Welcome to 2025 and a new year of all things cross country and track and field! Winter is upon us and if you aren’t participating in another sport, perhaps you are honing your track and field skills indoors. The Michigan Indoor Track and Field Series (MITS) kicked off at Grand Valley State University with two meets on Dec. 7 and the weekend of Dec. 13/14. There was another west-side competition at Aquinas and an east-side meet at the Lincoln Athletic Building (known as the LAB facility) on the 14th. There were two more meets at the LAB before Christmas, a pole vault event at the Vault Barn, and since the new year GVSU hosted again, there have been two more meets at the LAB, and this past Saturday, Jan. 11, the first Saginaw Valley University MITS meet took place, along with a meet at Hillsdale College. I’ll aggregate results from the high school indoor meets thus far into one report and summarize the results from the last month or so.
Reporting on an indoor track meet is quite tricky from a logistical standpoint: there are no school names allowed to be listed, athletes must run unattached or under a club name, and they can’t wear a high school jersey. Relays are a challenge since athletes are running with people who don’t even go to their school (sidenote: it’s a cool thing to see athletes from different schools teaming up). Therefore, it’s inevitable that I will miss someone’s name. In a perfect world, the MHSAA would just let indoor track be an official school sport, but until that day, I’ll be continuously cross-checking names against Athletic.net and doing my best. If you email or message me and let me know, I’ll be sure to add it to the results article on the website. Pictures are always welcome too, as I’m not able to get to as many meets as I’d like to because - believe it or not - my children, while all cross country and track runners, never competed in high school indoor track. They played basketball instead, so I’m courtside instead of trackside most of the winter.
Here are some highlights from the last month. Thanks for reading: I always appreciate your support of the site and your willingness to share your accomplishments with Blue Water Running!
Ava Johnson of Lanse Cruese North ran a 2:46 twice in the 800 meters, dropped under 6 minutes in the mile for the first time indoors at 5:57, ran the 3200 in 13:31, and joined up with 16 Ways Track Club teammate Samantha Whitlam (Macomb Lutheran North) to take third in the 4x800 Relay in 10:53. Whitlam has gone from a 2:38 to a 2:35 in the 800, run 5:44 in the mile, and helped her sprint medley relay to a state qualifying time of 4:33, well under the 4:45 needed.
Allison Mansfield of Armada has run a handful of 28s in the 200, went from a 68 to a 64 in the 400-meter dash, and joined fellow Tiger teammate Cristina Semian to take fourth in the 4x400 at the SVSU - MITS Meet #1 in 4:26, qualifying them for the state finals. Semian also dropped from a 64 to a 63 in the 400 and dipped into the high 27s in the 200, putting her within reach of a state meet qualifying time of 27.25 for the 200 and 62 flat for the 400. Both Mansfield and Semian’s outdoor best in the 400 was a 67, so this is a big improvement. Another Armada runner racing is Addison Noteboom, who ran the 800 in 2:46, the 1600 in 6:11 with teammate Helena Reiff (6:15), and the 3200 in 13:36.
Some noteworthy distance performances were from the Wessel sisters of MACH, with Alannah running 5:18 in the 1600 to take fourth at SVSU and 2:26 in the 800 to take 12th: she’s qualified for states in the 1600 and two seconds off in the 800, so we’re sure to see that drop in the course of this season. Her sister Faith was 16th in the 1600 with a 5:38 and ran a 2:38 in the 800. Cara Prusakiewicz of Dryden (who gets my prize for THE BEST INDOOR TRACK TEAM NAME EVER INVENTED - Tater Trots) ran the 1600 in 6:04 and the 800 in 2:45. Her teammate Caila Fitchett ran the gauntlet of sprint events: the 60-meter dash in 8.90 and the 800-meter dash in 2:53. For the Breen Track Club, New Haven’s Emma Reimer was 31st in 2:35 and joined her club’s 4x400 relay at SVSU to take sixth in 4:38.
Alysia Goudelock of Anchor Bay has high jumped four times this winter, winning a LAB meet, but hit her season’s 5-2, taking third at SVSU on Saturday. Keirra Taube of Yale, competing for the Michigan Racers Club, already cleared 5’6 at her first jump of the season, so both ladies are easily over the state qualifier of 5 feet. Taube also put her skills into the pit in the long jump, soaring to a second-place finish in 17-4. She’d only tried the long jump two other times in her sophomore year at 13 feet. Saturday’s jump was almost two feet past the state meet qualifier and ranks her fourth in Michigan: the leading jump is currently 17-11. She’s atop the list in the high jump at number one by four full inches. She’s also qualified in her club’s sprint medley relay in 4:27 and clocked two 65-second 400-meter dashes. Sprinter Kayla Faust of Port Huron Northern, also competing for Michigan Racers, has run an 8.6 in the 60, a 28.6 in the 200, and a 46.94 in the 300.
