mitchell Jeruzal	Byron Center
11	10	Ty Billings	Kalamazoo Central
12	12	Parker Ludwig	Forest Hills Central
13	10	Dylan Duguay	Kalamazoo Loy Norrix
14	11	Joseph Spada	Kalamazoo Central
15	12	Levi Green	Byron Center