2024 Rankings: Week 4, Division 4

The second weekend in September is always a relief. Typically two huge meets, now three with Ottawa Hills joining Holly and Spartan. Teams leaving the nest, taking on the best throughout the state. Very illuminating as far as rankings go, no doubt enlightening as well to a runner when they face great competition.

Week Three’s Rankings tell the tale of how these are created.

This week’s rankings contain meets through Saturday (9/14).

These are for fun. And I do this for free. I’m positive toward every runner in the state. Abiding by that golden rule, you should reciprocate. Capisce? Enjoy.

Recap

A typo had Hillsdale Academy in the D3 race at Holly (which is fine, I make many mistakes too!), else I would’ve mentioned the Colts locked in a top-10 battle in the D5 race at Holly. As the day began to heat up, so did the Hillsdale pack, moving up after a conservative first mile, placing six boys under 18:00.

Twenty minutes later, Royal Oak Shrine placed 2^nd in the D4 race (a mix of lower enrollment D3 schools and higher enrollment D4), all while missing one of their varsity runners.

Holland Calvary Christian had a tough day at Spartan, falls at the start, tears to their spikes, yet they all finished admirably.

The matchup between Mason County Eastern and Maple City Glen Lake was missing MCE’s Alex Tyndall, though wins are wins, and the Lakers held serve on their home course.

Looking Forward

With more meets spread out throughout the state, there aren’t many massive matchups. Top-10 squads are facing off in two separate spots – Goodells and Cadillac. You’ve got Whitmore Lake and Royal Oak Shrine at the Brooks Mid-Season Spectacular and Maple City Glen Lake vs. White Cloud over in Caddy.

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Hillsdale Academy	148	34	172.4	3
2	Royal Oak Shrine	202	36	169.8	2
3	Holland Calvary Christian	251	31	161.4	1
4	Mason County Eastern	288	29	163.3	4
5	Maple City Glen Lake	328	29	162.5	5
6	Harbor Springs	365	28	153.7	6
7	Kalamazoo Hackett	377	32	162.7	7
8	Whitmore Lake	424	33	153.5	8
9	White Cloud	430	31	152.4	NR
10	Bridgman	515	32	149.7	9
11	Dryden	516	35	144.9	12
12	Dansville	578	33	145.7	24
13	Leland	608	29	138.6	11
14	Unionville-Sebewaing	617	35	139.9	21
15	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	629	30	138.0	10
16	Harbor Beach	649	35	139.9	14
17	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	656	36	136.8	17
18	Lutheran Westland	665	36	135.9	25
19	Riverview Gabriel Richard	669	36	137.5	13
20	Portland St. Patrick	677	31	134.7	18
21	Petoskey St. Michael	686	28	137.7	16
22	Cardinal Mooney Catholic	687	36	133.9	15
23	Manchester	688	34	136.8	22
24	Tri-Unity Christian	699	31	136.4	19
25	Frankfort	700	29	132.9	27
26	Grand Traverse Academy	742	29	131.0	20
27	Marlette	760	35	129.9	23

Recap

Unbeknownst to me given that darn typo, Hillsdale Academy and Whitmore Lake had an early morning showdown at Holly. However, known to me and becoming more apparent as the race wore on, was Elodie Weaver’s excellent racing. Weaver patiently moved up in the field, finishing in 4^th, running 2 full minutes faster than she did at Springfield Oaks last year. Hillsdale was second, besting Breckenridge. The Colts, as they did with their boys, got it done with a pack, finishing with the fastest 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th girls in the field. Holly’s divisions are smaller than a Portage or a State race, can the depth at the back match the Trojans firepower up front?

Looking Forward

As above, top teams are concentrated around the Mid-Season Spectacular and Veterans Serving Veterans. Following a Monday MIAC Jamboree, Whitmore Lake will have had five days of rest before undertaking the quick course at Goodells. Fellow top-ten squad Royal Oak Shrine will be present as well.

