#23 - What's Wrong With This Picture?

Inside this Issue

• Wait, lists are bad?

• Maybe the 5K itself is bad…

• And your school record, that’s bad too

• Latest Pro Results

• Latest HS XC Results

• Interview: Aiden Moore of Battle Creek Lakeview

• Little Things At The End

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

It’s this: comparing times from different XC courses is garbage statistics. And it sends the completely wrong message to kids on what this sport is about.

A quick caveat here before I go on ranting: I am not dissing Jared Purcell here, whom I respect in his dual roles as a coach and a journalist. His very valuable role with MLive is to get our sport more coverage, and that is good. And he wasn’t the one who started this trend. I think that finger points squarely at our friends at athletic-net.

Listing cross country times without some way to filter them through the context of comparative course difficulty is simply meaningless. All courses are different, and the range of types of courses is immense. That’s why there is no “state record” for XC, nor are there national records or world records. By the time you get to mid-season or later, such lists as A-net’s are simply a compilation of how some of the state’s fastest runners did when they got a chance to run on a flat (and sometimes short) course. Any correlation between these lists and the results at MIS is sketchy at best. (My commendations to MI XC Speed Ratings for trying to make sense of it all contextually!)

By extension, what this all means is that if your school has a “school record” time posted somewhere for cross country, it’s garbage. But there is a solution. While you don’t have room to do this on that track/XC record board in the gym, the records you need to be keeping are school records for every course. You race on 10 different courses in a year? That’s 10 school records to keep track of (or top 10 lists, or top 50 lists, etc). That’s a heck of lot more positivity to share every time your team races! And it will be a heck of a lot more meaningful than keeping a single record.

Meanwhile, In The Rest Of The World

Cross country in other countries generally doesn’t adhere to a single standardized distance like our 5K for high school cross country. Rather, there tends to be a range of distances available. File this under “this will never happen here,” but I’d love to see high school races in Michigan sanctioned for a range of distances, anything from, say, 4.5K to 5.5K. That would get us out of the business of comparing times and help us focus on the real job: racing.

Side-benefit… you know those courses that are nearly “perfect” in that they cover the loop through the woods and the one around the pond but add on a stupid lap around the tennis courts just so they could hit 5K exactly? Yeah, a change like this would allow that course to be what the Cross Country Gods intended it to be, instead of forcing it into a shoe that doesn’t fit!

And While We’re At It…

There must be some people who think that times are somehow more accurate if they go to the tenth or even the hundredth of a second.

Accuracy in running records depends on 2 factors—the accuracy of the time and the accuracy of the course. Without the course being truly as accurate as a track is (and it’s nowhere near that standard), having a time to the tenth or hundredth is silly. That’s why World Athletics dictates that off-track times go to the whole second.

Not only is every course different, but a single course changes from year to year. Even if you are in charge of your course and you didn’t change a thing! Ground settles, landfill compacts, tree roots grow bigger, grass grows thicker or thinner, the grounds crew trims those bushes too much, moles get ambitious, groundhogs get more ambitious, etc.

Taking it a step further, one can make the strong argument that even on the same day none of the kids on your team run exactly the same path on a given cross country route. So round up. I know that’s painful for some coaches, who think their athletes will hate them for calling a 16:03.1 a 16:04, but maybe it will help get the focus off times and back onto racing.

One more thought: this kind of reminds me of way back in the day when digital watches became a thing. Suddenly coaches were timing everything to the hundredth and even thousandth of a second. The accuracy hadn’t improved at all—nor had the rules changed—they just wanted to show off that their gizmo could generate more digits to the right of the decimal point. For goshsakes, don’t be that guy.

Latest Pro Results

Rovereto, Italy (9/6): 3000, 1. Grant Fisher 7:33.32. The second-fastest time in his career, Fisher destroyed the field with a last 1K of 2:25.0. Good warm-up for this weekend, when Fisher will be running 3000 at the Prefontaine Classic.