Malencia Price of Port Huron High competes for Motor City Track Club and has posted some great times in the sprint events: with four indoor meet competitions under her belt, she has a best of 8.22 in the 60-meter dash, a 26.64 best in the 200, and a 64.18 in the 400. She's now qualified for the state finals in both the 60 and the 200.
At the Vault Barn on Dec. 21, 6th place was claimed by Chase Battani of Almont in 13 feet, exactly what’s needed to qualify for state, with Kieran Whitlam of Macomb Lutheran North taking 10th in 12 feet. Battani vaulted three other comps in the 12s and 13s and ran the 60-meter dash at the first SVSU MITS meet to take 20th in 7.35, an indoor PR.
Isaac Miller from Macomb Lutheran North has been all over the sprints, competing in everything from the 60 to the 400. He’s run his PR in the 60 at 7.54 and needs a 7.35 for a state AQ. He also set an indoor PR in the 200 at 23.97, close to the 23.25 required for AQ in that event. His outdoor PR is 23.05, so that’s pretty close. Teammate Nino Biondo has set PRs in the 1600, running a 5:03, which crushed his outdoor best by 16 seconds. He did the same thing in the 800, dropping from 2:25 outdoors to 2:14 indoors.
Another MLN Mustang running distance events was Josh Macri, going from a season opener of 2:09 in the 800 to 2:02.39 this past weekend, which is faster than his outdoor PR as well, and just a few tenths of a second off qualifying for the indoor state finals. He did the same in the 1600, going from 4:44 to 4:33, versus his 4:38 outdoors. He’s three seconds away from making the state meet, so he’s got a few chances left to hit it. Macri also dipped his toes into the 3200, which he’d never run outdoors before, placing first at the LAB meet on Dec. 21 in 10:10. Macri and Biondo teamed up with a third MLN Mustang, Vasilios Kirchhoff, and a 16-Ways Foundation teammate, Nicholas Milosavlevski of Macomb Dakota, who won the Jan. 4 LAB meet 4x800 relay in 8:51. Kirchhoff qualified for indoor states with his 4x400 team of Milosavlevski, Brandon Ziehmer of Anchor Bay, Mario Carducci of Chippewa Valley, running a time of 3:43 to dip under the AQ of 3:45. This is a great example of how distance runners can often translate into strong 400-meter runners, as Ziehmer ran cross country and has been racing the 800 (2:13) and 1600 in 5:03, which is a PR, and Carducci is doing the 60 hurdles (9.32PR) and the mile (5:03), so there’s some definite speed/distance/skill combo going on there.
Cameron Gramzow of Anchor Bay has had several big throws in the disc for his club team, Kaizen Throws. He was third in the discus with a toss of 143’-9” at the Lab Holiday Invite and already threw his PR of 143-10 before that at the first Lab meet to take fourth. Discus qualification for the state meet is based on the top twenty qualifiers versus a specific distance, but Gramzow is currently ranked second in the state behind the leading throw of 151, so we will keep an eye on how that is playing out. He also threw the shot 42’-4”, a PR from his previous outdoor best of 40’-5.5”. His Anchor Bay teammate Nathan Ring competes for the same club and threw 33’-6” for the shot and 102’-2” for the discus.
Jonah Konarz, also an Anchor Bay Tar, has been consistently racing the 60-meter hurdles indoors: he has four top-five places in the 60s with a PR of 8.35. He’s easily under the 9.2-time qualifier needed in the 60 hurdles. He’s also put out some solid 400 times with a PR of 53.6.
Other athletes from the area competing in distance events at SVSU:
Greg Vogt, Anchor Bay: 800 (2:10) and 1600 (4:48).
Xavier Roman, MLN: 800 (2:10), 1600 (4:43).
Ryan Jackins, Marine City: 800 (2:26), 1600 (5:13).
Ethan Kreger, St. Clair: 800 (2:18), 1600 (4:53)
Luke McDonell, St. Clair: 800 (2:25), 1600 (5:16).
Logan Romain, Dryden: 800 (2:24), 1600 (5:26).
Jerry Westrick, St. Clair: 800 (2:06).
Benjamin Kline, Almont: 800 (2:33), 1600 (5:58).
Other Sprint/Field Events from across the area:
Collin Landschott, PHN: 60 Meter Dash (7.84), 200 Meters (25.65).
Isaiah Lopez, PHN: High Jump (5’6”).
That’s a wrap on the first month of high school indoor competition. Again, if I missed your results, feel free to email or message me through social media and the website and I’ll be sure to add it to the meet results wrap-up article. You can check a schedule of meets, event results, qualifying standards for the indoor state championship, and more at https://www.mitstrack.org/.
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