Uncategorized

2026’s 50 Tickets to Brooklyn: Boys #9

GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
11Jacob Szalay15:24.8Saline206.1MITCA8-Nov2025
11Jacob Szalay15:20.1Saline207.3D1 State Finals1-Nov2025
11Jacob Szalay15:53.3Saline195.6Region 525-Oct2025
11Jacob Szalay15:59.1Saline200.6SEC Championship16-Oct2025
11Jacob Szalay16:01.3Saline202.2Portage4-Oct2025
11Jacob Szalay15:56.0Saline199.0SEC Red 225-Sep2025
11Jacob Szalay15:46.1Saline201.0Jackson20-Sep2025
11Jacob Szalay16:14.8Saline205.4Spartan12-Sep2025
11Jacob Szalay15:55.6Saline198.5SEC 19-Sep2025
11Jacob Szalay16:44.4Saline185.5Bath6-Sep2025
GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
10Jacob Szalay15:44.7Saline199.8MITCA9-Nov2024
10Jacob Szalay15:38.1Saline201.3Division 1 State2-Nov2024
10Jacob Szalay15:57.0Saline195.7Region 526-Oct2024
10Jacob Szalay15:58.8Saline200.1SEC Championship17-Oct2024
10Jacob Szalay16:06.2Saline199.6River Rat Open10-Oct2024
10Jacob Szalay16:12.4Saline193.9Portage5-Oct2024
10Jacob Szalay16:40.3Saline193.6SEC Red 224-Sep2024
10Jacob Szalay16:02.6Saline197.1Jackson21-Sep2024
10Jacob Szalay16:54.9Saline190.7SEC 110-Sep2024
10Jacob Szalay16:29.6Saline195.8Bath7-Sep2024
GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
9Jacob Szalay16:31.2Saline183.9Division 1 State4-Nov2023
9Jacob Szalay16:20.4Saline184.5Region 528-Oct2023
9Jacob Szalay16:59.7Saline183.8SEC Championship19-Oct2023
9Jacob Szalay16:21.4Saline189.9Portage7-Oct2023
9Jacob Szalay16:09.0Saline185.0SEC Red 227-Sep2023
9Jacob Szalay16:45.6Saline181.8Jackson23-Sep2023
9Jacob Szalay16:48.5Saline184.5Bath9-Sep2023
9Jacob Szalay17:06.0Saline184.7Milan Puddle Jumper29-Aug2023

Personal Records

5k (XC) – 15:20
800m – 1:56
1600m – 4:12
3200m – 9:12

Accolades

XC

15th Place – Division 1 State
2x All-State
2x Top-3 – SEC Red
2x Top-5 – Region 5

Track

3rd Place – Division 1 State 1600m
7th Place – Division 1 State 3200m
8th Place – Division 1 State 4×8
Region 5 1600m/3200m Champion

His Breakout Race

You could pick a few from Jacob’s career and be correct in each instance. From this past season, a 4:14 at the rain-delayed Barnyard or a 4:12 in the race against D1’s best. From the prior fall, a 15:20 in the State Finals, a massive personal and season best. Or even stretching back to his sophomore season, when he shattered his previous best at the Division 1 XC Finals. I’m not in the trenches of his mind, I can’t speak for what motivates him to rally in the most consequential environments. However, I can’t help but think that confidence is built from early success, then stacked with each momentous notch in the resume.

Harkening back to that ’24 season. Szalay was coming off a freshman year that portrayed much promise. He’d run 4:33, one of the faster freshman times for a Hornet, and stayed in the 16’s for seemingly the entire season. As a sophomore, those times remained the same, but were inching closer and closer to a leap forward. The Jackson Invite was a real crack at sub-16, 2.6 seconds off the mark. That finally came in the SEC Red Championship and was backed up at the Lake Erie Regional. Jacob was in the discussion for All-State (I had him at 40th), but perhaps on the outside looking in. That is, until his impeccable MIS performance. Szalay moved up beautifully throughout the race, crossing the mile in 39th, then moving up multiple spots in each mile and the finishing stretch, before placing 16th. A nearly 20 sec. PR on the biggest stage, one that has snowballed into even more accolades and accomplishments.

