Track is back, baby.
The Best Crews have been a thing around here for the past few years. They take their cues from USTFCCCA’s event squads and the World Athletics scoring system, combining the two ideas in order to compare Michigan’s teams against events in their common areas.
The goal of this is to help recognize the athletes and coaches that create cultures, history, and traditions in their respective event areas. Think about it like this: Minnesota always has great hockey, basketball hoops are nailed to Indiana barns, Texas churns out football talent, every Iowa boy has cauliflower ear. Where in Michigan does hurdling reign supreme? Is there a town where kids learn to shot put before they can tie their shoes?
2023’s explanation goes through much of it, but two things have changed for this year.
the Boys 200m points have been re-mathed and edited, as previous versions sold short athletes such as Jeremy Dixon and Jake Machiniak when it came to season end rankings.
instead of using a team’s top-four athletes to generate their total for an event, I’m using their top-three. Belleville’s hurdlers are the main reason for this, there’s no way they shouldn’t have been the top D1 squad last year. I feel this will better portray a team’s top athletes.
Here are the figures that show the points for each mark:
These contain results uploaded to athletic.net by Saturday (4/19) evening.
Grade Name Mark Team Points 11 Sabrina DiMaggio 11′ 0″ Lake Orion 440 10 Olivia Bagdasarian 11′ 0″ Lake Orion 440 11 Grace Carlson 10′ 0″ Lake Orion 400
Rank Team Score 1 Lake Orion 1281 2 Dexter 940 3 East Kentwood 800 4 Grand Haven 504 5 Lowell 500 5 Walled Lake Northern 500 7 Grand Ledge 480 8 Forest Hills Central 460 9 Davison 440 9 Okemos 440 9 Rockford 440 12 Walled Lake Central 410 13 Livonia Churchill 400 13 South Lyon East 400 13 Traverse City West 400 16 Clarkston 380 16 Richland Gull Lake 380 16 Swartz Creek 380 16 Ypsilanti Lincoln 380 20 Bay City Central 374 21 DeWitt 370 21 Hartland 370 21 Muskegon Mona Shores 370 21 South Lyon 370 21 Zeeland East 370
Grade Name Mark Team Points 12 Asher Paul 14′ 6″ Traverse City Central 460 12 Jace Rowell 13′ 6″ Traverse City Central 426 11 Adrian DeBruyn 12′ 6″ Traverse City Central 392
Rank Team Score 1 Traverse City Central 1278 2 Greenville 852 3 Lake Orion 838 4 Plymouth 835 5 Jenison 802 6 East Kentwood 477 7 Forest Hills Northern 460 7 Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills 460 9 Novi 443 9 Okemos 443 11 Salem 435 12 Battle Creek Lakeview 409 12 Holland West Ottawa 409 12 Temperance Bedford 409 15 Flushing 401 16 Caledonia 392 16 Highland-Milford 392 16 South Lyon East 392 16 Zeeland West 392
Grade Name Mark Team Points 9 Kaleigh Slingerland 9′ 9″ Owosso 390 12 Kyle Bermudez 8′ 9″ Owosso 350
Rank Team Score 1 Owosso 740 2 Chelsea 730 3 Holland Christian 720 3 Shepherd 720 5 Clare 680 6 Eaton Rapids 464 7 Wayland Union 440 8 Ionia 420 8 St. Clair Shores Lake Shore 420 10 Williamston 410 11 Allegan 400 11 Hamilton 400 11 Pinckney 400 11 Vicksburg 400 15 Bay City John Glenn 380 15 Forest Hills Eastern 380 15 Flint Powers Catholic 380 15 Gaylord 380 15 Hastings 380 20 Frankenmuth 370 21 Belding 360 21 Sturgis 360 23 Coldwater 340 23 Cranbrook Kingswood 340 23 East Grand Rapids 340 23 Grand Rapids Christian 340 23 Howard City Tri-County 340 23 Hudsonville Unity Christian 340 23 Lake Odessa Lakewood 340 23 Spring Lake 340 23 St. Joseph 340 23 Stevensville Lakeshore 340
