It’s time for the 2026 Girls Outdoor Track and Field Season Preview! The statistics used to write the season preview include BWAC, MAC, and Catholic High School League results, Blue Water Area meets such as the Marysville Invitational, Muskrat Invitational, Blue Water Meet of Champions, Thumb Meet, and Macomb County Meet, and, of course, Regional and State Finals qualifying and placements. The top ten area performance lists for each event also played a driving role in making predictions.

A couple of notes about the process:

• Consistency is key: when reviewing so many performances over a months-long period, there had to be consistent participation and placement throughout the season to gauge performance and potential for improvement.
• I don’t include freshmen (last year’s 8th graders) because they may end up participating in a different spring sport or not come out for track in high school.
• I did not preview relay events because of graduated athletes and relay leg changes, making it difficult to predict relay team members and times.
• In most cases, PBs (personal bests) from last year's meets that were hand-timed won’t be used for the preview, nor will I use them for top times and marks lists this season. When you see PRs for everyone across the board by huge margins, especially in sprint events, that’s a sign that the times are usually inaccurate. With the requirement of FAT timing for state meet qualification, it’s a more reliable standard.
• Early Qualifying Marks are in effect for the second year; athletes can meet a state-meet qualifying mark before regionals. An EQ is defined by the MHSAA as “an athlete who achieves the mark in any round of a valid pre-qualified event which meets the proper standards (FAT TIMED and 6+ teams) is qualified to participate in the LP finals in that event”. An automatic qualifier (AQ) is the standard needed to run AT the regional meet outside of a top-two finish.

Finally, I’m sure to miss someone who deserves a nod or mention: with such a large amount of data across a long period, it is inevitable. I cross-check and reference and scour athletic.net repeatedly, but Blue Water Running is just me, so sometimes, things get missed. I’m human. Also, my apologies in advance if I mispronounce or misspell your name or incorrectly type a time or mark.

I can’t wait to get back out there and see all of you running, jumping, and throwing. You can find results and articles on bluewaterrunning.org and our social media sites throughout the season. You can follow Blue Water Running on Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. You can also check out photo albums of meets that will be linked through the website and download and share them to help spread the word about Blue Water Running’s mission, which is to feature and celebrate the achievements of high school and collegiate cross country and track/field athletes from our area.

If you are interested in sponsoring coverage or partnering with Blue Water Running as an advertiser to reach and support local athletes, please reach out via our website or social media channels.

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