In This Issue

• Fast Miles Plus A Barnburner At UM

• More On MITS/MITCA Indoors

• All The Sub-4:00s In Michigan

• How Michigan Did In The T&FN Rankings

• Meanwhile In Ohio

• College Signings

• Announcers Needed

• Little Things

Sponsored by AARC

Latest Results

Hansen Chasing Fast Miles: Freeland junior TJ Hansen, the D2 XC state champ who started the year with a mile PR of 4:15.46, is going after a fast 4-lapper (or 8 lapper or 5.33 lapper, depending on the track). First he won the mile against collegians and open runners at Grand Valley’s Eubanks Open in 4:07.99, good for a 4.03-second winning margin. He became the No. 7 1600/mile runner in Michigan indoor history, all track sizes. Then this past Saturday he traveled to the CYUP Misfits Meet in Chicago to run on a fast 200 banked track, winning the mile (not 1600) in 4:10.79. On 200 tracks, that makes him No. 9 in history, slotted right behind one Dathan Ritzenhein. At the same meet, Hart’s Jessie Jazwinski took 2nd in the girls race in 4:51.69.

Aquinas MITS (1/20): Hastings’ Charlie Nickels won the high jump at 6-2. Ava Porras took the distance double in 2:24.76/5:24.71. Shore TC continued to refine its relay game, hitting 1:53.35 & 4:25.34.

LAB #5 (1/20): Grayson Albers won a home track 800 in 2:00.97. Pioneer’s Vincent Peterson Sand went 4:22.65. Michael Wilkerson hurdled 7.29. Heaven Copeland dashed 7.89. Emmry Ross opened her season with wins at 59.01 and 2:20.62. Aubrey Wilson jumped 16-10.5.

SVSU #4 (1/20): Maya Rollins made a big statement in her first meet of the year. The Pioneer senior, bound for Virginia, sprinted 7.81 and hurdled 8.60, a state leader that makes her =11 in state history. Her Purple TC teammates, minus Rachel Forsyth, won the 4×8 in 9:55.89. Rayshawn Kanous sprinted 22.75. Jackalopes Evan Loughridge (4:19.24) & Paul Moore (4:20.68) went 1-2 in the 1600. Degeneration X took the 4×8 in 8:14.48.

UM HS Invitational (1/21): In only its second year, the only prep meet on the state’s sole 200-banked track brought in the best gathering yet of out-of-state talent, generating blazing times for the Michiganders who raced against them. Consider the girls 60, where a ton of talent from Canada, Texas and Ohio came to run. Only 2 Michiganders made the 16-person 2-section final. But they flew: Kamryn Tatum 3rd in 7.49 (No. 8 in history) and Keyanna O’Tey 9th in 7.69 PR. Tatum also scored 4th in the 200 in 24.51 (No. 12 all-time). In the 400, Cayla Hawkins stunned with her 55.99 for 2nd—that breaks the state’s 7th grade record of 56.02 set by Dynasty McGee in 2007. Layla Jordan took 2nd in the 800 in a list-leading 2:13.71, with Kylee King 4th at 2:14.60. Whitmore Lake 9th-grader Kaylie Livingston won the 1M/3200 double in 5:03.00/10:40.16. In the hurdles, Morgan Roundtree ran 3rd in 8.74 with Lindsay Johnson 4th in 8.84.

Motor City blistered a 1:40.75 in the 4×2 (=15 ever), then held off an inspired performance by Track Life in one of the best 4×4s ever in state indoor history, Motor City winning 3:50.55-3:50.87 (the Nos. 16 & 17 times ever) Motor City splits—Morgan Roundtree 57.7, Carrie VanNoy 59.4, Neveah Burns 56.4, Kylee King 57.1. Spirit of Pre took the 4×8 in 9:58.51.

Frosh Addyson Stiverson won the shot at 40-11.75. In the vault, the Bowers sisters took 1-2, both at 12-1.5, 9th-grader Aubree creeping ever closer to her sister’s class record of 12-6. Lena Cleveland long jumped to 5th with her 18-1. Abigail Russell, a UM signee, heaved the weight 54-4 to become No. 2 in state history.

The boys performances in Ann Arbor were just as exciting. Cameron Cheetham dashed to 3rd in 6.88, then added a 22.06 ahead of Will Jaiden Smith’s 22.07. Shamar Heard won his 400 section in 48.65 but ended up 2nd overall. Evan Watson covered two laps in 48.85. The 800 saw Brendan Herger dominate in 1:51.78 (No. 4 in history). Logan Mullan took 2nd in the mile in 4:21.95. Ethan Powell ran a state leader at 3200, 9:29.02. Zacchaeus Brocks hurdled 8.02, another state leader. Motor City relayed 1:29.85. In the 4×4, 16 Ways took the win in 3:22.84 (Heard on anchor at 48.3), with Motor City at 3:24.21.

Mason Mayne won the shot at 59-7.75. Tyler Baker won the long jump with a 21-11. Liam Takace was weight runner-up at 58-11.5.

