2024 Rankings: Championship Season, Division 4

October is here.

Week 3

The above link contains the best explanation of the year.

Week 4
Mid-Season Projections – Boys
Mid-Season Projections – Girls

These rankings contain meets through Saturday (9/28). If a runner has had a rated race since September 1st, they’re included (sadly, I have to account for injured athletes). These are for fun and done for free. Enjoy!

Recap

Hillsdale Academy is still holdin’ it down in the top spot. The Colts took last weekend off, perhaps a necessity after their whirlwind of a race at Jackson. Seven under 18:00, competing right there with top D3 teams such as Lumen Christi, Jonesville, and Hanover-Horton. Hillsdale placed 2^nd in that loaded field.

There hasn’t been much movement within this top ten, but if you glance at point totals (scored against the entire division), you’ll see teams on the verge of moving up the rankings. Maple City Glen Lake is one, fresh off their outstanding performance in the Jays Division at Bluejay. Five top-10 teams dotted that division, Glen Lake beat out the closest one by 35 points.

Looking Forward

Championship season means big meets and simpler writings for me. Portage is a big meet and D4’s best boys teams will be well-represented. Amongst the top teams will be:

#1 Hillsdale Academy
#3 Holland Calvary Christian
#7 Kalamazoo Hackett
#8 Whitmore Lake
#9 White Cloud
#10 Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart

And heck, even a #11 Bridgman. Many others as well.

This summer’s Top Tens post wondered where Royal Oak Shrine might finish in the Oakland County Championship. The summer thought was a top-15 finish, though they’ve outperformed those inclinations thus far this season. We’ll wait until Friday for the actual projections.

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Hillsdale Academy	136	34	175.3	1
2	Royal Oak Shrine	226	36	169.7	2
3	Holland Calvary Christian	243	31	164.7	3
4	Mason County Eastern	296	29	162.7	4
5	Maple City Glen Lake	300	29	166.1	5
6	Harbor Springs	339	28	157.5	6
7	Kalamazoo Hackett	381	32	162.8	7
8	Whitmore Lake	405	33	155.7	9
9	White Cloud	441	31	154.2	8
10	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	543	30	146.6	14
11	Bridgman	552	32	148.6	10
12	Dansville	570	33	147.8	12
13	Dryden	593	35	142.5	11
14	Harbor Beach	627	35	143.4	15
15	Grand Traverse Academy	638	29	139.6	16
16	Unionville-Sebewaing	655	35	139.5	13
17	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	655	36	139.2	21
18	Tri-Unity Christian	656	31	142.8	18
19	Manchester	667	34	139.1	20
20	Petoskey St. Michael	668	28	141.0	19
21	Lutheran Westland	669	36	138.0	17
22	Riverview Gabriel Richard	695	36	138.0	22
23	Marlette	725	35	133.8	25
24	Cardinal Mooney Catholic	732	36	133.7	23
25	Frankfort	751	29	132.8	24
26	Webberville	800	33	129.8	NR
27	Mesick	831	29	136.0	27

Recap

Whitmore Lake has grabbed onto the top spot and isn’t letting go. The Trojans have benefitted from placing themselves in elite fields, then racing as if they belong (they do). 18^th of 33 at Shepherd, 4^th of 23 at Goodells. Both places contained races full of D1/D2 teams.

Breckenridge moved up quite a bit in these past two weeks. The main reason – a standout performance up the road at Bluejay. The Jays Division was home to many D4 teams, five now ranked in the top-17. Maizy Matthews had the best race of her freshman year, vaulting the Huskies into 2^nd (and 1^st amongst D4 outfits).

Looking Forward

More Portage! If there weren’t a thousand teams competing there, I’d actually attempt to predict how it’ll go down. Instead, we’ll let the results of these top teams speak for themselves:

#1 Whitmore Lake
#2 Breckenridge
#3 Hillsdale Academy
#5 Bridgman
#6 Kalamazoo Hackett
#7 Gobles
#10 Grand Traverse Academy

We’ll also get a tiny Region 36 preview over at Possum Hollow, with a surging #8 Auburn Hills Oakland Christian facing #9 Royal Oak Shrine.

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Whitmore Lake	144	33	110.1	1
2	Breckenridge	207	30	93.3	4
3	Hillsdale Academy	213	34	89.4	3
4	Harbor Springs	233	28	90.0	2
5	Bridgman	239	32	87.2	5
6	Kalamazoo Hackett	280	32	84.9	6
7	Gobles	305	31	89.1	7
8	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	311	36	86.9	10
9	Royal Oak Shrine	352	36	74.6	8
10	Grand Traverse Academy	395	29	73.0	9
11	Ubly	428	35	67.9	11
12	Vestaburg	473	30	73.0	12
13	Lansing Christian	507	33	62.7	14
14	Unionville-Sebewaing	513	35	62.5	13
15	Buckley	533	29	59.7	17
16	Martin	541	31	62.6	15
17	Maple City Glen Lake	541	29	59.9	16
18	Bear Lake-Onekama	576	29	61.3	NR
19	Harbor Beach	590	35	55.6	19
20	Holland Calvary Christian	609	31	53.9	27
21	Clarkston Everest Collegiate	670	33	47.0	20
22	Beal City	673	30	46.9	18
23	Leland	684	29	40.1	21
24	Fowler	694	31	35.5	NR
25	Rogers City	699	28	44.6	23
26	Plymouth Christian Academy	742	36	45.2	22
27	Mason County Eastern	755	29	40.6	24

Individual Rankings

Recap

Week after week, he’s inching closer and closer. First a solid 16:04 on the hot Holly hills, then a personal best at Goodells, a 15:49. Then in the misty morning, being pushed by the D1 boys, a 15:43. Abenezer Cerone is entering his name into the fray for the D4 crown.

