2020 Previews – Page 30 – Michigan XC Speed Ratings

50 Tickets to Brooklyn (#33)

One could see from her MS performances that she’d be a contributor at the HS level, breaking 6:00 in the 1600m in 7^th grade and running in the 12:00’s in XC, but nothing to this degree
Ended the year rated as the #2 freshman girl in the state
Major breakouts came at Spartan/Cougar Falcon, then again at Regional/State
Progressed mightily throughout the year, indicated by a 19:39 at Benzie in late August to a 18:12 on that same course in late October

Another one that benefits from the emphasis on year to year improvement
Nearly a minute improvement across the board from his sophomore to junior campaigns
Breakout performance and PR helped Romeo dominate the field on way to a 3^rd consecutive Macomb County crown
Made major gains during indoor, especially in the 1600m, dropping his time by 10+ seconds from 2019’s outdoor season (4:44 to 4:33)

Luke is probably the first name that I didn’t recognize, but he quietly set some marks in late fall
Real surge started at Northern Michigan, setting a 30 second PR on a fair course in Gaylord
Continued that to a 35^th place finish at MIS, when the ratings projected him well outside the top 50
Writing on the wall for a solid XC season was shown by his freshman year in track, where he ran 10:18 for 3200m

Allison is a girl that has all the pieces to contend in Division 3
In the races she’s run, she’s been dominant in the Northern Michigan scene, winning over 80% of her races in her first two years
Was able to improve her already impressive PR
After not being able to compete in 2018’s State Meet, redeemed herself with a 3^rd place finish

The difficult thing with the ratings is that when you see someone like Corey’s, you see virtually no change from year to year, but I think it different
It is very hard to be good year after year and it would be easy to rest your laurels on running sub-16 as a sophomore
He dropped that time by 20 seconds, then followed it up with a higher finish in a tougher division
He was starting to put together a nice track season as well, with 2:01/4:21 marks indoors (consider he went 2:05/4:36 indoor and 1:59/4:27 outdoor)
Given that, we can believe he was due for a breakout track season and from there _____ (you fill in the blank)

Haileigh began to turn things on last October, notching a huge upset win at Thumb Area, cementing her presence in Division 2
She had a solid freshman year, rating out in the mid-20’s
But the real improvement came in track, where she dropped a 5:23/11:36
Was 2^nd in her league to standout Maddy Bean and will likely be the favorite this year