Inside This Issue

• Michigan’s All-Americans At New Balance

• Michigan’s All-Americans At Nike

• Which Nationals Won?

• The Game Michigan Is Losing

• Need To Watch Some Videos?

• Other Things

Michigan’s HS All-Americans at New Balance

For a complete compilation of all Michiganders at New Balance, click here. Please let us know if we missed anyone!

• Boys 800: 2. Brendan Herger 1:48.08 (53.96/54.12) No. 3 IN HISTORY

• Boys 2 Mile: 6. Paul Moore 8:57.08.

• Boys High Jump: 4. Andrew Harding 6-8.25

• Boys Long Jump: 1. Quincy Isaac 24-2.25 (-0.2) (24-2.25 [-0.2], 22-7 [0.0], 23-11.5 [0.0], 23-10.25 [0.0], f, 22-10.75 [-0.5])

• Boys 4 × 800: 2. Six Mile (Northville) 7:37.01 No. 4 PERFORMANCE EVER (Rece Grezak 1:57.70, Ben Hartigan 1:55.68, Ethan Powell 1:55.20, Brendan Herger 1:48.43)

• Boys 1600 Sprint Medley: 4. K-Zoom (Kalamazoo Central) 3:25.75 No. 5 SCHOOL IN HISTORY (Jeremy Dixon, Latay'vion Braxton, Demarcus Owens, Jasper Cane 1:52.05)

• Boys Shuttle Hurdles: 1. Ann Arbor Youth (Belleville) 57.81 STATE RECORD (Elijah Dotson, Timothy Pinard, Will Jaiden Smith, Schmar Gamble)

• Girls Mile: 3. Rachel Forsyth 4:40.68 No. 4 PERFORMANCE IN HISTORY (4:22.98 @ 1500 - No. 6 PERFORMANCE)

• Girls 2 Mile: 6. Selma Anderson 10:18.56 No. 13 in history.

• Girls 100H: 6. Maya Rollins 13.80 (-1.5) STATE LEADER

• Girls 400H: 2. Morgan Roundtree 60.19 No. 9 PERFORMANCE IN HISTORY

• Girls Pole Vault: 3. Brooke Bowers 12-7.5

• Girls Shot: 4. Abigail Russell 47-1.75 (42-6, 46-9, 47-1.75, f, f, 44-10.25); 5. Addyson Stiverson 46-9.5 (42-4, 45-1.5, 43-5.75, 46-4.75, 46-9.5, 44-11.75)

• Girls Discus: 1. Abigail Russell 166-11 STATE RECORD (163-1, f, f, f, 166-11, 161-10)

• Girls 4 × 400: 5. Motor City (OP) 3:45.24 No. 7 PERFORMANCE IN HISTORY (Dayshana Kellogg, Morgan Roundtree, Nevaeh Burns 55.89, Kylee King 56.06)

• Girls 4 × 800: 5. Shore TC (West Ottawa) 8:59.35 (Emma Gunnett 2:17.99, Ella Wierks 2:11.98, Collette Wierks 2:14.32, Helen Sachs 2:15.06)

• Girls 4 x Mile: 1. Purple TC (Pioneer) 20:03.82 STATE OUTDOOR RECORD (Sylvia Sanok Dufallo 5:04.13, Lydia Bowman 5:09.47, Natalie Mello 5:08.30, Rachel Forsyth 4:41.92)

• Girls Sprint Medley: 1. Motor City (Oak Park) 3:54.95 STATE RECORD (Carrie VanNoy, Morgan Roundtree, Nevaeh Burns, Kylee King 2:09.64)

• Girls Distance Medley: 5. Shore TC (West Ottawa) 11:37.19 STATE RECORD (Ella Wierks 3:35.44, Emma Gunnett 58.59, Collette Wierks 2:11.89, Helen Sachs 4:51.27)

• Girls Shuttle Hurdles: 4. Motor City (OP) 60.46 (Morgan Roundtree, Carrie VanNoy, Jayda Watson, Mekhi Thompson)

Michigan’s HS All-Americans at Nike

For a complete compilation of all Michiganders at Nike, click here. Please let us know if we missed anyone!

• Boys Mile: 1. Seth Norder 4:02.20 (3:45.91/4:00.73)

• Boys 110H: 2. Zacchaeus Brocks 13.79 (-0.5)

• Boys HJ: 6. Bradley Richards 6-7

• Girls 4 × 200: 2. Power TC (Romulus Summit North) 1:40.84 (L. Hall 26.06, Y. Priester 25.37, H. Copeland 24.84, A. Simmons 24.57)

• Girls 4 x Mile: 3. Pace Pushers (DeWitt) 21:36.69 (A. Holben 5:13.57, K. Williams 5:23.55, A. Thompson 5:36.30, M. Williams 5:23.27)

Which Nationals Won?

