Inside This Issue

• Big News 1: MITS & MITCA

• Actual Track News

• Big News (well, rumor) 2: State Finals Qualifying

• Was Sterling Heights Wronged?

• College Signings

• Scam PSA

• How Does East Kentwood Do It?

• Straight From The Heart

MITS + MITCA = ?

If you’re active at all on the indoor circuit, you probably saw the news. MITS (the Michigan Indoor Track Series) has announced an alliance with MITCA (Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association).

The statement from MITS: “For the past 25 years the Michigan Indoor Track Series (MITS) has been run by just a few volunteers. It has been our goal to push out information, compile results, answer questions and simply communicate with and help people who want to participate in the series. Our ultimate task was to host a state meet, and we did that for many years successfully. It was a lot of work. Recently, for a number of reasons, we have lost a lot of the control and say over how the state meet is run, the cost, and other important things. It has been suggested that we create a panel of people so that these decisions are being made by many people, and not by just a few. We agree that this is a good idea and we have asked to partner with MITCA (Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association) and they have agreed! We are very excited and feel that partnering with MITCA will allow the series to maintain its integrity and allow more people to have a say in what goes on with the series. We look forward to working closely with MITCA to provide the State of Michigan with a fun, safe, meaningful and affordable experience!”

The announcement from MITCA, in part: “MITCA will serve as the host of the 2025 Indoor Track & Field State Finals! MITCA was once the host of this event before MITS and we are excited to provide another high-quality experience like that of the fall Michigan Meet of Champions and spring Champion of Champions events. We plan on utilizing our strong social media presence and excellent relationships with vendors and coaches throughout the state to ensure that the indoor state finals event is cost-effective for both athlete and spectator, while still being able to reinvest into the event on levels that have never been seen in the past.”

A little history: MITCA organized the state indoor from 1978-2000, primarily through the efforts of Charlie Janke and a committee of coaches he assembled. During that 2000 season, on the prodding of Nate Hampton, then the MHSAA’s point guy on XC/TF, MITCA cut its ties with the circuit. The rationale that was explained to me at the time was that it was important to distance the coaches association from the “rampant” rule-breaking on the circuit. The rule most-often mentioned was the one that says that school coaches can’t work with more than 4 of their athletes at a time. That’s a simplified explanation of the MHSAA’s one-size-fits-all-sports rules on out-of-season coaching, but the rule is still widely broken by (in my humble opinion) many of the state’s programs. Now, that doesn’t mean that all these coaches are bad people. I come down on the side of perhaps it isn’t a very well thought-out rule.

So why does MITCA come back to indoors now, and what does the association bring to the party? There’s been speculation that some of the inspiration came from Cody Inglis, the MHSAA’s current point guy, in his comments at the fall XC clinic. I wasn’t there, and I’ve heard two vastly different interpretations of what he had to say about the indoor track circuit. Both versions, however, mentioned that the indoor circuit needs to be “reined in.”

I’m honestly not sure how much reining-in MITCA can do, since it’s not an enforcement agency. Plus, it’s possible a good number of the track clubs involved have no MITCA membership connection. In any case, what MITCA’s actually promising to bring are social media chops and good relationships with vendors/coaches. And note that in both organizations’ statements, we see that the cost of the state finals is prominently mentioned.

That brings up the biggest challenge for the indoor circuit in Michigan, no matter who organizes the state finals. The sport is much, much bigger than it was when Charlie Janke directed the circuit in the 1990s. Back in the day, colleges made their tracks available because it was good for the sport, crowds were small and meets were short. Nowadays the managers of every facility—especially the three with 300m tracks— have realized that there is significant money to be made for their programs by hosting indoor meets (along with significant headaches hosting huge crowds).

(How small was the MITCA State Indoor Meet back in the day? Take a look at the meet program from 1983! Click here.)

Somehow MITS/MITCA aims to bring about a lower-cost state finals despite the fact that they don’t have control of a facility. Will the meet go to the lowest bidder? I know from zillions of conversations with various MITS directors over decades that settling on a state meet venue is extremely hard. Not only do they have to work around college schedules, but they have to worry about parking/bathrooms/food and myriad other concerns. Then there’s the basic fact that no indoor facility in the state will please everybody. (University of Michigan’s track might come closest, but at nearly $20,000 a day in rental costs, that’s not happening anytime soon!)

I wish everyone working on the future of the indoor circuit the best of luck—they’ll need it. The truth is, all of us fans of Michigan high school track need it.

The Latest On The Track

For full results, click on meet titles.

LAB Holiday Invite (12/29): Jayla Graham wins in 7.79. Kamryn Tatum ran only the heats (7.88) but came back to win the 200 (25.03). 7th grader Cayla Hawkins impressed at 25.30 and 56.39. Whitmore Lake’s Kaylee Livingston ran solo to clockings of 5:06.61 and 10:57.20. The hurdles went fast, with teammates Carrie VanNoy and Morgan Roundtree both hitting 8.82, VanNoy getting the nod. Roundtree took the 300 hurdles in 44.86, with Lindsay Johnson at 45.10. Frosh Addyson Stiverson won the shot at 40-11. Aliyah Springer took the disc at 125-2. Allyson Shelton vaulted 11-6. Lena Cleveland opened up with an 18-5 long jump.

