2024 Rankings: Division 4, County Week

We’re out of Portage, out of the bigger area meets (Oakland and Wayne County), now onto more of championship season. Many of the top teams competed in a meaningful meet and we’re better able to discern their intentions for this final month of the season.

The WEEK 3 RANKINGS contained the best explanation of the year, so click there. But I’ll add another sentence of emphasis: although this past weekend’s meets weigh the largest, they are not the end all be all, these are cumulative.

Here are the other rankings:

WEEK FOUR
CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

Recap

Following a rough go of it at Forest Akers, Holland Calvary Christian was ready to redeem themselves. The perfect setting at Portage, facing many other top teams in the early morning. 11 of 17 Crusaders attained their best rating of the season and 9 kids hit a PR. The Crusaders took an aggressive mindset from the gun, throwing six boys into the top-25 at the mile. They slightly fell back after that point, yet still held on for 2^nd place (and enough juice to move up in the rankings).

Of course in first, it was Hillsdale Academy with their paws all over the race. I’ll often say that the fastest fifth is a predictor of success and James Rahe played that role on Saturday. His 17:16 was 11 sec. clear of anyone else’s fifth and that quick time was ahead of all but one team’s 3^rd runner. If that ain’t enough, the Colts are deep, too. They could’ve lost their first two boys and still won. Clearly the favorite at this point in time.

Looking Forward

The lone matchup between two top-10 teams comes at the SAC Championship, with Bridgman and Kalamazoo Hackett going after a high place in their conference. Top-5 D3 team Saugatuck has won the first two, the Bees and Irish have split wins over one another. At Portage, it was Hackett in front.

Hillsdale Academy has its SCAA Championships. The first two league meetings have been routs, the Colts scoring a perfect 15 each time out.

The inaugural Northern Shores Conference Championship will take place on Saturday. My guess is that Charlevoix will be the main contender, perhaps Harbor Springs can grab second?

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Hillsdale Academy	124	34	179.0	1
2	Holland Calvary Christian	199	31	169.0	3
3	Royal Oak Shrine	247	36	169.2	2
4	Mason County Eastern	319	29	162.7	4
5	Maple City Glen Lake	320	29	165.6	5
6	Harbor Springs	371	28	157.3	6
7	Kalamazoo Hackett	384	32	164.5	7
8	Whitmore Lake	421	33	156.0	8
9	White Cloud	422	31	156.3	9
10	Bridgman	524	32	151.8	11
11	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	558	30	148.0	10
12	Dryden	566	35	146.1	13
13	Petoskey St. Michael	609	28	146.6	20
14	Dansville	626	33	146.9	12
15	Grand Traverse Academy	650	29	140.9	15
16	Frankfort	652	29	140.4	25
17	Harbor Beach	656	35	144.7	14
18	Lutheran Westland	677	36	139.6	21
19	Unionville-Sebewaing	689	35	139.5	16
20	Tri-Unity Christian	695	31	142.4	18
21	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	702	36	138.8	17
22	Manchester	703	34	139.0	19
23	Riverview Gabriel Richard	725	36	139.2	22
24	Marlette	764	35	133.9	23
25	Three Oaks River Valley	788	32	137.2	30
26	Concord	831	34	130.4	33
27	Webberville	843	33	129.8	26

Recap

With six of the top-seven teams competing at Portage West MS, eyes were locked into those live results. Top-ranked Whitmore Lake took on challengers coming at them in various ways. Packed up from 12^th-15^th, Bridgman fell just 4 points back at the mile. Charging in the second mile was Hillsdale Academy, who grabbed the lead after sitting in 5^th at one. Summoning their championship spirit was the ever-important Sofia Robertson, who moved up 5 spots in the final 1.1, enough for the Trojans to walk away with a victory.

A minor move up came from Bridgman, who overtook Hillsdale Academy in the final mile to place 2^nd. A major move came from Bear Lake-Onekama, finally filling out their entire team and reaching the potential that had been thought of in the summer.

Looking Forward

Despite being home to many D3 teams, the SAC’s first two jamborees were conquered by D4 squads. A month ago, it was Bridgman with an 8-point win over Kalamazoo Hackett. Two weeks back, Gobles leapfrogged into first with a very narrow 2-point difference on Bridgman. I don’t know how the SAC weighs its jamborees, but my guess is Bridgman leads, followed by Gobles, then Hackett. Given how the Bees performed on Saturday, you gotta figure they’re in a good spot to win. Then again, look to the gap in scoring and you know it could be anyone.

Harbor Springs looks to be the favorite in the first Northern Shores Conference Championship. Potentially an impressive feat, the lone D4 team in the midst and presence of all D3 teams.

The girl Colts have faced a little more competition than their boy counterparts. Hillsdale Academy has only won one of the SCAA jamborees with a perfect score. Don’t sweat, they won the other one as well. The league final comes on Saturday.