Van Damme, Brussels DL (9/8): 400H, 4. Anna Cockrell 54.29. From lane 2, where she had a disadvantage, but she closed well.

Memorial Boris Hanžeković, Zagreb, Croatia (9/10): 800-B Race, 1. Hobbs Kessler 1:46.09. Not sure why he wasn’t in the A race, in which 7 guys ran faster; winning time 1:44.96.

5th Avenue Mile, New York, NY (9/11): 13. Morgan Beadlescomb 3:54.5.

Coming up: Prefontaine Classic this weekend. Athletes must have accumulated enough points in the Diamond League this season to be entered. The meet director can’t enter a potential crowd favorite who doesn’t have enough points. So the only Michiganders competing will be Anna Cockrell, Freddie Crittenden and Grant Fisher.

Latest HS XC Results

Highlights here. Click on title of meet for full results.

FML Jamboree #1 (9/6):
Boys—1. Clio 57; 2. Flint Kearsley 78; 3. Holly 122 (12 teams).
1. Elliott Sirianni (C) 16:36
2. Nolan Pinion (Lake Fenton) 16:52
Girls—1. Goodrich 22; 2. Owosso 71; 3. Linden 80 (12 teams)
1. Kamryn Lauinger (G) 20:04
2. Layla Jordan (G) 20:14

OK Gold Jamboree (9/6):
Boys—1. Forest Hills Eastern 25; 2. Cedar Springs 91; 3, GR Catholic C 96 (8 teams)
1. Liam Walters (GR Ottawa Hills) 16:18
2. Henry Dixon (FHE) 16:18
Girls—1. GR Ottawa Hills 50; 2. Middleville TK 61; 3. Forest Hills Eastern 74
1. Selma Anderson (GROH) 18:18
2. Emily Tomes (GRCC) 18:43
3. Addison Washler (FHE) 19:28

OK Silver Jamboree (9/6):
Boys—1. Sparta 26; 2 GR NorthPointe Christian 86; 3. Hopkins 94 (6 teams).
1. Gregory Janesak (S) 16:29
Girls—1. Sparta 58; 2. Hopkins 61; 3. Belding 62 (5 teams).
1. Mia May (S) 21:10

Springport Invite (9/6):
Boys 1—1. Hanover-Horton 39; 2. Jonesville 63 (8 teams).
1. Mitchell Hiatt (Onsted) 16:54
Girls 1—Hanover-Horton 47; 2. Onsted 59 (7 teams).
1. Emmry Ross (O) 18:33

Shepherd Bruder Classic (9/7):
Boys Large—1. Alma 83; 2. Jenison 83; 3. Gladwin 99 (14 teams)
1. TJ Hansen (Freeland) 15:14
2. Nate Carmody (Haslett) 15:47
3. Caleb Palmreuter (G) 15:54
4. Seth Conner (J) 15:55
Boys Small—1. Ithaca 56; 2. St Louis 56; 3. LeRoy Pine River 22 (18 teams)
1. Owen Patton (Vestaburg) 15:542
2. Ben March (St Louis) 15:53
Girls Large—1. AA Pioneer 28; 2. DeWitt 94; 3. Jenison 115 (15 teams)
1. Meghan Ford (Mason) 18:31
2. Lydia Bowman (AAP) 18:35
3. Natalie Mello (AAP) 18:46
4. Sylvia Sanok Dufallo (AAP) 19:06
5. Clara Kaczor (Freeland) 19:06
Girls Small—1. Whitmore Lake 30; 2. Ithaca 85; 3. Breckenridge 115 (15 teams)
1. Kaylie Livingston (WL) 18:14
2. Carina Burchi (WL) 19:32

