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Crowning Clayton...

Monday, 05 December 2016 23:10

A few weeks back we used the term "In Between" to designate the MMA categories that were neither slam dunks, nor all that controversial. They fell somewhere "in between" those designations. The three categories that we considered 'tweeners were Junior of the Year and both the male and female Most Improved.

Let's start with Junior of th Year, which was won by Mitchell Clayton, 19, of Forest Lake.

On the surface, Mitchell's selection seemed pretty slam dunky. He'd raced twelve times, which was more than the other three nominees combined. (We're only including non-draft-legal races here.) He won five of those events, which is an unprecedented number of victories in a single season by a Minnesota junior.

What bothered the Selectors somewhat about Clayton were his race choices. He excelled in what can be called the "companion" races, i.e. the sprint events that are historically less competitive than the longer events they accompany. By doing this, Mitchell never faced, thus could not be measured against, our state's best athletes (Team MInnesota guys etc.).

Still, when measured against his own performances of prior seasons, Clayton, a three-time JOY nominee, had definitely gotten faster....

Next, we tried to measure his best efforts against the best efforts of his fellow nominees. Kristina Swenson, Lauren Steinke and Allison Crum all had outstanding efforts against credentialed adult athletes, e.g. Swenson's 7th - Jr. CR-@ Lake Minnetonka, Steinke's 9th--Jr. CR-at Lake Waconia, and Crum's Jr. CRs at Brewhouse Olympic (9th overall) and Green Lake Sprint, where she placed 2nd overall.

In the end, though, Mitchell's volume and improvement over prior nominated years, made his selection almost a slam dunk. We can also add what can be called the "Andres Effect" here. Between 2004 and 2010, Michelle Andres did not receive the respect she deserved from her peers and the MMA Selectors because she rarely raced against Team MInnesota-quality women. In 2011, however, in only her second appearance at a Twin Cities multi, she outsprinted Claire Bootsma for the win at Gear West. Claire won three MMAs that season, including Triathlete of the Year, and was discussed for US AOY HM. She won seven of the 12 races she entered that year and finished 6th overall at USAT Nationals. Beating Boots was a BIG deal. It clearly demonstrated that Michelle had not received the respect she deserved prior to that fateful morning in Orono in 2011.

We have the strong feeling that someday, perhaps even next season, Clayton will pull off an Andres-esque effort.