Raffin Reports: EGR flourishing under Hopkins

Sometimes I wonder which is more important to the development and growth of a successful cross country or track program. Many successful programs have both great schools and famous coaches: Flint Northern and Norbert Badar, Flint Beecher and Martin Crane, Ann Arbor Pioneer and Don Sleeman and Bryan Westfield, Detroit Mumford and Bob Lynch.

Now would Badar have won all those state championships at Flint Northwestern? Could Crane win thirteen state track titles at Flint Hamady? Sleeman and Westfield at Ann Arbor Skyline? Or Lynch at Detroit Henry Ford?

The questions might be unanswerable, but those great schools and coaches came together and produced some memorable cross country and track teams.

Now emerging from a great school is a young coach making strong strides toward history: East Grand Rapids’ Nicholas Hopkins. A newer, younger coach is building another dynasty at another school.

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Raffin Reports: Atchoo looking unbeatable

If Michael Atchoo of Troy High School isn’t the best Division I male cross country runner or the best runner in any division this year, then there really is “something wrong in the state of Denmark.”

Okay, I know there are a core of good “K” runners: Kamyszek of Kenowa Hills, last year’s Division II champion and now a Division I contender; Karr, Kern, and Kern from powerful Pioneer; and Kaiser of Temperance-Bedford, all probable top five runners.

But Atchoo is unbeaten and unbeatable.

And as the Troy star told me, “Yea, I know I’m unbeaten so far this season, but I always knock on wood.”

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Raffin Reports: Madrigal blazing a trail

I follow cross country meets during the season for two reasons. First, I love the sport, and second, the announcing crew at Michigan International Speedway needs all the information on contending teams and individuals at the state finals.

This year Division III boys call for close attention because six of the top nine finishers from 2008 are returning.

A year ago at MIS in Division III, Blake Allison from Harrison was runner-up; Alex Wilson from Kent City was third; Albion's Paul Lewis was fourth; Durand's David Madrigal was sixth; Blissfield's Justin Bateson was seventh; and Whitmore Lake's Zach Carpenter was ninth.

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Raffin Reports: Linden continues its run to the top

Even Linden cross county coach Clint Lawhorne concedes his team has a lot returning this fall from a squad that easily won the boys Division 2 title last fall.

“Five of our seven state meet runners return as do four junior varsity runners who ran from 17:30 to 18:15,” said Lawhorne, who now begins his sixth season with the Eagle harriers.  “the potential is there, but last year we ran the greatest race ever run by a Linden cross country team, and some teams that were serious contenders did not run their greatest races.” 

For a young cross country coach, Lawhorne has quickly master-minded the school into a yearly Division 2 power.  The last three years the team had finished fifth, third, and first in races at the Michigan International Speedway. And with another top finish in 2009, Linden definitely looks to be the boys Division 2 team of this decade. 

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Raffin Reports: Megan Goethals

Rochester High School’s Megan Goethals begins the 2009 cross country season definitely as our state’s number one high school female distance runner. Let’s hope by season’s end in December (for those elite runners), Goethals will again rate as one of the nation’s best.

Last year as a junior, Goethals won the Michigan Division 1 cross country championship at the Michigan International Speedway in 17:10, the fastest time ever run for a female in a state final race. In addition, on the track last spring, Goethals won the 1600-meters in 4:51.2 and the 3200-meters in 10:37.50 at the Division 1 finals. Two weeks later at the Nike Outdoor Nationals ran, she covered the one mile in 4:51.53 and the two mile in 10:20.25 And last fall she won the regional Foot Locker title in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and placed third in the Foot Locker national finals in San Diego, California. That gave a lot of championship running for one girl from Michigan.

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Check out Usain Bolt the high schooler

No more drugs talk, please! I don't blame people for having their faith in great athletes eroded by all the scandals we have had in sports. But remember there's not a shred of evidence (or even what we call "reliable rumors") associating sprint great Usain Bolt with drugs.

And I'd be surprised if there ever is. Here's why. When an athlete goes on drugs, one outward sign is a bump in performance that is not otherwise explainable. That is, an athlete suddenly jumps up to a new level.

Bolt, however, is a freak of nature. He has always been ungodly fast. Let me show you what I mean by sharing his times when he would have been in high school (had he gone to school in Michigan). Keep in mind, we have a state where a kid who can break 22-seconds in the 200 is considered a stud. And remember. All Bolt's times are FAT timed, wind-measured and legal.

Usain Bolt as a 15-year-old ninth grader:
Doesn't run 100. But runs 20.58 for 200. A world youth record. Wins gold at the World Junior Championships (the same one where Mumford's Kenneth Ferguson won silver in the 400 hurdles by breaking the national high school record). Bolt also clocks 47.12 for 400.

Bolt as a 16-year-old tenth grader:
No 100m. Sets world junior record of 20.13 in 200, winning Pan-Am Games gold medal against adults. Also clocks 45.35 in the 400!

Bolt as a 17-year-old eleventh grader:
Runs 19.93 world junior record in 200m in his third race of the year in April. Then he is badly injured. Can't race again until Olympics, where he limps through a 21.05 heat.

Bolt as an 18-year-old senior:
No 100m still. 19.99 in the 200m. Places last in the World Championships, injured. No 400m time.

By all reports, not until his senior year was he even training seriously, and even he admits he had a problem with being lazy. Times of 20.13 and 45.35 at age 15?? Truly this is an athlete we have never seen the likes of on earth before. Stop the doubting and just enjoy watching him.

Ritzenhein 6th in world at 27:22.28!

Dathan Ritzenhein put together a terrific race at the World Championships in Berlin tonight, cruising to a 6th place finish in 27:22.28. Ritz ran a controlled, disciplined race, with negative splits of 13:43.40 and 13:38.88. His final time is the fastest ever clocked by a Michigan native.