Just a tremendous improvement between his freshman and sophomore years of cross country
As a freshman, he was above average, running in the low 18’s to close the year
But as a sophomore, Sean was off the charts, lowering his personal best by 112 seconds
That PB came at MIS, where he beat my projection by 54(!) places, finishing 44th
He then made another jump in track, where he narrowly missed the additional qualifier for the 3200m at State (9:37), but still ran a time that showed another drop from the fall
2021 is the season for girls such as Caroline Farley and Noel Vanderwall to carry the torch for Petoskey
She’s been a part of some major team success, as their girls have finished in the top 3 at State for her entire career, finally winning a title this past year
She’s been a contributor those years as well, often running her best at the end of the year
As with Sean Byrnes, Noel also took an astounding leap in track, especially at the longer distances
She dropped her 3200m best by more than a minute and her 1600m by 25 seconds
She placed in both at State (along with a spot on the 4×8), racking up valuable points to contribute to ANOTHER state title
Romeo keeps churning them out. Jackson, Wilson, Yarema, Quinn, Malczewski, and now Clor.
Maddy has been great ever since she’s donned the Bulldog uniform, as it only took her two races to break 20:00
Her freshman year ended just shy of breaking 19:00, and as a sophomore she made sure she was well under that mark, an 18:26 setting the standard high for the next two years
Individually she’s been great, but also a steady runner on a team that’s finished in the top ten the previous two years, and has a great chance of doing that again
The track season saw her excel across the board, time-wise in the 1600m, accomplishment-wise in the 3200m (and I think her 11:19 at State is at least 15-20 sec. faster in favorable conditions)
Nicholas had a good 8th grade cross country season, nothing spectacular, but he really came into his own during 8th grade track, where he ended up breaking 11:00 in the 3200m
That continued into his freshman year of cross, where he ran in the 16’s multiple times
All that said, he was not on my radar for 2020, and boy was I wrong
Nicholas owned championship season, where he set a massive PB on a fast day at Clintonwood, then on a hot day at MIS, bested even that
That State performance was 9 rating points higher than his previous best (or the equivalent of 27 seconds)
He was 11th at Oakland County, then the 7th Oakland County kid at MIS
He didn’t get the chance to show his state meet greatness in track, but a 9:47 3200m is nothing to scoff at