Sometimes, teams and individuals choose which national meet to go to based on vacation plans—maybe the family wants to see the Pacific Coast afterwards, so Nike is an obvious choice. Or perhaps it’s about which is the easiest meet for making All-America. However, sometimes it boils down to where they can find the best competition.

In the battle of the shoe companies, it appears that New Balance was the clear winner this year. Overall, out of the 52 events the two meets had in common, the better winning marks went to New Balance by a score of 32-20. In considering depth, we looked at the quality of the 6th-place performance, the cut-off for All-American status. New Balance was even more dominant, 40-11. In fact, there were 11 events where the 6th-place at New Balance was better than the winning performance at Nike.

That’s certainly not to say that Nike was a bad meet. The field events rocked, and the 5000s were better as well. In the relay department, New Balance ruled, with better winning and 6th-place times in every relay.

Not included in our tabulations is the Adidas Nationals, which is basically a strong regional meet that is not in the same league. As far as I know, only one Michigander competed, Laila Hawkins of Cass Tech winning the “national elite” hurdles in 14.48.

The Game Michigan is Losing

If you’ve looked at the complete listings (link above), you’ll see that Michigan clubs and athletes overwhelmingly chose to go to Philly. That hurts us in one respect. The Nike Elite Program is organized by the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation and USATF, with financial support from the Oregon-based shoe giant. This is the second year that a team of 40 elite high school underclassmen have been named since the program was revived last year after a pandemic break.

Here’s how the press release describes the program: “Each athlete will work with a Nike mentor for holistic support and guidance and have touchpoints with Nike’s professional athletes to learn and hear from the world’s best. Nike will also equip the program’s athletes with the brand’s leading footwear and apparel innovations for training and competition. Additionally, athletes will receive support to compete in key events throughout the year, including Nike Indoor Nationals, Nike Outdoor Nationals, NSAF ‘select’ events such as the Millrose Games, Oregon Relays, Arcadia and Mt. SAC Invitationals, and USATF U20 Championships.”

All in all, an extremely sweet deal, worth a lot of bucks. And for the second straight year, no Michiganders were named to the program. In fact, not since Carter Solomon in 2019 has a Michigander made it (and the program has gotten much more lucrative since its revival).

We can speculate that to be considered, perhaps Michiganders have to compete religiously at Nike/NSAF events. It’s not an easy call, once one starts juggling the competitiveness of the meets as well as the high costs associated with traveling to Eugene. And there are no guarantees one of our athletes would be picked.

Need To Watch Some Videos?

Here are a few that emerged last week:

• Janae Coleman interview

• Seth Norder interview

• Brendan Herger interview

• Quincy Isaac interview

• Motor City girls sprint medley interview

• Purple TC girls 4 x mile interview

• Morgan Roundtree interview

• Rachel Forsyth interview

• AA Youth shuttle hurdles interview

• Profile on Aasia Laurencin

Other Things

• Add Mackenzie Buekes to our list of Olympic Trials qualifiers. The former Mackenzie Shell from Port Huron Northern made it into the pole vault with her 14-6 during the qualifying period.

• Pioneer/UM grad Nick Foster also was added to the Trials, making it in the 1500 off of his 3:54.48 indoor mile.

• Michigan’s Track & Field Olympians: Here’s the complete list.

• Sam Tran, the Forest Hills Northern alum who has starred at Michigan, has signed with Washington to pursue her grad degree and finish out her NCAA eligibility.

• Updated Elite Lists - Including summer marks - Girls - Boys

• Summer Track season is upon us, and we’ll keep a close eye on the action, as some very significant marks happen between now and the end of summer. One such mark? How about the 54.62 (!!!) state leader in the 400 run last weekend in Saginaw by 7th grader Cayla Hawkins?

• Rachel Forsyth will be competing in the Canadian U20 Championships in Montreal next weekend for a shot to make the national team for the World U20 Championships in Peru. She is entered in the 800, 1500 and 3000, but will likely only race the 800/1500. Meet schedule. It should be broadcast at AthleticsCanada.tv.

• Olympic Trials results: In case you don’t have it bookmarked yet, they’re here.

• No newsletter planned for next week, as I will be buried in writing about the U.S. Olympic Trials in addition to making my first-ever trek to Jamaica to cover their Olympic Trials.