A lot has been written and said about the track and cross country accomplishments of Glen Lake senior Marissa Treece.

But watching Treece in person might be the best way to appreciate her dominance.

Treece in full stride

At a home track meet a few weeks ago against Suttons Bay, Traverse City Christian and the Grand Traverse Academy, Treece anchored the Laker girls’ 1,600 meter relay team. Christian took the lead early and lengthened its advantage through the first three legs of the race, with Suttons Bay a close second.

The Lakers were a distant third when Treece took the baton for the gun lap.

“The Christian runner was about 20 yards ahead of me,” Treece recalled. Moments later, she passed the Suttons Bay runner before the first turn, and then blew past the Sabres’ anchor runner on the back side of the track. By the time she crossed the finish line, there was no runner within 40 meters.

Treece’s success on and off the track, as well as her commitment to the community, was recognized by the Detroit Athletic Club earlier this week when she was named Female High School Athlete of the Year in Michigan. It is the second consecutive year that a Leelanau County female athlete received the honor; Leland’s Alisha Glass received the award last year.

“I was pretty surprised. I thought the winner would be Danielle Tory, a soccer player from Northville High School, but then they called my name and that’s how I found out,” Treece said yesterday.

Treece earned the award not just because of her athletics. She has a 3.97 grade point average and participates in Project Heroes and Pals, where older students are paired with grade school students in a mentoring program. She is also very active in the county 4-H program, raising champion steers and pigs and some sheep.

“The animals I’ve raised have won top showman honors and have won grand reserve champion three times,” said Treece, just as proud of those accomplishments as she is of any winning effort in track or cross country.

Her father, Nate Treece, said Marissa is also active in her church youth group and helps out whenever she can. “I think it’s pretty awesome to see all the hard work she has put in be recognized,” he said.

“She is always surprising. I’ve watched a lot of pretty good female athletes in this county and to see your own daughter be mentioned with the likes of Liz Shimek and Alisha Glass, that is amazing to me,” he said.

Treece has earned a full-ride scholarship to the University of Notre Dame and will be running on the Fighting Irish cross country team starting in mid-August. Nate Treece said his daughter has heard many times how lucky she is to have earned a full-ride to a major university like Notre Dame.

“She is always quick to say ‘I’m not lucky, I worked for it,’ “ he said.

Glen Lake girls’ track coach and athletic director Paul Christiansen confirmed Treece has earned every accolade she receives. To emphasize how much work she has put into becoming a top runner, Christiansen lined up 32 pairs of running shoes when he and Treece visited with elementary school children earlier in the day Tuesday.

“That is how many pairs of shoes she has gone through in her four years running at Glen Lake,” he said. When that fact didn’t seem to impress the young students, Christiansen told them that on average Treece has run 55 miles per week for the last four years. “That’s a total of 6,000 miles in her career here. When the kids didn’t get that, I told them to equal that amount they would have to travel from here to Orlando, Florida two-and-a-half times to equal that amount. That they understood, they were really impressed with that,” he said.

Treece has been working with running coach Joe Shay of Central Lake over the last year to prepare for running in national competitions. She said his efforts, as well as those of Christiansen, coach Pete Edwards and everyone involved with the Glen Lake cross country and track programs, has helped her improve her running style and endurance.

“So many people have helped me become a better runner and a better person,” she said.

With her high school days coming to an end in three weeks, Treece has set her sights on setting new state records in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs and restated her goal of “setting the record so high it will never be broken.” That march back to the state finals begins Saturday at Division IV Regional at Frankfort.

Next comes Memorial Day weekend when she’ll hold her graduation party. Then, assuming all goes well at the Regional, the state finals. She will then race in national events on three straight weekends before taking most of July off.

“It’s been amazing being here at Glen Lake and I’ll miss being part of the teams here,” she said.