Category: 2020 Previews

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

The List

29. Whitney Currie, Forest Hills Central

• Early in the season, it appeared as if Whitney would keep along her already impressive form from her freshman and sophomore years
• Around late September, she went into another gear, winning her races at both Kent Ottawa and Allendale Falcon
• At the Benzie Central, she took that to an even greater level, nearly dropping a minute off her PR
• All that led to her 3^rd straight State Finals appearance and first All-State selection

29. Nathan Faust, East Lansing

He’s (Nathan) a great teammate and always helps our team in positive ways. He had some injury issues last summer so expect some big jumps from him. He’s always a friend I can ask advice for as well. And he’s the best example of a team first guy.

Matthew Zeleke, East Lansing

• After a solid freshman debut, Nathan has turned it on the past two years
• Each year, he’s PR’ed and qualified for State
• That PR this year was his first jaunt under the 16:00 barrier, smashing it with a 15:47 in the most competitive regional (how was that 9^th?!)
• A bit more speed oriented on the track, having run 4:22 in the 2019 track season
• Has all the qualities of a great leader on an unheralded East Lansing squad, one that has a good chance of making some noise this year