Leanna Wolf Geers Invitational (9/7):
Boys—1. Reed City 41; 2. Hart 42; 3. Ludington 52 (6 teams)
1. Bobby Jazwinski (H) 15:51
2. Anthony Kiaunis (RC) 16:40
Girls—1. Ludington 29; 2. Hart 38; 3. Mason County Central 90 (5 teams)
1. Alyson Enns (H) 18:57
2. Summer Browyer (L) 19:10

OK White At Riverside (9/7):
Boys—1. GR Christian 41; 2. East Grand Rapids 68; 3. Byron Center 76 (8 teams)
1. Alex Thole (EGR) 15:52
2. Simon Triezenberg (GRC) 15:55
3. Sawyer McCarthy (FH Central) 16:20
Girls—1. GR Christian 29; 2. FH Central 55; 3. East Grand Rapids 61 (8 teams)
1. Natalie VanOtteren (GRC) 18:01
2. Clara James-Heer (FHC) 18:14
3. Drew Muller (EGR) 18:35
4. Sadey Seyferth (EGR) 18:49

Bredeweg Invite (9/9):
Boys—1. Grand Haven 53; 2. Zeeland W113; 3. Forest Hills Central 137 (19 teams)
1. Seth Norder (GH) 15:52
2. Luke Glasgow (Spring Lk) 16:20
3. Abatu Dykstra (Hamilton) 16:25
4. Will Engbers (Holland Christian) 16:32
Girls—1. Grand Haven 50; 2. Holland W Ottawa 64; 3. FH Central 02 (16 teams)
1. Valerie Beeck (GH) 19:01
2. Emma Drnek (Zeeland E) 19:04
3. Addie Birkholz (HWO) 19:12
4. Izzy Fazio (Forest Hills N) 19:34

Northwood Invite (9/9):
Boys—1. Canton 50; 2. Petoskey 133; 3. TC West 144 (17 teams)
1. Gabe Litzner (Sault) 16:00
2. Aiden Pengelly (C) 16:02
3. Mitchell Clark (C) 16:03
Girls—1. Goodrich 50; 2. TC West 68; 3. Frankenmuth 82 (15 teams)
1. Victoria Garces (Midland Dow) 18:30
2. Katie Watkins (Midland Dow) 18:34
3. Mary Richmond (F) 18:51

Muskrat Classic (9/9):
Boys 1—1. Macomb Dakota 43; 2. Lake Orion 60; 3. GP South 137 (18 teams)
1. Taye Levenson (Bloomfield Hills) 15:44
2. Dylan Penberthy (MD) 16:20
3. Carter Fox (MD) 16:20
Boys 2-3-4—1. Yale 43; 2. St Clair 46; 3. Macomb Lutheran N 110 (15 teams)
1. Tyler Lenn (MC Mooney) 16:28
2. Brewer Snay (MLN) 16:35
Girls 1—1. Macomb Dakota 72; 2. RH Stoney Crk 83; 3. Lk Orion 86 (15 teams)
1. Jayden Harberts (MD) 18:27
2. Hannah DeRoeck (LO) 19:12
3. Mariah Belmont (MD) 19:26
Girls 2-3-4—1. Warren Regina 36; 2. Croswell-Lex 43; 3. St Clair 76 (12 teams)
1. Eva Thompson (CL) 19:25

Averill Invitational (9/9):
Boys Gold—1. Brighton 31; 2. Romeo 88; 3. Milford 113 (12 teams)
1. Kyle O’Rourke (M) 16:01
2. Vincent Guaresimo (R) 16:13
3. Tyler Langley (B) 16:33
4. Connor Clor (R) 16:45
Girls Gold—1. Romeo 29; 2. Brighton 35; 3. Rochester Adams 97 (7 teams)
1. Natalia Guaresimo (R) 19:28
2. Emmerson Clor (R) 19:28
3. Carrigan Eberly (B) 19:38
4. Violet Hrabovsky (R) 19:40