Top 27

Rank	Team	Score	Region	Top 5 Avg.	Last Week
1	Whitmore Lake	160	33	110.0	1
2	Hillsdale Academy	197	34	94.1	3
3	Breckenridge	210	30	93.3	2
4	Bridgman	212	32	92.1	5
5	Harbor Springs	215	28	93.5	4
6	Kalamazoo Hackett	285	32	86.7	6
7	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	302	36	89.4	8
8	Gobles	309	31	91.2	7
9	Bear Lake-Onekama	351	29	86.7	18
10	Grand Traverse Academy	412	29	74.1	10
11	Royal Oak Shrine	415	36	72.5	9
12	Ubly	428	35	71.1	11
13	Buckley	468	29	67.7	15
14	Vestaburg	523	30	71.2	12
15	Lansing Christian	538	33	62.8	13
16	Unionville-Sebewaing	545	35	62.5	14
17	Holland Calvary Christian	565	31	60.2	20
18	Martin	571	31	62.6	16
19	Maple City Glen Lake	571	29	59.9	17
20	Harbor Beach	619	35	56.3	19
21	Beal City	702	30	46.9	22
22	Leland	702	29	40.2	23
23	Clarkston Everest Collegiate	707	33	47.4	21
24	Dryden	707	35	49.1	28
25	Fowler	725	31	35.5	24
26	Rogers City	727	28	44.6	25
27	Plymouth Christian Academy	736	36	49.5	26

Individual Rankings

Recap

Marek Butkiewicz sped out to a blistering early pace and ran away from the Portage field. 4:44 at the mile, a 20+ second gap at two, extended to a more than half minute victory. His 15:24 personal best continued the trend, 1:01 faster than 2023.

Abenezer Cerone showed improvement from his sophomore self. 27 seconds faster on the tough Possum Hollow course, moving up into 7^th as well.

Moves into the top-10 came from Brody Karg and Landon Rogers. Both had never been below 16-flat before Saturday. Both came out of the weekend with shiny new 15:5x personal bests. An excellent beginning to the final month for both small school kids.

Looking Forward

The week after EVERYONE runs at Portage, we really don’t get too many individual matchups. Which makes sense, I ain’t complaining. You need that mental break before gearing up to peak. The one face off between top-10 runners will be at Chris Grabowski, with Kyle Redman and Alex Tyndall. The two WMD foes have gone against each other on many occasions. Tyndall got Redman in the first three meetings, Redman has the upper hand in the past two. Then there’s Thursday, a WMD Championship, a regional, and a little State Final too.

Top 50

Extended to 50! Hopefully this can elucidate how close some of you are to All-State.

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	11	Marek Butkiewicz	Kalamazoo Hackett	208.6
2	11	Abenezer Cerone	Royal Oak Shrine	204.3
3	12	Theodore Davis	Dansville	199.3
4	10	Kyle Redman	Mesick	198.1
5	12	Colebrook Sutherland	Maple City Glen Lake	195.6
6	11	Landon Rogers	Three Oaks River Valley	195.2
7	12	Mason Sinke	Bear Lake-Onekama	192.9
8	11	Brody Karg	Harbor Beach	192.8
9	12	Alex Tyndall	Mason County Eastern	191.8
10	11	Grayson Rorick	Hillsdale Academy	191.5
11	11	Landen Livingston	Whitmore Lake	189.2
12	11	Sean Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett	188.9
13	11	Cody Bradley	Petoskey St. Michael	188.3
14	12	Tyler Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	186.2
15	12	Coleson Cruzan	White Cloud	185.1
16	10	Ty Redman	Mesick	184.7
17	12	Andrew Mabry	Bridgman	183.5
18	10	Wesley Chaffee	Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart	182.8
19	10	Jacob Ferdubinski	Riverview Gabriel Richard	182.7
20	12	Reece Poole	Hillsdale Academy	182.0
21	12	Austin Sneed	East Jordan	181.9
22	12	Teddy Ippel	Bridgman	180.7
23	10	Abraham Feeney	Maple City Glen Lake	180.3
24	10	Noah Schipper	Holland Calvary Christian	178.0
25	11	Luke Molenkamp	Hillsdale Academy	178.0
26	11	Carter Clark	Carson City-Crystal	176.5
27	10	Anthony Rowe	Breckenridge	175.7
28	11	Grant Johnson	Manchester	174.3
29	12	Jeremiah Witt	Johannesburg-Lewiston	174.2
30	11	Emmanuel Mehari	Plymouth Christian Academy	173.9
31	9	Lincoln Laansma	Tri-Unity Christian	173.7
32	10	Christian Getz	Holland Calvary Christian	173.4
33	12	Kaleb Canning	White Cloud	172.9
34	10	Vern Clyne	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	172.3
35	11	Carson Burgess	Brown City	172.2
36	10	Timothy Gaebler	Hillsdale Academy	172.1
37	9	Grant Corlew	Harbor Springs	172.0
38	11	Liam McCaw	Maple City Glen Lake	171.6
39	12	Zack Becker	Unionville-Sebewaing	171.2
40	11	Henry Lindley	Hillsdale Academy	171.2
41	12	Teddy Krieger	Harbor Springs	169.5
42	11	Michael Bowker	Royal Oak Shrine	167.6
43	11	James Rahe	Hillsdale Academy	167.5
44	12	Ben Iobe	Mendon	167.1
45	10	Caleb Adkins	Holland Calvary Christian	167.1
46	12	Russell Vandermus	Petoskey St. Michael	166.0
47	9	Lance Niedzielski	Mason County Eastern	165.9
48	12	Joel Lange	Adrian Lenawee Christian	165.6
49	11	Josiah Johncox	Byron	165.5
50	10	Gibson White	Holland Calvary Christian	165.2

