Category: Uncategorized

SUMMER PREVIEW

Accomplishments & Accolades

• 6^th Place – Division 2 State (XC)
• 2x All-State (XC)
• 2^nd Place – Region 11 (XC)
• 2^nd Place – OK Green (XC)
• 4^th Place – Division 1 State 3200m
• 2^nd Place – Division 1 State 4x800m
• OK Green 1600/3200m Champion
• 4x All-State (Track)



Ratings Throughout the Years

Grade	Name	Time	Team	Rating	Meet	Date
11	Allison Kuzma	18:28.9	Zeeland East	152.4	Under the Lights v2	26-Aug
11	Allison Kuzma	18:27.5	Zeeland East	156.5	Bredeweg	10-Sep
11	Allison Kuzma	18:57.5	Zeeland East	147.2	Spartan	16-Sep
11	Allison Kuzma	18:24.6	Zeeland East	149.1	Autumn Sunrise	24-Sep
11	Allison Kuzma	18:18.3	Zeeland East	146.6	OK Green 2	28-Sep
11	Allison Kuzma	18:14.0	Zeeland East	151.3	Otsego Bulldog	1-Oct
11	Allison Kuzma	19:07.8	Zeeland East	133.7	Portage	8-Oct
11	Allison Kuzma	19:21.2	Zeeland East	130.9	OK Green Conference	19-Oct
11	Allison Kuzma	18:25.6	Zeeland East	149.5	Region 11	29-Oct
11	Allison Kuzma	18:41.6	Zeeland East	144.5	Division 2 State	5-Nov
Grade	Name	Time	Team	Rating	Meet	Date
10	Allison Kuzma	18:57.0	Zeeland East	150.7	Under the Lights v2	27-Aug
10	Allison Kuzma	19:16.0	Zeeland East	140.3	OK Green 1	8-Sep
10	Allison Kuzma	20:03.0	Zeeland East	124.0	Bredeweg	11-Sep
10	Allison Kuzma	19:33.4	Zeeland East	135.2	Ottawa Hills	17-Sep
10	Allison Kuzma	19:16.8	Zeeland East	126.4	Autumn Sunrise	25-Sep
10	Allison Kuzma	19:47.8	Zeeland East	129.7	OK Green 2	29-Sep
10	Allison Kuzma	19:05.8	Zeeland East	137.7	Otsego Bulldog	2-Oct
10	Allison Kuzma	19:24.6	Zeeland East	135.8	Portage	9-Oct
10	Allison Kuzma	19:20.6	Zeeland East	130.5	OK Green Conference	20-Oct
10	Allison Kuzma	19:13.9	Zeeland East	130.4	Region 12	30-Oct
10	Allison Kuzma	18:57.7	Zeeland East	137.4	Division 2 State	6-Nov
10	Allison Kuzma	18:59.7	Zeeland East	137.8	MITCA	13-Nov
Grade	Name		Team	Rating	Meet	Date
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	80.7	Grand Haven/Zeeland East	24-Aug
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	97.3	OK Green 1	2-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	75.3	Bredeweg	12-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	88.8	OK Green (Holland)	16-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	105.1	OGTC	19-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	103.7	Cougar Falcon	26-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	106.3	OK Green 3	30-Sep
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	100.2	Allendale Falcon	3-Oct
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	101.4	West Ottawa	10-Oct
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	95.0	OK Green Conference	14-Oct
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	96.2	Pre-Region 5	24-Oct
9	Allison Kuzma		Zeeland East	107.7	Region 3	30-Oct

The Rundown

From her freshman year to now, Ally has undergone tremendous growth. Way back in 2020, she had a solid freshman year, ending in the mid-20’s, placing top-10 in the OK Green. But nothing like the form she’s shown over the past five seasons. The transformation began during her freshman season of track, where she was able to slip under 5:30 and 12:00.

The transformation accelerated into cross and hasn’t let up in the past two years. Accolades have followed – two All-States on the grass, four on the track. That’s been at both the Division 2 and Division 1 levels, on a relay, with her Chix squad, or by herself. Adversity and a mid-season slump (19:00+ at the OK Green and Portage) couldn’t slow her down during cross, injuries over the winter and early spring couldn’t puncture her confidence come June. And all while this magnificence has been going on, she’s brought along a new generation of ZE girls. The consummate teammate, grateful to enjoy all the experiences during her senior year.

Last Year

SUMMER PREVIEW

MID-SEASON

REGIONAL PROJECTIONS

THE RESULT

Girls

1. Okemos (14^th)
2. Traverse City West (12^th)
3. Traverse City Central (18^th)

Boys

1. Traverse City Central (2^nd)
2. Saginaw Heritage (18^th)
3. Bay City Western (26^th)

Top 27 Teams

Previous years had top-25 teams, but there’s 27 (and sometimes more) team qualifiers and what does it hurt to add another two?