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2026’s 50 Tickets to Brooklyn: Girls #10

It’s baaack. A summertime tradition has returned, the 50 Tickets to Brooklyn. These lists celebrate the top 50 returners – based on a concoction of the ’25 XC season, projected improvements, the ’26 Track season, and a tiny bit of my own input.

Enjoy!

2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020

Many of these photos are sourced from either MLive or Miles Postema. Any others will find credit in the caption.

GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
10Sienna Klemmer17:38.8Ann Arbor Pioneer160.1D1 State Finals1-Nov2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:48.7Ann Arbor Pioneer155.8Region 525-Oct2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:59.9Ann Arbor Pioneer160.0SEC Championship16-Oct2025
10Sienna Klemmer18:06.2Ann Arbor Pioneer161.3Portage4-Oct2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:12.0Ann Arbor Pioneer169.0Otsego Bulldog27-Sep2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:30.2Ann Arbor Pioneer165.6Jackson20-Sep2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:54.5Ann Arbor Pioneer173.8Spartan12-Sep2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:50.3Ann Arbor Pioneer159.9SEC 19-Sep2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:36.1Ann Arbor Pioneer171.3John Bruder Classic3-Sep2025
10Sienna Klemmer17:12.9Ann Arbor Pioneer177.4Pete Moss23-Aug2025
GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
9Sienna Klemmer17:57.1Ann Arbor Pioneer154.6Division 1 State2-Nov2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:32.3Ann Arbor Pioneer144.6Region 526-Oct2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:36.1Ann Arbor Pioneer146.3SEC Championship17-Oct2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:14.8Ann Arbor Pioneer153.7Portage5-Oct2024
9Sienna Klemmer17:52.8Ann Arbor Pioneer157.7Otsego Bulldog28-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer19:19.8Ann Arbor Pioneer139.1SEC Red 224-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:03.6Ann Arbor Pioneer156.5Jackson21-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:56.8Ann Arbor Pioneer151.4Spartan13-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:59.6Ann Arbor Pioneer148.8SEC 110-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:23.2Ann Arbor Pioneer157.3John Bruder Classic4-Sep2024
9Sienna Klemmer18:51.3Ann Arbor Pioneer141.2Pete Moss24-Aug2024

Personal Records

5k (XC) – 17:12
1600m – 5:00
3200m – 10:25
5k (Track) – 17:06

Accolades

XC

8th Place – Division 1 State
Division 1 Team State Champion
2x All-State
2nd Place – Region 5
2nd Place – SEC Red

Track

16th Place – New Balance Indoor 5000m
3rd Place – MITS/MITCA Indoor State 3200m
5th Place – New Balance Indoor 4xMile

You Know I Dig Improvement

And Sienna, throughout the fall and winter, definitely slashed chunks of seconds.

A tough task considering where Klemmer began her career. During her freshman year, she established herself as one of the better 9th graders in the state. By the end of autumn, she had busted into the 17’s, placing 15th in Division and coming in as the 5th fastest freshman in Division 1. Track wasn’t half bad either, as Klemmer was super consistent in the 3200m, splitting sub-11 on every opportunity she had over eight laps.

Considering all that, immediate improvements came when she raced. Sienna wasted no time in finding another cross PR, ripping a 17:12 in her Pete Moss opener, nearly 100 sec. quicker than what she was a year prior. Although time-wise she hovered around that mark for the rest of the fall, her overall resume was much quicker, staying below 18:00 in >80% of her races. That quickness was capped off at MIS, where Sienna placed 8th, 7 spots lower than the previous year.

Her track campaign was shortened relative to the previous year, but in her winter work, evidence was present of even greater drops. Whereas her freshman 3200’s were all over 10:45, she reached down as far as 10:25 in the Gazelle Elite 3200m. Extending distance at New Balance Indoor was a success, her 17:06 essentially run at the pace she had raced 3200m at the previous spring.