Shamar Heard doubles in 21.72 & 49.11. Evan Watson hits 6.92 in the 60. The Michigan Mustangs relay 1:31.03 & 3:27.55. Adam Huff of Wayland Union hurls the discus 157-2. Clark Sheldon clears 14-1 in the vault. Brayden Jones takes the triple jump lead at 40-5.25.

Grand Valley MITS #3 (1/6): Jessica Jazwinski went 4:55.73 in the 1600. Grace Constable won the 60 in 7.92. In the 4×8, we don’t know personnel, but Up North TC (9:22.71) topped SHORE TC (9:34.72) Addyson Stiverson threw 41-9.25. Mason Mayne hit a big one in the shot, going 59-8.25 for the state lead. Jake Machiniak sprinted 6.92. Malachi Mosley hit 50.91 in the 400. Owen Hager hurdled 8.19. Carter Bissell long jumped 22-1. Brennan Faber threw the weight 59-5.

Saginaw Valley MITS #2 (1/6): Soph Kamryn Tatum blew away the state 60 lead with her 7.61; she did the same at 200 in 24.85. Kylee King dominated in the 800, running 2:15.59 to Anyla Robinson’s 2:18.61. Morgan Roundtree hurdled a state lead 8.76, ahead of the 8.90s for Carrie VanNoy and Lindsay Johnson (PR). Track Life used an all-Renaissance foursome to relay 3:56.88. Motor City won the medley in 4:03.57. Milena Chevallier high jumped a state lead 5-7.

Evan Watson improved his state 60 lead to 6.82. Then he and Shamar Heard tangled over 200, Heard winning 21.64-21.72. Drew Graves won a solid 800 in 1:57.53. Sophomore Thomas Larson of Alma won the 1600 in 4:28.69. Zacchaeus Brocks won a close hurdles in 8.24. Motor City relayed 3:25.74, while the Mustangs took the sprint medley in 3:35.35

Snowflake Vault (1/13): Bad weather didn’t cancel the action at the Vault Barn. Brooke Bowers leaped 13-0, the same as men’s winner Trevor Boyer. Sister Aubree Bowers took 2nd at 11-6. On the boy side, Adam Cahoon and Colin Ellis also jumped 13-0.

Hillsdale Charger Winter Open (1/13): Nyla Reed won the long jump at 16-11.5. Drew Novak sprinted 6.97 & 23.39. Behind Brennan Faber’s weight win at 59-0.75, Magnus Heckel scored a big breakthrough at 58-10.75.

Akinosun Invitational (1/14): Some of the 16Ways athletes traveled to the fast 200 banked track at Chicago’s Worrill Center. Most notably, Shamar Heard blistered the oval in 21.56 to become =5 in state history on a legal track with teammate Noah Morris 4th in 22.26. Then Heard won the 400 in 48.96. Video of Heard’s big 200.

By the way—if you know any Michiganders racing out of state indoor meets, please let me know. I don’t want to miss anyone. [email protected]

MHSAA Bombshell Coming?

There are rumblings that one of the top things on a lot of coaches’ wish lists—season-long time/mark qualifying for the state finals—may be coming sooner rather than later. If so, it could dramatically change how the spring season plays out.

If this is true, it means that MHSAA has sat down with a panel of coaches to work out the fine points. And I trust that everyone involved would have put a lot of effort into a solid plan, but honestly, the devil is in the details! Coming with a plan that doesn’t create other problems is going to be tough.

Just a few questions that come to mind: How to we ensure that the sprint/hurdle lanes at the finals are not filled by people who ran times with huge wind assistance in April and are not among the best at the end of May? Is there any way to make sure that early qualifiers are still healthy at the finals? Will all meets be able to generate qualifiers, or only certain larger meets? (Sad fact here, we hope that dual meets are a no, because as much as we want to think all coaches are ethical, we can see wisdom in preventing two coaches from colluding to fudge qualifiers. It’s frighteningly easy to pass off bad hand times as FAT times—we’ve seen a major conference do it for its championships.)

We will certainly have more questions as time passes, but here’s the biggest: will this mean more participants at the state finals, a meet that is already at the bursting point? If not, will there still be “regional” meets, and how will qualifying from them work?

Paging The 1999 Sterling Heights Coach!

It’s hard for kids to imagine, as well as many of our current coaches, but there was a time when track meets weren’t computerized. As late as the 1999 state finals, much of the sorting was done by hand. And yes, mistakes were made.

At the Class A Finals that year, there were three sections of the boys 4 × 400, just as there usually is nowadays. The top 8 times made All-State and got up on the podium. However, the tabulation of those times was done by hand, not computer. Would seem to be a simple task, but the scribe (whose name is luckily lost to history and was probably exhausted and just hoping to get out of there and get some food and beverage) messed up.