Girls

Traverse City West (6^th), Okemos (8^th), H.H. Dow (11^th), Traverse City Central (16^th)

Boys

Traverse City Central (14^th), Okemos (27^th)

(If your team isn’t listed in the images above or the scores below, you probably don’t have five returners, at least on ol’ athletic.net. I’m sure many of these teams will fill out their rosters by late October)

Projected Scores

Place	Girls Team	Score
1	Traverse City West	59
2	Okemos	71
3	H.H. Dow	73
4	Traverse City Central	108
5	Bay City Western	138
6	Grand Ledge	214
7	Midland	215
8	Alpena	236
9	Mt. Pleasant	244
10	East Lansing	249
11	Holt	251
12	Saginaw Heritage	289
13	Greenville	322
14	Lansing Everett	480
15	Saginaw Arthur Hill	488

Place	Boys Team	Score
1	Traverse City Central	59
2	Okemos	101
3	Traverse City West	107
4	Bay City Western	127
5	Grand Ledge	132
6	H.H. Dow	149
7	Saginaw Heritage	151
8	East Lansing	156
9	Midland	208
10	Mt. Pleasant	234
11	Alpena	337
12	Holt	357
13	Greenville	420
14	Lansing Everett	459
15	Saginaw Arthur Hill	460

Top Runners

I’m making a slight change for the Division 1 folks. Previous regional writeups had the top finishers, even if they were mentioned in the Top 10’s or 50 Tickets. Because so many Division 1 kids make up the top 50 returners (which makes sense, since D1 covers about 60% of the state), I’ll write about a few returners beyond those 50. This will hopefully extend a bit more coverage towards more deserving athletes. Some of the 50 have been covered, others will get their own post. Check the Summer Preview page or keep checking back until Thursday for those.

Katie Watkins, H.H. Dow

She’s reached the 18’s in every single season, this past season getting there the most times of any – four. A 3^rd place finish in the SVL tied her best conference finish yet and she easily had her best track season yet, dropping 25+ seconds in the 3200m.

Alexis Ball, Traverse City Central

In search of a proper way to close her track season, in mid June, Alexis took the multi-hour trek down to Davison. A PR is a PR, and she left that Saturday 0.16 seconds faster in the 1600m, her 5:14.40 being the fastest performance of her career.

Lauren Walker, Holt

Capitalized on the 18:59 she earned at the end of her freshman year and turned that into a sophomore season with three sub-19 efforts. One of those was her massive personal best of 18:29 to finish 3^rd here.

Ella Kirkwood, Traverse City Central

When she wasn’t advocating for the environment, she was busy having the best track season of her career, knocking off almost 20 sec. from her freshman 3200m best.

Willem DeGood, Traverse City West

Check out his places at regionals throughout these years. 38^th to 15^th to 8^th. His first top-10 came last fall and he seemed to love this course, setting a huge PB here in early October, then nearly matching that with two 16:1x efforts late.

Zack Truszkowski, Traverse City Central

Here again for my favorite topic, year to year growth. Zack’s been on some good teams, learning from some of the best in the State. While he didn’t compete at the regional stage as a freshman, I’m sure the lessons accrued early turned him into the kid that placed 10^th this past year.

Colin MacGregor, H.H. Dow

2022 was truly the return of the Mac. Colin concluded his year with four consecutive sub-17’s, one of those being the 12^th place here that greatly outperformed the 30^th+ place he was in his first two years.

Caleb Keller, Traverse City Central

Perhaps the next generation and leader in the Grand Traverse area. Hard to pin down his best event during his 9^th grade track season, but I’ll go with his 4:27 in the 1600m, which ranked #5 across all freshmen in the State.

Eden Lampi, East Lansing

19+ minutes all throughout his freshman year, 18+ minutes all throughout his sophomore year, then last year hovered around 17-flat for the majority of the season. His 17^th here at Shepherd qualified him as an individual for State.

THE SUMMER PREVIEW





2022 Results

Meet	Division	Place
Averill	Gold	1st of 11
Spartan	Elite	5th of 20
Portage	D1	4th of 32
Gabriel Richard	Large	1st of 13
KLAA		2nd of 15
Region 4		2nd of 15
Division 1 State		3rd of 27



Top Returners

Tyler Langley

Made great gains in the 1600m this spring, thanks to a valiant try in making it to Rockford. His 4:24 at Grand Ledge was excruciatingly close, yet in the process he found a 6 second personal best. A lesser man may have folded in the 3200m later day, but Tyler worked his way toward his first individual qualifier.

Luke Campbell

Was able to pull off the impressive double at Region 4, qualifying for State in the 1600m and 3200m, hitting personal bests along the way.

Tyler Brock

There aren’t many better programs than Brighton at developing from cross to track, track to cross, winter, and summer. Tyler’s 9:41 in the 3200m was nearly a minute faster than his freshman best.

Brady Millington

Looking again to those 9:4x’s, use his freshman track campaign for comparison. He didn’t run the 3200m in 2022, but he did run in the 1600m, barely staying on the north side of 5:00. Decreased his pace by 2-3 seconds a lap while doubling the distance.

Elijah Forbord

Two years ago, he began his career with three consecutive 20+ min. efforts. One year ago, he closed his fall with five of six 16-min. performances.

Nathan Moskal

Rocked his first sub-17 ever late and decided he wanted more, winning the Huron Meadows PROM with a 16:59.

Tyler Outlaw

This distance depth is unreal, the Bulldogs could have seven possible scorers on any given day. First year of track emitted a 4:35 and 9:58.

Bode Cooper

After 30+ races stretching between his freshman and sophomore years, Bode managed to sneak under 17:00 in a late September tri against Northville and Plymouth.

Josh Hamilton

If he keeps up this pattern of dropping time in two minute increments, he’ll be in the 15’s this fall. Seriously though, Josh has gone from 21:48 to 17:36 in two years, that progress continuing towards a 4:33 1600m in late April.

Potential Newcomers

Blake Kulesza

Sub-12 in all of his middle school races, including top-5 finishes in the KLAA and Zone 5.