Byron Center Track and Field 2022 Preview #2

In the next part of my Byron Center/OK White Conference Track and Field preview, I'm looking at points per athlete.

To start, I grabbed all the results data from OK White conference meets from 2021. I really wish I could go further back than that, but the OK Conferences were realigned in 2020, and BC's first year in the white was last year. Knowing if this exercise is worth the time investment (can we predict/project anything?) will take a few years. But if you're still reading this in a few years, that's a good thing for me.

First, seniors were removed from all the data, so we're looking at grades 9-11. Next, points per event were rescored with the new 9, 10, 11 results.

Then the points were totaled for each athlete throughout the entire season. I'm not surprised with the results. The number 1 athlete on the boys side with 166 points is Lowell's Joshua Rau, who entered the MHSAA State Finals undefeated in both the 110H and 300H, and finished in 2nd and 9th respectively in the State Championship. Detroit Cass Tech's Tamaal Myers II won both of those races, and he's also returning for his final high school year, so that will be a rematch to watch this spring.

The top girl didn't have quite as many wins as Rau last year (though she had plenty of her own), but Frances Hoffman from East Grand Rapids racked up 161 points in the 100, 200, 100H, 300H, and Long Jump, finishing 17th at State Finals in the Long Jump.

On the boys team, Byron Center's top 5 athletes are Nathan Yeomans (97 points, 100, 200), Caleb Reinsch (79 points, 110H, 300H, 100, 200), Aidan Pollock (71 points, Long Jump, High Jump, 400), Eli Maxwell (62 points, Long Jump, High Jump, 100, 200), and Conor McConnell (60 points, 100, 200, 400). This season, Nathan, Caleb and Conor are all seniors, and Eli and Aidan are juniors. Rounding out the top 10 are athletes from each event category, all who scored 36 points or more. This team is ready to compete.

And on the girls team, our top 5 athletes are Avery Zeinstra (112 points, 400, 800, High Jump), Lizzy Szymaniak (66 points, 100H, 300H, 400, High Jump), Katelyn Cole (60 points, 100H, 300H, High Jump), Lauren Hartman (52 points, Shotput, Discus), and Ava Putnam (51 points, 100, 200, Long Jump).

The kicker for the girls is, Katelyn, Lauren and Ava are all 10th graders currently, and as a freshman, Lauren made the final round in the Discus at Regionals, throwing 94' 5". Joining Lauren in that final round was Madison Leifer, also a freshman, who threw 103' 6". This team is going somewhere, and soon.

At the end of this post are tables showing the points rankings in order for boys and girls, Byron Center boys and Byron Center girls (with their overall rankings)

The fun part of this exercise is seeing top athletes. I added up the number of athletes each team has in the top 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50.

For the boys, there's one top heavy team (Lowell), and a few teams with athletes distributed evenly throughout the top 50 (East Grand Rapids, Byron Center, Grand Rapids Christian, and East Grand Rapids).

On the girls side, the defending champions of East Grand Rapids are a clear cut above the rest, with Grand Rapids Christian, Byron Center, and Lowell bunched together in the 2-4 spots.

Now, time to speak as the biased coach. Byron Center has hungry athletes ready to go. After Rau, Lowell's top boys were a pair of distance runners. BC is making major strides in that department, and I expect a shakeup. The EGR girls have a very good distance squad, but there isn't another events group that's immediately jumping out at me. This could be anybody's conference.

And here's where I'm most confident - relays. I didn't include any relay scoring here (assuming my script worked correctly*), because last year's relays included seniors. I could score that like all conference, where an athlete gets a fraction of a point, and maybe I'll go through that exercise. But what I do know is that BC is going to be deep in the relays. Coach Paciencia and I are going to have some tough calls to make in that department.

Complete tables are viewable HERE

*I’m pretty confident my scripts work, but if anybody can prove the math is wrong somewhere, please point it out.

Top 50 OK White Boys