Bear Country Invitational (9/9)
Boys—1. TC St Francis 32; 2. LeRoy Pine River 105 (10 teams)
1. Leo Swager (TCSF) 15:55
2. Abe VanDuinen (Pentwater) 15:59
Girls—1. TCSF 24; 2. Buckley 83 (9 teams)
1. Aiden Harrand (B) 18:04
2. Betsy Skendziel (TCSF) 19:01

Clements Bath Invitational (9/9):
Boys 1—1. Northville 28; 2. Saline 84; 3. Byron Center 124 (11 teams)
1. Brendan Herger (N) 15:35
2. Luke Suliman (AA Skyline) 15:39
3. Ethan Powell (N) 15:43
Boys 2—1. Adrian 46; 2. Marshall 50; 3. Capital Homeschool 52 (11 teams)
1. Jack Bidwell (M) 15:48
2. Braylon Petty (A) 15:51
3. Logan Zahn (CH) 16:09
Boys 3—1. Hanover Horton 29; 2. Bath 46 (6 teams)
1. Landen Boulis (HH) 16:42
Girls 1—1. Northville 56; 2. Saline 59; 3. St Johns 73 (10 teams)
1. Ava Schafer (SJ) 18:34
2. Cassie Garcia (N) 18:36
3. Ella Christensen (N) 18:57
4. Laney Alig (S) 19:09
Girls 2—1. Owosso 43; 2. Linden 67; 3. Adrian (11 teams)
1. Sophy Skeels (A) 19:19
2. Camille DeCola (M) 19:21
Girls 3—1. Hanover Horton 23; 2. Fowler 82 (8 teams)
1. Olivia Perrine (HH) 20:13

Charlevoix Mud Run (9/9):
Boys L—1. Charlevoix 33; 2. Kalkaska 52 (7 teams)
1. Gavin Guggemos (K) 17:35
Boys S—1. Harbor Springs 19 (3 teams)
1. Adam Ferguson (HS) 18:07
Girls L—1. WL Lakeland 31; 2. Elk Rapids 47 (8 teams)
1. Katie Berkshire (Gaylord) 18:46
2. Ava Alicandro (WLL) 19:24
Girls S—1. Harbor Springs 17 (4 teams)
1. Talya Schreiber (Pickford) 19:23

Hill & Bale Invite (9/9):
Boys Red—1. Allendale 35; 2. Fremont 66 (5 teams)
1. Sean Pettis (F) 16:36
2. Ronnie Silveira (A) 16:44
Boys White—1. Muskegon WMC 43; 2. Wyoming Potter’s House 46 (5 teams)
1. Jackson Rodriguez (WPH) 17:44
Girls Red—1. Fruitport 50; 2. Grandville 70 (7 teams)
1. Chloe DeRidder (G) 20:11
Girls White—1. Muskegon WMC 20; 2. WPH 59 (4 teams)
1. Grace VanderKooi (MWMC) 20:01

Lakeview Invitational (9/9):
Boys D1—1. Portage C 50; 2. BC Lakeview 89; 3. Harper Creek 119 (10 teams)
Boys D2—1. Jackson LC 40; 2. Three Rivers 58; 3. Hastings 58 (9 teams)
1. Aiden Moore (BCL) 15:23
2. Dominic Lowrie (HC) 15:58
3. Isaac Dinverno (JLC) 16:06
4. Logan Begeman (PC) 16:09
Girls D1—1. Portage C 53; 2. St Joseph 84; 3. Hudsonville 96 (10 teams)
Girls D2—1. Jackson LC 19; 2. Three Rivers 57; 3. Quincy 84 (9 teams)
1. Madison Osterberg (JLC) 17:43
2. Gail Vaikutis (SJ) 18:01
3. Samantha Schroeder (JLC) 19:34