To improve so much when already running at an impeccable level, it gives wonder to what else Sienna can accomplish.

Uncategorized

2026’s 50 Tickets to Brooklyn: Boys #10

It’s baaack. A summertime tradition has returned, the 50 Tickets to Brooklyn. These lists celebrate the top 50 returners – based on a concoction of the ’25 XC season, projected improvements, the ’26 Track season, and a tiny bit of my own input.

Enjoy!

2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020

Many of these photos are sourced from either MLive or Miles Postema. Any others will find credit in the caption.

GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
11Hunter Eaton15:20.0Charlevoix207.7MITCA8-Nov2025
11Hunter Eaton15:30.8Charlevoix204.4D3 State Finals1-Nov2025
11Hunter Eaton15:46.0Charlevoix197.3Region 1925-Oct2025
11Hunter Eaton15:59.1Charlevoix195.0Northern Shores Championship14-Oct2025
11Hunter Eaton15:22.4Charlevoix213.2Bluejay27-Sep2025
11Hunter Eaton15:56.0Charlevoix196.3Petoskey Kiwanis20-Sep2025
11Hunter Eaton15:44.9Charlevoix204.7Party in the Park27-Aug2025
11Hunter Eaton15:40.2Charlevoix211.9Under the Lights v222-Aug2025
GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
10Hunter Eaton16:09.9Charlevoix191.4MITCA9-Nov2024
10Hunter Eaton15:51.2Charlevoix195.6Division 3 State2-Nov2024
10Hunter Eaton15:52.7Charlevoix186.4Region 1926-Oct2024
10Hunter Eaton16:41.3Charlevoix183.2Northern Shores Championship12-Oct2024
10Hunter Eaton16:07.4Charlevoix195.9Bluejay28-Sep2024
10Hunter Eaton16:39.7Charlevoix191.1Petoskey21-Sep2024
10Hunter Eaton16:19.2Charlevoix193.6Party in the Park28-Aug2024
GradeNameTimeTeamRatingMeetDateYear
9Hunter Eaton16:57.5Charlevoix173.8MITCA11-Nov2023
9Hunter Eaton16:45.3Charlevoix177.6Division 3 State4-Nov2023
9Hunter Eaton16:34.1Charlevoix174.6Region 1928-Oct2023
9Hunter Eaton17:10.6Charlevoix177.5LMC Championship10-Oct2023
9Hunter Eaton16:40.7Charlevoix180.4Bluejay30-Sep2023
9Hunter Eaton17:13.2Charlevoix176.6Petoskey23-Sep2023
9Hunter Eaton17:18.0Charlevoix167.7Red Devil30-Aug2023

Personal Records

5k (XC) – 15:20
200m – 23.9
400m – 50.7
800m – 1:57
Mile (Road) – 4:10
3200m – 9:28

Accolades

XC

Division 3 State Champion
Division 3 Team State Champion
2x All-State
2x Northern Shores Champion
Region 19 Champion

Track

Division 3 State 1600m Champion
2025 Division 3 State 3200m Champion
HS Ryan Shay Mile Champion
4x All-State

His Specialty

Hunter’s specialty is, for lack of a better word, winning. He’s done it at all levels, all races, and all seasons. He’s even won in these past few weeks, when he roared home in front of his Charlevoix crowd, capturing the inaugural HS race at the Ryan Shay Mile.

Much work has been done to earn the title of the local favorite. Inklings of his talent began late in his freshman fall, where Hunter was able to bust into the top-50 in Division 3 cross. Further peeks at his talent came during the track season, where he was conference runner-up in the 1600m & 3200m, then went down to Kent City, placing 10th in the 1600m State Finals.

The wins then came. First on the track, the then sophomore outlasting the field in the Division 3 3200m. This past fall, taking a decisive lead in the final mile at MIS, holding on for the win, and being the influential low-stick for his trophy-hoisting Rayders. This past spring, he was able to spread his wings elsewhere, claiming the 1600m crown against a talented field. Road, grass, or track. Mid to long distance. Hunter can win anywhere.