Recap

The Kaylie Livingston Show continued, this time with a bit more fireworks and excitement. In her dominance, Kaylie often leaves no doubt, vanquishing her competitors early and cruising to victory. Saturday, she was joined by Libby Smith. The Gobles sophomore hung with Livingston through two miles, each hitting that split around 11:35. Kaylie pulled away in the final mile, winning her second consecutive Portage race. Smith, with her 18:26, has now hit personal bests in her past two races. I can only imagine her confidence growing exponentially.

The other girl on her way up is highly-touted freshman Callie Sinke. Back in 8^th grade, Sinke was a consistent figure in the 11’s and had even experimented with the 5k distance, racing to a 18:29 at Region 29’s PROM race. She was held out early in the season, but that’s no matter now, Callie has well acquitted herself to the high school scene, hitting 19:30 at Bluejay and 19:07 on Saturday.

Looking Forward

Izzy Brooks first started to make a name for herself in 2021 with her win in the Lenawee County Championship. Competition has gotten a bit tougher on the Ohio border (Emmry Ross), but Brooks’ presence up front has never wavered. She’ll be going for her fourth top-5 finish. Even before shifting her sights higher, Libby Smith was winning SAC races. It’s been 5 straight for the Gobles standout, on Thursday, she’ll be looking to clinch her 2^nd league title in as many years.

Top 50

Rank	Grade	Name	Team	Rating
1	10	Kaylie Livingston	Whitmore Lake	159.6
2	12	Allie Nowak	Johannesburg-Lewiston	144.9
3	10	Libby Smith	Gobles	144.9
4	12	Abigail Davis	Vestaburg	139.6
5	12	Eliza Keith	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	136.0
6	9	Callie Sinke	Bear Lake-Onekama	133.3
7	12	Jane Manthei	Petoskey St. Michael	132.8
8	12	Izzy Brooks	Adrian Lenawee Christian	132.5
9	11	Carina Burchi	Whitmore Lake	121.3
10	11	Taylor Wiegand	Livingston Christian	120.6
11	10	Stefi Reskevics	Harbor Springs	119.3
12	12	Natalie Gibbs	Birmingham Roeper	118.6
13	12	Ella Knudsen	Leland	118.3
14	11	Emma Riker	Kalamazoo Hackett	116.3
15	12	Presley Allen	Mendon	116.0
16	11	Ally Schmitz	Breckenridge	113.6
17	11	Eleanor Cole	Lutheran Westland	112.6
18	10	Addy Zeller	Bear Lake-Onekama	112.5
19	11	Elodie Weaver	Whitmore Lake	112.2
20	11	Lilah Kiley	Kingston	112.1
21	10	Veyda Conley	Martin	111.4
22	10	Lauren Shaffer	Gobles	109.7
23	12	Danica Aldrich	Breckenridge	107.7
24	9	Carmella Julian	Maple City Glen Lake	107.2
25	10	Harlie Fox	Johannesburg-Lewiston	106.5
26	12	Melanie Warren	Bridgman	105.2
27	12	Juniper Rodham	Harbor Springs	105.0
28	11	Cara Prusakiewicz	Dryden	104.9
29	12	Kelcie Pung	Fowler	104.5
30	12	Brooke Sonnenberg	Genesee Christian Academy	104.3
31	10	Evelyn Meyer	Hillsdale Academy	104.2
32	10	Amelia McKinney	Grand Traverse Academy	104.1
33	10	Lydia Gleason	Auburn Hills Oakland Christian	103.7
34	11	Rowan Allen	Mendon	103.6
35	10	Claire Long	Saginaw Nouvel	103.4
36	11	Madi Hare	Plymouth Christian Academy	101.2
37	12	Clara Fast	Bridgman	99.5
38	12	Ella Walton	Hillsdale Academy	99.1
39	9	Alyvia Janke	Unionville-Sebewaing	97.3
40	10	Brie Siems	Kalamazoo Hackett	96.5
41	9	Cassidy Bowers	Austin Catholic	95.7
42	9	Melodie Hulinek	Bear Lake-Onekama	95.5
43	10	Allie Miller	Hillsdale Academy	95.5
44	12	Aubrey Appleman	Britton Deerfield	95.3
45	12	Brianna Locke	Beal City	95.0
46	9	Sophie Grinage	Leland	94.7
47	11	Kandin Shuler	Bridgman	93.6
48	10	Adrienne Mitchell	Lansing Christian	92.7
49	12	Caroline Roberts	Hillsdale Academy	91.9
50	11	Katie Sweeney	Ubly	90.7