Frontrunner Marek Butkiewicz is matching those efforts. I remarked on the Week 3 rankings that, compared to last season, he had averaged 56 sec. faster per race. At Otsego, that difference was more than a minute. 15:27 this time around, clear of the D4 field by 75+ seconds.

Looking Forward

Unfortunately, we won’t be witness to a showdown between the above two. But we’ll see Abenezer Cerone at Oakland County, where he placed 17^th last year. He’s probably a bet to place in the top-10, if not higher. Anyhow, it’ll be a solid bellwether for how he performs come November.

Although the high-profile matchup doesn’t exist, we’ll see some clarity from further down the line. Grayson Rorick, Landen Livingston, Landon Rogers, Cody Bradley, and Brody Karg are all listed one after another, separated by 5 seconds (1.7 rating points). And they’ll all be on the line south of Kalamazoo.

Top 30

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	11	Marek Butkiewicz	Kalamazoo Hackett	206.6
2	11	Abenezer Cerone	Royal Oak Shrine	205.5
3	12	Theodore Davis	Dansville	199.7
4	10	Kyle Redman	Mesick	198.0
5	12	Colebrook Sutherland	Maple City Glen Lake	195.7
6	12	Mason Sinke	Bear Lake-Onekama	193.1
7	12	Alex Tyndall	Mason County Eastern	192.1
8	11	Grayson Rorick	Hillsdale Academy	190.0
9	11	Landen Livingston	Whitmore Lake	189.8
10	11	Landon Rogers	Three Oaks River Valley	189.5
11	11	Cody Bradley	Petoskey St. Michael	188.8
12	11	Brody Karg	Harbor Beach	188.3
13	12	Austin Sneed	East Jordan	187.4
14	11	Sean Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett	186.8
15	12	Tyler Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	184.9
16	10	Ty Redman	Mesick	184.7
17	10	Jacob Ferdubinski	Riverview Gabriel Richard	183.9
18	12	Coleson Cruzan	White Cloud	183.3
19	12	Teddy Ippel	Bridgman	182.6
20	12	Andrew Mabry	Bridgman	180.6
21	10	Abraham Feeney	Maple City Glen Lake	180.3
22	10	Wesley Chaffee	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	179.3
23	10	Noah Schipper	Holland Calvary Christian	178.6
24	12	Reece Poole	Hillsdale Academy	177.6
25	11	Carter Clark	Carson City-Crystal	176.7
26	11	Grant Johnson	Manchester	176.3
27	10	Anthony Rowe	Breckenridge	176.3
28	9	Lincoln Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	176.0
29	11	Luke Molenkamp	Hillsdale Academy	173.7
30	10	Vern Clyne	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	173.6

Recap

The first race in 2024’s fall where she’s been pushed, chasing another girl, Kaylie Livingston responded like the competitor that she’s shown herself to be. Her 17:55 in the elite field at Bluejay was her first sub-18 of the year and 40+ seconds clear of any D4 girls.

Mentioned earlier was Oakland Christian’s surge into the 8^th spot. You can thank the ascending Eliza Keith for that. She just nabbed her first sub-19 ever, which was preceded by a 29^th place finish in that same elite field. I should remind you that Eliza was 2^nd at MIS as a sophomore and 3x All-State.

Looking Forward

Of course, Kaylie Livingston will be at Portage, hoping to add to her trophy case from the illustrious meet.

Of interest also in the D4 race will be the highly anticipated freshman Callie Sinke, who has recently debuted with wins in her first WMD Jamboree and at Bluejay. Taking the trek down 31 as well is Jane Manthei, who’s quietly run three sub-20’s thus far.

Just as Cerone, Eliza Keith will race all the big school girls at Kensington. She hasn’t raced there since 2021, where she placed 57^th with a 21:39. I think she’s a lil’ faster, perhaps top-10 faster?

Top 30

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	10	Kaylie Livingston	Whitmore Lake	159.9
2	12	Allie Nowak	Johannesburg-Lewiston	149.9
3	12	Abigail Davis	Vestaburg	144.2
4	10	Libby Smith	Gobles	142.3
5	12	Eliza Keith	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	136.0
6	12	Izzy Brooks	Adrian Lenawee Christian	132.5
7	9	Callie Sinke	Bear Lake-Onekama	129.7
8	12	Jane Manthei	Petoskey St. Michael	128.3
9	11	Carina Burchi	Whitmore Lake	121.5
10	11	Taylor Wiegand	Livingston Christian	120.6
11	10	Stefi Reskevics	Harbor Springs	119.0
12	12	Ella Knudsen	Leland	118.3
13	11	Ally Schmitz	Breckenridge	116.2
14	11	Eleanor Cole	Lutheran Westland	113.8
15	12	Natalie Gibbs	Birmingham Roeper	113.6
16	11	Emma Riker	Kalamazoo Hackett	112.5
17	10	Addy Zeller	Bear Lake-Onekama	112.1
18	11	Lilah Kiley	Kingston	112.1
19	11	Elodie Weaver	Whitmore Lake	112.0
20	10	Veyda Conley	Martin	111.3
21	12	Presley Allen	Mendon	110.7
22	10	Lauren Shaffer	Gobles	109.9
23	12	Danica Aldrich	Breckenridge	108.7
24	9	Carmella Julian	Maple City Glen Lake	105.3
25	10	Lydia Gleason	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	105.1
26	12	Kelcie Pung	Fowler	104.5
27	12	Melanie Warren	Bridgman	103.6
28	10	Claire Long	Saginaw Nouvel	103.4
29	12	Juniper Rodham	Harbor Springs	103.4
30	10	Harlie Fox	Johannesburg-Lewiston	101.5