Grade Name Mark Team Points 12 Nickolas Savoie 13′ 6″ Gaylord 426 9 Calvin Cosby 12′ 6″ Gaylord 392
Rank Team Score 1 Gaylord 818 2 Sparta 802 3 Howard City Tri-County 785 4 Berrien Springs 734 5 Grosse Ile 477 5 Spring Lake 477 7 Macomb Lutheran North 429 8 Clare 426 9 Gladwin 420 10 Stevensville Lakeshore 418 11 Adrian 409 12 Holland Christian 392 12 Hopkins 392 12 Otsego 392 12 Whitehall 392 12 Williamston 392 17 Parma Western 384 18 Belding 375 18 Edwardsburg 375 18 New Boston Huron 375 21 Birch Run 359 21 Chelsea 359 21 Fowlerville 359 21 Melvindale 359 21 Owosso 359 21 Paw Paw 359 21 Plainwell 359 21 Sturgis 359 21 Three Rivers 359
Grade Name Mark Team Points 11 Clara Vollmar 10′ 6″ Remus Chippewa Hills 420 12 Natalie Gibson 9′ 9″ Remus Chippewa Hills 390 9 Lexi Hatfield 8′ 0″ Remus Chippewa Hills 320
Rank Team Score 1 Remus Chippewa Hills 1131 2 Lawton 1061 3 Hart 981 4 Manton 710 5 Charyl Stockwell Academy 690 6 Laingsburg 680 7 Michigan Center 640 7 Pewamo-Westphalia 640 7 Schoolcraft 640 10 Kingsley 620 10 Standish Sterling 620 12 Almont 600 13 Benzie Central 400 14 Houghton Lake 384 15 The Potter’s House 380 16 Lake City 360 16 Mancelona 360 18 Clinton 344 19 Erie Mason 340 19 Lakeview 340 19 LeRoy Pine River 340 19 Saranac 340 23 Adrian Madison 320 23 Cass City 320 23 Hudson 320 23 Ida 320 23 Ithaca 320 23 Manistee 320 23 Montague 320 23 Quincy 320 23 Sanford-Meridian 320
Grade Name Mark Team Points 12 Brody Jones 13′ 6″ Constantine 426 10 Aaron Hochstetler 12′ 6″ Constantine 392 11 Bear Geibe 11′ 0″ Constantine 342
Rank Team Score 1 Constantine 1160 2 Bath 818 3 Ida 785 3 Ovid-Elsie 785 5 Erie Mason 734 6 Lake City 725 7 Laingsburg 700 8 Chesaning 683 9 Springport 454 10 Manistee 446 11 Quincy 443 12 Almont 418 13 Adrian Madison 409 13 Perry 409 15 Pewamo-Westphalia 395 16 Lansing Catholic 392 16 Leslie 392 18 Jonesville 384 19 Bloomingdale 375 19 Cass City 375 19 Charlevoix 375 19 Charyl Stockwell Academy 375 19 Kingsley 375 19 Morley-Stanwood 375 19 Napoleon 375 19 Ottawa Lake-Whiteford 375 19 Remus Chippewa Hills 375 19 Saranac 375
Grade Name Mark Team Points 12 Kate May 9′ 3″ Frankfort 370 11 Isabella Crompton 8′ 6″ Frankfort 340 11 Willa Roth 8′ 0″ Frankfort 320 11 Leah McRae 7′ 0″ Frankfort 280
Rank Team Score 1 Frankfort 1031 2 Mason County Eastern 961 3 Pittsford 901 4 Hillsdale Academy 881 5 Deckerville 740 6 Fowler 680 7 Brown City 620 8 White Cloud 600 9 Akron-Fairgrove 580 9 Marcellus 580 11 White Pigeon 540 12 Kalamazoo Hackett 520 12 Whitmore Lake 520 14 Marlette 380 15 Montabella 320 16 Addison 300 16 Coleman 300 16 East Jordan 300 16 Fulton 300 16 Indian River Inland Lakes 300 16 Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart 300 22 Athens 280 22 Hale 280 22 Manchester 280 22 Morrice 280 22 Vestaburg 280
Grade Name Mark Team Points 12 Kable Miller 10′ 0″ Coleman 308 9 Gage Lawrence 9′ 6″ Coleman 291 10 Alex Lyon 9′ 6″ Coleman 291
Rank Team Score 1 Coleman 890 2 Pittsford 689 3 Petersburg-Summerfield 683 4 Brown City 666 5 Hillsdale Academy 649 6 Lutheran Westland 632 6 Marlette 632 8 Camden-Frontier 616 8 Manchester 616 10 Montabella 599 11 Addison 375 11 Beal City 375 11 Whitmore Lake 375 14 Fowler 342 14 Johannesburg-Lewiston 342 14 Lincoln-Alcona 342 14 Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart 342 14 Vandercook Lake 342 19 Fairview 325 19 Indian River Inland Lakes 325 19 Morenci 325 19 Morrice 325 23 East Jordan 308 23 Kalamazoo Hackett 308 23 Kingston 308