Author: mixcspeedratings

The List

26. Jeremy Williams, Lapeer

Jeremy has been deeply committed to running ever since 8th grade where he decided that we wanted to live up to his potential and be the best runner he could be. Ever since then he has educated himself on everything he needs to know about running in order to orient himself toward his goals, and he shares this information with all of his teammates, myself included. He is constantly talking about and viewing races, he’s truly devoted.

Michael Williams, Lapeer (twin brother)

• After a solid freshman campaign in XC, showed major progress that next spring in track, running marks of 4:44/9:59
• Continued that progression to cross, nabbing victories at Mariner, Mike Jackson, Marauder, and County Press
• Struggled a bit late, but still managed to match his PR (16:13) at Regionals
• Reminds me of a young Steve Magness, writing his own training, learning as much as he can about the sport

26. Abbie Haupt, Livonia Churchill

Abbie is the type of athlete any coach dreams to work with. Last year as a junior in XC, she finally broke out of her shell and earned All-State honors, something I knew that was coming all along. She has now turned a page in her training and works at an extremely high level to be the best runner and teammate she can be! I cannot wait to watch her shake things up during her senior year at the front of each race. She has a great future ahead of her!

Coach Kroll

• Abbie is another one who has steadily improved, each year knocking off another mark (sophomore, sub-20; junior, sub-19)
• Her breakthrough race this past season came at Wayne County, where she PRed by over 0:40 and notched her first Top 10 finish there
• That spurred further progress, including running 27 seconds faster on that same course and narrowly sprinting to an All-State spot
• Has a very good chance of being the first Churchill girl to break 18:00 in a long while…

The List

27. Sophie Novak, Lake Orion

Sophie started her love of running when she won a 0-18 year old division 5k at 8 years old. Since then she juggled her love of running and playing travel soccer at the regional level. After participating in both varsity soccer and track her freshman year, she decided to part ways with soccer and concentrate on reaching her full potential in Cross Country and track. She loves cross country, 1600 and 800 meter races. She is a very dedicated, hardworking student and is proud of her 4.1 GPA. Sophie loves the team friendship and camaraderie the most. Sophie is looking forward to her senior year, and seeing what else she can accomplish.

Tara Novak (Sophie’s Mother)

• Incredible track ability with range, 2:12/4:49 as a sophomore (and 4:55 in January) had her ranked extremely high nationally for her class
• 3x All-State, 2x Regional Champ
• Reigning Oakland County Champ in the 800/1600
• 2019 XC season started slow, but peaked hard late with her first sub-18, a higher rated State Meet, and an even higher rated MITCA Meet (18:13, 161.9)

27. Ben Clason, Forest Hills Eastern

• Ben is another one on that steady improvement track
• Has dropped nearly 2:00 from his PR set as a freshman
• From his 2019 track season (9:42 3200m), one could see his cross season in the cards
• Broke 16:00 early at Saranac and nearly hit that mark on multiple other occasions
• Extremely consistent late, running almost identical performances at Otsego Bulldog, Portage, Regional, and State
• His 12^th place at MIS was his highest finish, slicing 75 spots off his finish from 2018. 

The List

28. Charlie Frank, Dearborn

• Charlie (along with the recently graduated Muaad Abdulaziz) were the two main powers in ending Dearborn’s 19-year State Meet hiatus
• From his freshman to sophomore year, averaged nearly a minute improvement, and still dropped time this past fall
• Has narrowly missed All-State the past two years, but in a great shot to nab that this time around
• Top 10 in Wayne County the past two seasons, Top 15 at KLAA as well

28. Aiden Harrand, Buckley

• Another freshman with seemingly unlimited potential
• Has run 5:14 on the track as a 7^th grader
• Narrowly defeated at Portage by the aforementioned Alyson Enns
  • For reference sake, take a peek at the names in that time range from previous Portage Invites
• Dominated her other races, winning by close to a minute (or more) in many of them