2023 Rankings: County Week, Division 1

Portage, our great bellwether for the season’s progress, has come and passed. There were many affirmations and a few surprises. You’ll see a bit more movement in these rankings this week, as more recent meets are weighed more, early season meets mean less and less.

If you’ve followed these over the past few years, you may know the gist of these, but let’s break it down once again:

The individual ratings take into account all the meets listed here. There are a few meets missing that I’ll link to, but pretty much any meet with a significant number of athletes will have been calculated. An individual’s rating takes their best 75% of rated races (rounding up, so 4 of 5, 5 of 6, etc.), weighs them with more recent races having a higher weight, then spits out a final rating. The team rankings score those individuals as if they were in a meet against their entire division.

As a result of taking into the entire season into account, the rankings will be more conservative and less reactionary than most. Putting together a great performance once will bring about a tiny bit of movement, doing so repeatedly will elicit much greater change.

There are a few changes from previous years:

• No more ratings of weekday, conference meets
  • Why? One, often these aren’t raced all out and end up underrating a runner. Two, to lessen my workload. I’d rather concentrate on these rankings and use the weekend invites that are more likely to be raced hard to determine the rankings.
• Using the top 75% of races instead of 67%
  • Why? If I’m gonna use fewer overall races from a runner’s resume, I have to make up for it in some way.
• No more individual rankings posted to social media
  • Why? I hate instances where a runner stagnates or falls back over the course of the season and it’s posted for the world to see. I recognize people want to know where they’re ranked, so just having it on the website is a happy medium.
• More writeups focused on the top teams and individuals, rather than just handpicking one each week
  • I’ve found that when it comes toward state time, I know all the numbers and what a kid might run, but have a tough time pointing toward a narrative. Hopefully writing a little recap and what to look forward to will help in that regard. I started with three for the first rankings, then five this week, and so on.
  • But sadly not D1 this week. But as my own boss, I’m giving myself leeway as I’ve already written thousands of pages of material this year.
• Posting these one division at a time
  • If you’ve noticed, I always go Division 4 first, trending towards Division 1. This is done intentionally! Traditional media always focuses on the larger schools. By focusing on the smaller divisions first, they get the love that they might not normally receive.

Unfortunately, the injury rule is in place, where if I don’t have a rating from the past month, that runner is taken out. If you’re willing to share (and I can understand why not – someone’s medical situation doesn’t have to be the public’s business) that your athlete or you yourself are healthy/injured, feel free. There are some exceptions based on situations that make sense. Hopefully these don’t rub salt in the wound of someone who’s already hurting.

Now I need to be serious for a minute. These are for fun. If you don’t like these fun rankings, you don’t need to participate, you don’t need to call me names, talk trash to your fellow competitors, or send rude emails. We good here? Enjoy.

WEEK THREE RANKINGS
WEEK FOUR RANKINGS
CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK RANKINGS

Just wanted to get these out before work, so sadly, no writeups 😦

Rank	Team	Region	Score	Champ Wk	Week 4	Week 3	Summer
1	Romeo	9	88	1	2	2	1
2	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5	152	2	1	1	3
3	Brighton	4	283	3	3	3	4
4	Holland West Ottawa	1	319	9	8	6	5
5	Okemos	2	323	11	11	11	8
6	Grand Haven	1	357	7	5	5	9
7	Northville	6	381	4	4	4	10
8	Saline	5	393	5	9	7	2
9	Traverse City West	2	433	8	7	10	6
10	Forest Hills Central	3	468	6	6	8	15
11	Rockford	1	530	12	12	14	12
12	Oxford	8	577	10	10	9	7
13	Davison	4	623	18	15	17	33
14	Utica	8	676	22	16	18	20
15	White Lake Lakeland	7	701	15	31	28	45
16	Traverse City Central	2	724	13	14	16	16
17	Clarkston	8	744	30	41	39	19
18	Jenison	1	750	14	13	12	18
19	Dexter	4	765	16	21	22	13
20	Fraser	9	800	19	19	20	34
21	Walled Lake Northern	7	832	27	22	13	14
22	Rochester	8	838	24	20	26	37
23	Macomb Dakota	9	842	17	17	23	27
24	Ann Arbor Skyline	4	852	20	29	36	61
25	Lake Orion	8	864	23	28	19	17
26	Portage Central	3	869	26	26	15	28
27	Zeeland West	1	890	29	25	30	42

Just wanted to get these out before work, so sadly, no writeups 😦

Rank	Team	Region	Score	Champ Wk	Week 4	Week 3	Summer
1	Brighton	4	205	2	2	2	2
2	Northville	6	237	1	1	1	1
3	Grand Haven	1	298	3	3	3	4
4	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5	344	5	6	5	11
5	Canton	6	357	4	5	6	20
6	Kalamazoo Central	3	378	8	7	10	3
7	Oxford	8	386	7	4	4	19
8	Troy	8	473	6	17	22	6
9	White Lake Lakeland	7	498	10	8	11	12
10	Romeo	9	509	9	9	8	5
11	Forest Hills Central	3	513	11	10	17	8
12	Walled Lake Northern	7	544	13	14	7	7
13	Jenison	1	547	15	15	15	16
14	Livonia Churchill	6	579	12	12	13	26
15	Clarkston	8	613	22	11	12	9
16	Macomb Dakota	9	615	14	13	9	33
17	Traverse City Central	2	653	17	22	14	14
18	Plymouth	6	664	19	16	31	15
19	Portage Central	3	696	16	21	26	10
20	Utica	8	709	18	19	16	13
21	Saline	5	723	21	18	18	18
22	Zeeland West	1	730	20	23	19	21
23	Bay City Western	2	730	23	20	24	37
24	Lake Orion	8	844	28	26	20	23
25	East Kentwood	3	866	24	24	21	45
26	Traverse City West	2	896	26	36	34	28
27	Dexter	4	911	29	32	23	22