MITS - MITCA Indoor Track Revisited

Our article last week raised questions about what’s going on with the indoor circuit and its future. Mike Jurasek, the longtime force behind MITS for the last 24 years, and Dave Lustig, MITCA’s meet manager, both agreed to the interviews that formed the basis of today’s feature:

For over 50 years, the indoor track circuit in Michigan has played a major role in the development of track & field in our state. Founded by Charlie Janke, who directed the state finals for over a quarter century and remained a volunteer until his death in 2021, the meet has changed names and organizing structures over the years. Now it appears another major change is in the offing.

As reported last week, MITCA, the state’s coaching association, is stepping in over the next year to help MITS with the administration of the indoor state finals.

Both Mike Jurasek, who took over as MITS director in 2000, and Dave Lustig, who manages MITCA’s major competitive events, made it clear that the future is not set in stone; that many conversations still need to happen.

Jurasek provided the background to the change: the MITS organization, always a shoe-string affair, ran into especially hard financial times over the past year. And no one was wild about the thought of going into the red to pay their part of putting on an indoor state finals. “MITCA came in and said they’d be willing to pick that up,” said Jurasek.

Lustig explained, “Our goal is to be able to reinvest in the meet, whether that’s in the form of scholarships, whether it’s in the form of swag for registration like any other large meet has nowadays, those are things we can do and do a really good job at. Our big thing is we don’t have to seek out huge profits from this.”

The other possible piece of MITCA’s involvement, said Jurasek, is the eventual creation of a coaches panel to make decisions surrounding the indoor championships. “They’re the coaches association; they’ve got a group of guys that want to get involved. And anyone in MITCA can step in and give input on what they think the state meet needs to look like.”

“It’s bigger than one person,” said Lustig. “We do need a committee of people that are hands-on with it… Once this current season ends, those things are going to get more involved.”

Any notion that the MHSAA pushed for the change is not true. Nor is the state association looking to make indoor track into a school sport anytime soon, Jurasek says, referring to a conversation he had with MHSAA official Cody Inglis. “Cody was up-front. He goes, ‘Nope, we don’t care who’s in charge of indoor track. It’s not an MHSAA sport.’ They are concerned [about violations to the 4-athlete rule] but they’re not going to go head-hunting and looking for coaches that are working with more than four people.”

The ultimate challenge facing the indoor circuit is that the absence of any strong regulatory body like the MHSAA means that the players with the most influence are inevitably the 8 facilities that currently offer MITS meets, led by the three facilities that have 300m tracks and the biggest crowds. The vast increase in participation numbers over the years means that many of the facilities are viewing the circuit as an opportunity to get some payback on their investment in facilities. How MITS/MITCA will be able to keep those facilities happy and lower entry fees is one of the details that still needs to be worked out.

“Great question,” said Lustig. “Honestly, we’re expecting to have to pay rental fees. And those fees have climbed dramatically over the years. As we go, we’re going to find out which [facilities] are going to be the most workable… That’s where we’ll be leaning on Gene [Lebron] and Mike for some guidance on which schools might be the best to work with.”

The size of the state finals is another item that will probably be looked at. Said Lustig, “The more kids you have at a meet, the more money comes through the door, that increases the profit of the meet. That’s where the committee would come in and make decisions about what needs to be done differently to improve the overall status of the meet.”

Will MITS itself still exist in a few years or will the organization be absorbed by MITCA? “It’s not something that we’re pushing for,” said Lustig, “or a thing that needs to be done immediately… But this allows a transition if MITS were to say, ‘Hey, we’re done tomorrow,’ we could slide in and absorb everything. We’re prepared to do whatever is necessary.”

Jurasek added, “I’m kind of glad to be getting out of it. It’s changed over the years… That disillusioned me a little bit—just how much money everybody wants to make off of this.” Jurasek said that Gene Lebron, who came on the MITS team starting with the 2008 season after the death of girls director Richard Chenault in 2007, is expected to remain part of the organization.

Concluded Lustig, “MITCA is excited to be a part of it and see where it all goes. This is really the infant stages. The learning curve is going to be pretty quick, because we already have great people involved who have created the building blocks of what we need to do.”

Every Sub-4:00 Track Mile Run On Michigan Soil

How Michigan Fared In The T&FN Rankings

A few weeks ago, Track & Field News (my employer) released the 76th edition of its World & U.S. Rankings, covering the 2023 season. After a better part of a century, these rankings are still a big deal in the sport. Most shoe company sponsors attach bonuses if athletes win a coveted spot. They are no popularity contest. One of the reason the rankings draw so much respect is that the are built on a firm set of criteria that have done the job for decades. In a nutshell, there are three factors, in order: honors won, won-loss records, and times/distances (the least important by far). So while a World Record is nice, if you’re not beating the big dogs when it counts, it doesn’t help a whole lot.

I have linked each athlete’s name to their Instagram account. Follow them so you can watch and support their journey to the Olympic Trials!