Somehow they noted East Kentwood’s 3:26.84 in the final section as 8th-place, passing over two times from section 2: Sterling Heights’ 3:26.36 as well as Pioneer’s 3:26.45. (Again, in their defense, the final section was an exciting race, easy to get swept up in as Brandon Jiles anchored Mumford to a massive 4.54-second win over Pontiac Central.) East Kentwood, I believe, got the medals that should have gone to Sterling Heights, and their result is still in the official MHSAA results 25 years later, even though they finished 10th.

You might be wondering why the other coaches didn’t catch the mistake (assuming they didn’t). Easy. Results beyond 8th-place simply were never released or published back then. In some cases we have them now, because of our work on the Michtrack Results Archive. If any old timers at the schools involved can shed light on this particular case, I’m all ears!

College Signings

Any others we haven’t yet published? Email [email protected].

• Annalise Elliott (Cedar Springs) - Wayne State

• Danny Ewing (Kalamazoo Norrix) - Kalamazoo College

• Kylee King (Oak Park) - Hampton University

• Allison Mayer (Ann Arbor Skyline) - Kalamazoo College

• Lucas Shemansky (Fraser) - Macomb

• Danica Shamion (West Iron County) - Central Michigan

Scam PSA

Maybe not full-fledged scam, but a “scam” nonetheless. Ever see one of these messages on social media? “Receiving this invite to run for the USA team in Australia is a great honor and a once in a lifetime opportunity so I would like to help X get the funs she needs in order to fund this trip….”

I’ve been seeing these for decades, and people are still making money off the kids and their families who are foolish enough to think that a private company sending them on an expensive trip Down Under has anything to do with representing the United States.

In the sport of track & field and cross country, all official “Team USA” events are organized by USATF. All expenses are paid (well, not for trail running and masters, but those people are adults and can usually afford it). You’re never going to see a “help me raise funds” plea for anyone to go to an actual Team USA event.

The Down Under trips are simply a private business trying to make a profit by convincing kids that it’s a real honor to “represent” the U.S. at a few meaningless all-comer meets in another country, and that college coaches will care (they truly don’t). And then they suggest that the cash-strapped families raise donations to afford the cost because it’s “a great honor and a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Rubbish. It’s an overpriced vacation. If you really have extra money to donate, then feed the hungry or help fund your state’s track & field history efforts :)

The Clinic Session I’d Pay For

We all can suggest a few coaches that do a great job with motivating their high school athletes to continue on to the collegiate level. However, accolades must be paid to Dave Emeott and the entire East Kentwood staff for going a big step beyond. I haven’t crunched numbers, but I’ll wager that no school in Michigan history has done a better job of inspiring its track athletes to go on to the pro level in our sport. Gabi Leon and Trevor Stephenson are simply the latest stars. Names like Brian Hyde and Tia Brooks and others preceded them. Dave, what’s your secret??

Kids, Don’t Do What I Did

When I was a teenage runner (and into my 20s), I was a competitive fiend. Not the fastest guy around, but I LOVED to race. I would race every chance I could. One year I raced something like 70 times—and I was a distance runner! I probably would have been much faster had I trained some of those weeks, but that’s another story.

I told myself that I was healthy. Skinny as heck, could eat like a horse and not gain a pound. I ignored the weird flutters I would get in my heart sometimes (though I was smart enough to stop drinking coffee). All the while I told myself I would live forever, because I was a RUNNER.

Fast forward a bit to a few weeks ago, the day after Christmas, when I checked myself into the ER because one of those flutters wouldn’t go away. Three days of hospitalization followed, and they had to shock my heart back into business because I had been diagnosed with AFib (basically, half of my heart was listening to the beat of another drummer).

I talked with one of the cardiologists. She wasn’t as frank as the one I met a few years ago when I was diagnosed with a blocked artery in an otherwise healthy body (that one said, “You’re exactly the kind of runner who dies in the middle of a race.”). No, the latest cardiologist, on talking over my history of heart flutters that coincided with the most serious years of my running career, merely said, “Oh wow, you were actually really lucky.”

Because, I’ve since learned, any one of those races could have ended very badly. Stroke, heart stoppage, whatever. The lesson: if you have heart flutters or palpitations, get them checked out by the pros. There are lots of ways to live with it; dying with it is never a fun option.

(And don’t worry about me. On the right meds, with the right strategies, I should be fine for a long time. And what a holiday trifecta to brag about! On Thursday, I was on a table getting a cardioversion (the shock thing). On Friday, I announced 6 hours of a track meet at the LAB. On Saturday, I discovered a rare bird while hiking near Jackson—a Townsend’s Solitaire, normally found in the Rockies and western Great Plains—and I found the first one in Jackson County in possibly as long as 79 years.)

Little Things

Updated Michtrack Lists for 2024: Boys - Girls

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