Rambling Rock Invitational (9/9):
Boys—1. Oxford 64; 2. Livonia Churchill 82; 3. WL Lakeland 86 (30 teams)
1. Pierce Grzymkowski (WLL) 15:59
2. Alexander McArthur (O) 15:59
3. Logan Ruffner (Riverview) 16:01
4. Colin Murray (Dearborn DC) 16:03
5. Malcolm Speigle (LC) 16:09
Girls—1. Oxford 76; 2. Livonia Franklin 136; 3. Dearborn DC 143 (26 teams)
1. Morgan Brown (LC) 18:32
2. Mallory Bigelow (O) 18:49
3. Layla Krayem (Livonia Stevenson) 18:58
4. Eliza Bush (Ypsi Arbor Prep) 18:58
5. Braydee Elling (O) 19:09

Brighton - Canton - Northville Tri (9/12 Cass)
Boys (not sure how it was officially scored): 1. Northville 36; 2. Brighton 39; 3. Canton 45.
1. Ethan Powell (N) 15:44
2. Brendan Herger (N) 15:54
3. Mitchell Clark (C) 16:00
4. Luke Campbell (B) 16:03
Girls—1. Brighton 26; 2. Northville 33
1. Cassie Garcia (N) 18:52
2. Ella Christensen (N) 18:59
3. Carrigan Eberly (B) 19:38
4. Lydia LaMarra (B) 19:38

Michtrack Interview: Lakeview’s Aiden Moore

Aiden Moore opened some eyes last weekend with his 15:23 win at his school’s invitational. That PR was more than 30 seconds faster than the Battle Creek Lakeview senior ran in the same meet last year. Perhaps, though, it’s not a huge surprise. Moore has made steady gains in the sport since he started, from his 9^th grade year when he went a fraction under 17:00, to his 127^th-place finish at MIS as a soph. Then last year he improved more than a hundred places, finishing 21^st. On the track, he hit 4:45.15/10:20.6 as a frosh and 4:27.18/9:46.01 as a soph. Last year he made a big improvement to 4:17.91 in the 1600, with a 9:36.63 in the 3200. His work for the Spartans isn’t just in the races—he’s perhaps one of the best students in the state when it comes to publicizing his own team and its events on social media.

Michtrack: The race last weekend--were you expecting something that fast?

Moore: Actually no. I'll tell you what my plan was going into the race. Probably one of my best competitors that lives close is Logan Beckman of Portage Central. We've battled out since middle school and it's just this fun competition between us. So my goal was to go out for the first mile at 5:05 and then I wanted to be going by the second mile at 10:10, and then just to race the last 1.1. I was really wanting to focus on consistency throughout the race because my first three races, I have gone out like sub-5:00 and then I've dropped to 5:20s the last two miles, which kind of angered me a little bit. I'm just wanting to be more consistent.

So I was trying to go 5:05 for the first two and then just race the last mile. When I stepped up to the line two minutes before the race started, I had a feeling that that wasn't going to happen. And so, we go off at the gun and we hit mile one at 4:55, I want to say. Then I say to myself, “Okay, well now I have to do the second mile in sub-5:00” because [consistency] was my goal and I was determined. I crossed the 2M at 9:50-something. So 5-flat or 4:59. I don't remember what my last mile was, it adds up to 15:22. My goal time was 15:45. I was telling myself all week, “Okay, I need to get back into the 15s. I need to break 16 again.” And obviously I did by a drastic amount. I wasn't really expecting to run 15:22, but that's what needed to happen that day.

Michtrack: All your times have been an improvement this year, but that one just jumped out. Is it proof that you had a great summer of training?