The deepest D4 field of the weekend will be on the starting line in our great north. Along with a few D3 standouts, you’ll have #9 Grand Traverse Academy, #15 Buckley, and #17 Maple City Glen Lake. That’s a Region 28 preview if you’ll ever see one. You’ve actually seen two already – at Pete Moss and Buckley. GTA prevailed each time, though Buckley definitely closed the gap on their home course. Can that trend continue?

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Whitmore Lake	161	33	106.6	2
2	Hillsdale Academy	164	34	94.0	6
3	Harbor Springs	165	28	96.1	1
4	Breckenridge	203	30	90.7	3
5	Bridgman	207	32	87.9	5
6	Kalamazoo Hackett	281	32	81.9	4
7	Gobles	292	31	85.9	7
8	Royal Oak Shrine	352	36	71.2	8
9	Grand Traverse Academy	375	29	70.3	10
10	Vestaburg	417	30	73.1	11
11	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	417	36	71.9	12
12	Ubly	423	35	63.4	9
13	Unionville-Sebewaing	450	35	61.7	13
14	Lansing Christian	482	33	59.0	14
15	Buckley	484	29	57.7	15
16	Martin	504	31	58.7	20
17	Maple City Glen Lake	555	29	50.7	16
18	Beal City	576	30	49.3	19
19	Harbor Beach	588	35	49.2	18
20	Clarkston Everest Collegiate	592	33	46.6	21
21	Holland Calvary Christian	609	31	46.4	17
22	Rogers City	629	28	43.9	26
23	Leland	634	29	34.8	NR
24	Dryden	692	35	34.8	24
25	Frankfort	696	29	33.3	22
26	Plymouth Christian Academy	700	36	38.6	28
27	Genesee Christian Academy	731	33	32.5	25

Individual Rankings

Recap

The past week’s rankings posed the question – who could close the gap on Marek Butkiewicz? Running all alone in the D4 race at Holly, Abenezer Cerone sure gave his best effort. 25 second gap at the mile, nearly 45 seconds at the finish, a 16:04 final time. That mark was 20+ seconds faster than his sophomore result. Keep in mind that sophomore season culminated in a 3^rd place finish at MIS. Kyle Redman showed his versatility on the mountainous trails of Glen Lake. Coming away with a 10 sec. victory over Colebrook Sutherland (who further established he’s a top-10 runner), Redman proved he can roll on the fast ones and handle the more rugged ones.

Looking Forward

We’ve got some fast courses on the weekend’s schedule and a few runners ready to rock those. Landen Livingston and Abenezer Cerone will be at Goodells and Colebrook Sutherland vs. Mason Sinke in Cadillac. Wouldn’t be shocked if we see a few 15’s on the scoreboard by weekend’s end.

Top 30

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating	Region
1	11	Marek Butkiewicz	Kalamazoo Hackett	209.6	32
2	11	Abenezer Cerone	Royal Oak Shrine	202.8	36
3	12	Alex Tyndall	Mason County Eastern	200.4	29
4	12	Theodore Davis	Dansville	199.7	33
5	10	Kyle Redman	Mesick	197.4	29
6	12	Mason Sinke	Bear Lake-Onekama	197.4	29
7	12	Colebrook Sutherland	Maple City Glen Lake	194.8	29
8	11	Cody Bradley	Petoskey St. Michael	192.7	28
9	11	Landen Livingston	Whitmore Lake	190.0	33
10	11	Grayson Rorick	Hillsdale Academy	189.2	34
11	11	Brody Karg	Harbor Beach	189.0	35
12	11	Sean Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett	187.8	32
13	12	Austin Sneed	East Jordan	187.3	28
14	11	Landon Rogers	Three Oaks River Valley	186.6	32
15	10	Jacob Ferdubinski	Riverview Gabriel Richard	185.0	36
16	10	Ty Redman	Mesick	184.8	29
17	12	Teddy Ippel	Bridgman	184.1	32
18	12	Tyler Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	183.0	31
19	12	Andrew Mabry	Bridgman	181.6	32
20	12	Coleson Cruzan	White Cloud	178.5	31
21	10	Abraham Feeney	Maple City Glen Lake	178.4	29
22	11	Grant Johnson	Manchester	177.7	34
23	10	Anthony Rowe	Breckenridge	176.6	30
24	11	Carter Clark	Carson City-Crystal	175.8	30
25	9	Lincoln Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	174.2	31
26	12	Kaleb Canning	White Cloud	173.1	31
27	12	Zack Becker	Unionville-Sebewaing	172.9	35
28	10	Vern Clyne	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	172.2	36
29	12	Reece Poole	Hillsdale Academy	171.9	34
30	11	Luke Molenkamp	Hillsdale Academy	171.4	34