World Rankers (with their MI HS/MS):
M110 Hurdles - 7. Freddie Crittenden (Utica)
M-Discus - 9. Alex Rose (Ogemaw Heights)
W400H - 6. Anna Cockrell (Country Day MS)

U.S. Rankers
M800 - 6. Hobbs Kessler (AA Skyline)
M1500 - 7. Hobbs Kessler (AA Skyline)
M5000 - 4. Grant Fisher (Grand Blanc)
M5000 - 10. Morgan Beadlescomb (Algonac)
M10,000 - 6. Grant Fisher (Grand Blanc)
M110H - 3. Freddie Crittenden (Utica)
M-Discus - 3. Brian Williams (Fraser)
M-Discus - 8. Andrew Evans (Portage Northern)
M-Decathlon - 6. Heath Baldwin (Kalamazoo Hackett)
M-Decathlon - 8. Samuel Black (Pinckney)
M-Decathlon - 10. Ben Barton (Birmingham Seaholm)
W100H - 8. Grace Stark (White Lake Lakeland)
W400H - 2. Anna Cockrell (Country Day MS)
W-PV - 7. Gabriela Leon (East Kentwood)
W-Discus: 7. Corinne Jemison (East Kentwood)
W-Discus: 10. Malin Smith (Lansing Waverly)

Meanwhile In Ohio…

College Signings

Please let me know if I missed anyone whom I haven’t already published: [email protected]

• Kai Allen (Detroit Cass Tech) - Indiana State

• Carson Cook (Hartland) - Kalamazoo College

• Kelsey Ettel (Armada) - Macomb

• Oliviah Malloy (Big Rapids) - Ferris State

• Paige McArdle (Davison) - Wayne State

• Noah Morris (Clinton Twp Chippewa Valley) - Purdue / Fort Wayne

• Zachary Rubicz (Anchor Bay) - Detroit Mercy

• Andrew Yax (Clio) - Detroit Mercy

WA’s Goofy Short Track Idea

When it comes to separating out oversized marks from 200m track marks indoors, I have always been able to point to World Athletics policy that said that oversized marks (anything bigger than a 220y track) did not count for records.

Last year they started fiddling with that concept, with the idea of “Absolute Records.” That means that an indoor mark better than an outdoor World Record would count as the overall World Record. Really didn’t matter if it was on an oversized track, since outdoor tracks were all bigger anyway. Made sense, but took some getting used to. Still, I followed their lead and called Pioneer/Purple TC’s 11:21.95 distance medley on Saginaw Valley’s 300 track as an absolute state record (as T&FN called it an absolute national record).

However, the latest World Athletics decision is—in a word—bonkers. A “premature” news release came out that was almost immediately withdrawn. According to the release, indoor track and outdoor track will be no more. Some marketing genius looked at the huge financial juggernaut that is speed skating (sarcasm here) and sold WA on the idea that track would appeal to more people if we too use the terms “short track” and “long track.” Seriously.

As we read it, you could set up a 200m track at the county fair in August and a mark there could count as the “Short Track World Record,” just as it would at the Armory in January. I haven’t seen any mention of 300m tracks, but I assume those marks would be “Long Track World Records.”

At this point, it seems that the rest of the world’s statisticians have opted to laugh at the policy change while continuing to do things as they always have. Same, perhaps, for some at World Athletics, who are still calling their next big event the “World Indoor Champs” instead of the “World Short Track Champs.”

Announcers Needed!

Most of you realize that I do a lot of track meet announcing. I got into it at a time when virtually every meet in the state used the sound system for two purposes: reading results and saying “first call, second call.” What I wanted to do was announce for the fans, and make the sport a little more exciting and popular.

Well, here we are, 25 years after I announced my first state finals. I work more meets than ever, and I’m honestly booked solid. I know two others who do a lot of announcing at various sites in the state: George Tilt and Scott Hubbard. Yet the truth is that all of us have to turn down offers regularly because we have previous commitments. And when we’re asked to recommend an announcer, we can’t think of (m)any new names; partly that’s because we’re too busy to go to meets where we might hear new voices!

One idea I have is that Michtrack can train future announcers. And I’d like to test pilot the notion by seeing if there’s anyone out there who is interested in sitting with me at a meet and getting a tutorial on the art? Believe me, there’s a lot involved and a lot to learn. Not sure how the training would work—call it an experiment—but it could end up boosting the number of people we can recommend as good announcers. If interested, contact me at [email protected].

Little Things

Correction: My apologies, but last week’s item where I talked about the relays at MITCA’s Champion of Champions meet totally missed that MITCA is already committed to keeping the relays at that event limited to foursomes from the same school. My bad.

RIP Tom Coyne: A well-known figure on the Kalamazoo scene, Tom passed away ay age 90 on January 14. A vice-president at WMU when I knew him, I will fondly remember him as a huge fan and supporter of track & field and running in general, and a kind-hearted human in a world that needs more like him.

Consider This: More and more of the state’s schools have 300m tracks on the drawing board. How to one-up them? Consider being the first in the state to build this!

Team States: MITCA has announced its hosts for 2024: D1 - Zeeland East - Friday, May 24th; D2 - Berrien Springs - Friday, May 24th; D3 - Clare - Saturday, May 25th; D4 - Mt. Pleasant - Saturday, May 25th.

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