Moore: I think so. I'm at the highest mileage I've ever gone in my life. This summer we were experimenting with doubles, running in the morning and then in the afternoon, doing like double thresholds. Last year I did super long runs like 14 or 15 miles in one go. My dad and my coach have talked and this year I'm doing doubles on the weekends. Instead of doing 14 or 15, I'm doing like 6 or 7 in the morning and 7 or 8 at night. Splitting it up because that's really how I'm going to get my mileage. I'm probably close to 66M a week this year. Also just putting in the work in the brutal track workouts this summer. Running sometimes by myself was pretty hard, but I have a teammate, Jonah [Bills]. We're pretty close in workouts, our times overlap, so we'll do workouts together sometimes. It’s really good to have a workout partner, but usually it would be my dad on his bike trying to pace me. And then we were looking at some Jakob Ingebrigtsen workouts, a hill workout where he does a mile tempo in the middle of hill repeats. Like let's say he has 20 hills, so you do 10 hills, a mile tempo and then finish with 10 more hills. That was pretty hard. But I have a distinct goal, so I really had to put in those summer miles and I think it's really paying off a lot.

Michtrack: I'm sure the goal is MIS and beyond. You were 21^st last year. Do you think you’re in position to improve on that?

Moore: I think I have a really good chance to get top 10, maybe even top 5. MI XC Speed Ratings I think ranked me 13th or 12th in the state. My big goal is to just prove some people wrong and really go out and show what I'm capable of this year.

Michtrack: Have you picked out a college yet?

Moore: That's kind of funny because I feel like I'm like so late in this journey, everyone's telling me. My first visit is going to be this weekend at EMU. I've been talking with EMU, Michigan, Michigan State, and Grand Valley. Those are my main four, and I'm visiting all those in the next month or two. I’ve also been chatting with Central and a college in Chicago. This whole college process is so crazy to me and I'm trying to get as much help as I can from my sister because she went through the same thing with college apps and picking out a college. But no, I'm not committed yet.

RIP Peter Matthews: I lost a friend this week, and while he had nothing to do with Michigan track he had everything to do with shaping what I know about this sport. Peter Matthews reached out to me before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and offered me the chance of a lifetime, to be part of the official information team for track & field athletics, working in the Olympic Stadium. It was an exhilarating experience, working with a team of experts from all over the world, many of whom have remained close friends to this day. The next year, for the World Championships in Athens, Peter had a conflict with his British TV duties, and he recommended me as his replacement in charge of the team. It was a massive compliment, and it led to another amazing experience in the sport.

Peter was everything in this sport we love, from TV commentator to writer to statistician. And for that last bit, we all owe him. Nowadays we take for granted the ease with which we find track stats and lists and historical information all over the Internet. It didn’t pop up magically—so much of that material comes from the tireless work Peter did compiling the massive ATFS (Association of Track & Field Statisticians) Annual book. For nearly 40 years straight he has been the preeminent stat guy in the sport. He will be missed.

Little Things At The End

Correction: In celebrating Jeremy Wilk’s new coaching position at Miami, I mistakenly noted it was the school in Ohio, when actually it was the Florida version.

Cedar Springs: Justin Balczak has been named head boys track coach in the RedHawks combined program. He will be co-head coach officially, along with women’s head Justin Jones.

Kyra Jefferson: Alum of Cass Tech where she won 5 state titles, and an NCAA champion for Florida is moving west, as she has been hired as an assistant at Sacramento State.

NIL $$ For High Schoolers? A response from one of our readers, Ken Kimes: “Since it has already started, I think athletes should be able to make some money for their efforts. I do know of a few athletes who just started college and are making above and beyond the cost of their college education. Kellen is included in this and it is a nice incentive for the kids who work hard in athletics as well as the classroom to be able to pocket a little money along the way to cover gas money, plane tickets etc. I know a few years ago when my daughter was in college this was not possible so at least it is moving in the right direction.”

No love for college XC? You’ve seen plenty on the high schoolers and plenty on the post-collegians. But some of you might be wondering why you’re not seeing much coverage of the college scene in these newsletters. That’s because, unlike the high schoolers and the vast majority of post-collegians, the colleges actually have people paid to share their news and promote them. If you go to the school’s XC or track website, you’ll find all you ever wanted. So I’ll do some college coverage when it’s very important: conference/regional/nationals. But until then I’ll focus my limited time on the areas that need more attention.

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