Recap

Kaylie Livingston kept doing what she’s always been doing – winning. Her 18:33 at Holly nearly matched her winning time from 52 weeks ago. Although early in the day without the heat bearing down, there was a noticeable difference between the two sets of conditions.

Izzy Brooks was the first D4 girl in the D3/4 section of Spartan, earning her second consecutive sub-20 on the Forest Akers course.

Eliza Keith moved into 5^th from 8^th, racing to a 45 sec. course PR at Springfield Oaks. A great bounce back after last week’s race at Rambling Rock.

Looking Forward

Kaylie Livingston will likely be all alone over at Goodells, but that’s never stopped her from pushing to the limit. With the disparate nature of this particular weekend, matchups are a bit rarer. We do have one up in the Little Traverse, with Stefi Reskevics and Jane Manthei coming together at the Petoskey Invite. Both were All-State last fall, both sub-20 in their openers at East Jordan.

Top 30

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating	Region
1	10	Kaylie Livingston	Whitmore Lake	159.2	33
2	12	Allie Nowak	Johannesburg-Lewiston	158.4	28
3	12	Abigail Davis	Vestaburg	144.3	30
4	10	Libby Smith	Gobles	142.0	31
5	12	Eliza Keith	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	133.6	36
6	12	Izzy Brooks	Adrian Lenawee Christian	133.0	34
7	12	Jane Manthei	Petoskey St. Michael	130.6	28
8	10	Stefi Reskevics	Harbor Springs	126.7	28
9	11	Carina Burchi	Whitmore Lake	120.0	33
10	11	Taylor Wiegand	Livingston Christian	119.6	33
11	12	Natalie Gibbs	Birmingham Roeper	118.9	36
12	12	Ella Knudsen	Leland	116.2	29
13	11	Ally Schmitz	Breckenridge	116.1	30
14	11	Emma Riker	Kalamazoo Hackett	114.3	32
15	11	Eleanor Cole	Lutheran Westland	113.6	36
16	11	Lilah Kiley	Kingston	112.2	35
17	11	Elodie Weaver	Whitmore Lake	111.9	33
18	10	Addy Zeller	Bear Lake-Onekama	111.6	29
19	12	Presley Allen	Mendon	109.1	32
20	10	Harlie Fox	Johannesburg-Lewiston	108.7	28
21	12	Kelcie Pung	Fowler	106.9	31
22	12	Ella Walton	Hillsdale Academy	106.3	34
23	10	Veyda Conley	Martin	105.9	31
24	12	Melanie Warren	Bridgman	105.0	32
25	10	Lauren Shaffer	Gobles	103.9	31
26	11	Cara Prusakiewicz	Dryden	103.5	35
27	10	Claire Long	Saginaw Nouvel	103.4	30
28	12	Danica Aldrich	Breckenridge	102.9	30
29	10	Evelyn Meyer	Hillsdale Academy	102.1	34
30	10	Amelia McKinney	Grand Traverse Academy	101.3	29