GIRLS INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Just wanted to get these out before work, so sadly, no writeups 😦

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Region
1	12	Rachel Forsyth	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
2	12	Selma Anderson	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	3
3	11	Lucy Cook	Rochester	8
4	12	Jayden Harberts	Macomb Dakota	9
5	9	Annie Hrabovsky	Romeo	9
6	10	Natalia Guaresimo	Romeo	9
7	12	Clara James-Heer	Forest Hills Central	3
8	12	Katie Watkins	H.H. Dow	2
9	10	Emmerson Clor	Romeo	9
10	12	Morgan Brown	Livonia Churchill	6
11	11	Cassie Garcia	Northville	6
12	12	Ella Christensen	Northville	6
13	10	Ava Porras	Holland West Ottawa	1
14	11	Valerie Beeck	Grand Haven	1
15	12	Lydia Bowman	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
16	11	Violet Hrabovsky	Romeo	9
17	9	Anyla Robinson	Detroit Cass Tech	5
18	11	Mallory Bigelow	Oxford	8
19	10	Addie Birkholz	Holland West Ottawa	1
20	12	Payton Scheffler	Brownstown Woodhaven	5
21	12	Layla Krayem	Livonia Stevenson	6
22	11	Ava Alicandro	White Lake Lakeland	7
23	12	Shannon Gillahan	Okemos	2
24	12	Elaina (Laney) Alig	Saline	5
25	12	Carrigan Eberly	Brighton	4
26	11	Chloe DeRidder	Grandville	1
27	12	Hannah DeRoeck	Lake Orion	8
28	12	Natalie Mello	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
29	10	Lydia LaMarra	Brighton	4
30	11	Isabelle Becker	Bay City Western	2
31	11	Grace Tykocki	Grand Blanc	4
32	11	Ava Peters	Livonia Franklin	6
33	11	Elle Bissett	Brighton	4
34	12	Braydee Elling	Oxford	8
35	12	Ella Kirkwood	Traverse City Central	2
36	12	Allison Mayer	Ann Arbor Skyline	4
37	10	Leah Corby	Rochester Hills Stoney Creek	9
38	11	Lauren Walker	Holt	2
39	12	Izzy Fazio	Forest Hills Northern	3
40	10	Ava Lawrence	East Kentwood	3
41	11	Alena Blumberg	Dexter	4
42	12	Alisia Olteanu	Walled Lake Western	7
43	10	Addison Herr	Bloomfield Hills	8
44	12	Sylvia Sanok Dufallo	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
45	9	Gabriella Fugazzi	Okemos	2
46	11	Annie Alkema	Kalamazoo Central	3
47	12	Paige McArdle	Davison	4
48	11	Jordyn Klaasen	Zeeland West	1
49	10	Cianah Budnik-Ramos	Grand Haven	1
50	10	Abby Veit	Traverse City West	2

BOYS INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Just wanted to get these out before work, so sadly, no writeups 😦

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Region
1	12	Seth Norder	Grand Haven	1
2	12	Brendan Herger	Northville	6
3	12	Thomas Westphal	Anchor Bay	9
4	12	Vishvaa Ravishankar	Troy	8
5	12	Vincent Guaresimo	Romeo	9
6	12	Aiden Moore	Battle Creek Lakeview	3
7	11	Ethan Powell	Northville	6
8	9	Kamari Ronfeldt	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
9	11	Taye Levenson	Bloomfield Hills	8
10	10	Kyle O’Rourke	Highland-Milford	7
11	12	Luke Suliman	Ann Arbor Skyline	4
12	12	Brandon Anderson	Dexter	4
13	12	Ty Parker	Walled Lake Northern	7
14	12	Noah Selvaraj	Bay City Western	2
15	12	Sebastian Ramirez	Royal Oak	7
16	11	Seth Conner	Jenison	1
17	12	Iain Forrest	Davison	4
18	11	Kian Schneeweis	Troy	8
19	12	Jasper Cane	Kalamazoo Central	3
20	12	Tyler Langley	Brighton	4
21	11	Alexander McArthur	Oxford	8
22	9	Jack MacGregor	Howell	4
23	12	Vincent Peterson Sand	Ann Arbor Pioneer	5
24	12	Pierce Grzymkowski	White Lake Lakeland	7
25	12	Connor Clor	Romeo	9
26	12	Luke Campbell	Brighton	4
27	12	Truman Johnson	Saline	5
28	10	Aiden Pengelly	Canton	6
29	12	Mitchell Clark	Canton	6
30	12	Liam Walters	Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills	3
31	10	Harper Wesley	Utica	8
32	12	Anirudh Krishnan	Plymouth	6
33	11	Evan Nickoles	East Kentwood	3
34	11	Mason Lucas	Jenison	1
35	12	Ian Lewis	Livonia Churchill	6
36	12	Dylan Penberthy	L’Anse Creuse North	9
37	12	Carter Fox	Macomb Dakota	9
38	12	Evan Rice	Walled Lake Northern	7
39	12	Oliver Moss	Berkley	7
40	12	Zack Truszkowski	Traverse City Central	2
41	12	Logan Begeman	Portage Central	3
42	11	Malcolm Spiegle	Livonia Churchill	6
43	12	Willem DeGood	Traverse City West	2
44	11	Ben Eisnor	Grand Haven	1
45	11	Tyler Brock	Brighton	4
46	11	James Cusick	Oxford	8
47	12	Tyler Brothers	Utica Eisenhower	9
48	9	Luka Hammond	Grand Haven	1
49	10	John Blaskowski	Saginaw Heritage	2
50	11	Jonah Bills	Battle Creek Lakeview	3