By Nate Thompson
LocalSportsJournal.com
GRAND HAVEN–Longtime Grand Haven track and field coach John Tarr has seen drastic improvements in time and performance from numerous athletes in the past.
But likely nothing compares to the rapid rise of junior distance runner Seth Norder – not only on the track and cross country trails, but also how he’s blossomed socially.
Tarr said Norder went from being a kid unsure of himself who would often stand alone at practices, to being a “cut-up” and embracing the team aspect of competing and training in cross country and track.
And not to mention, Norder also has developed into one of the state’s top distance runners at the high school level, a remarkable trajectory upward that culminated with an individual state championship in the 3,200-meter run at the Division 1 state finals on June 3 at Rockford High School. Norder’s time of 9 minutes, 4.68 seconds didn’t eclipse his school record of 8:46, which he set earlier this year on May 5 at the Shepherd Bluejay Invite, but he still won the event comfortably, beating out second-place finisher Sean Byrnes of Plymouth by more than 8 seconds. 
Norder said the mid-90s temperatures down on the track dictated how he competed at the state finals. He ran a leg on the Bucs’ 4×800 relay team earlier in the day that finished in a school record time of 7:46.75, good for second-place overall to Northville. Norder was joined in the event by Nolan Clark, Ben Eisnor and Logan Vining.
Norder was also going to run in the 1,600, but figured the heat may wear him down for the 3,200 later in the day. Instead, Tarr said, Norder tried to stay cool in the lobby of a local Jimmy Johns.
“The heat was pretty tough, so I ended up scratching the 1,600,” he said. “(I went into the 3,200) expecting to win, but it still came down to executing. The race started a little slow, but I took the lead after two laps and held the lead from there.”
According to Tarr, it was just the sixth individual state title in track in Grand Haven program history, and the first since 2019 when Bucs’ girls runner Gabby Hentemann captured the 800 run.
Norder now has his name atop the record books at Grand Haven in 3,200, 1,600 and 800 runs, as well as the 3,200 relay. He also ran a school record time of 14:45 (3.1 miles) at the Portage Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 8, 2022.
It’s a far cry from where Norder started as a freshman. In fact, Tarr said in his very first cross country meet, he ran an “unimpressive” 18:30. 
“He went to St. John’s (Lutheran in Grand Haven) and he didn’t run in middle school,” said Tarr. “He came out his first day of practice and told me that he didn’t run at all that summer. Plus, he’s a year younger age wise, so really, he should only be a sophomore right now. So knowing that, I took it easier on him.”
It wasn’t that Norder didn’t have the talent, it was about developing it further. He said he started running when he was 6 or 7 years old, competing in local 5Ks and he even won an AAU Junior Olympics event at Eastern Michigan University when he was 10.
So Norder called his uneven freshmen season a “wake-up call,” and used the summer leading into his sophomore year as his first serious off-season of training.
And when Tarr saw how Norder was dominating during the early cross country practices in the late summer of 2021, he realized a true gem had been discovered.
“I remember thinking,” ‘Wow, we’re gonna have a monster here the next couple of years,’” Tarr said.
Sure enough, Norder finished second overall at the 2021 cross country state finals and then qualified for the Champs Sports Cross Country National Championships in San Diego in December, where he finished 16th.
He continued to train during the winter months, and wowed again during the 2022 spring track season, culminating with a runner-up finish at the state finals in the 1,600 run.
The results opened a lot of eyes with college coaches, as Norder was flooded with recruiting interest from large Division 1 schools across the country, including Notre Dame, North Carolina and Duke. But Norder’s heart has always been in East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University, where his parents, Karen and Jared, both graduated. Norder, who sports a 4.0 grade-point-average at Grand Haven, has committed to the Spartans to run both cross and track.
“I think my dad tried to stay neutral, but he was always pulling for MSU,” Norder said with a laugh.
Norder will eventually be rivals with Bucs’ teammate Nolan Clark, who plans to run at the University of Michigan. The competitive fire shared between the two has been beneficial in pushing Norder to the top.
“I came from a small school (at St. John’s) and that first year, I was shy,” Norder admitted. “But I eventually learned how to open up and now, the guys are some of my best friends and there’s nothing better than going to practice with them.”
Tarr is also proud at not only the competitor that Norder has become, but also a teammate.
“A lot of kids with that type of talent, they’ll get private coaches and they isolate themselves. They develop a little arrogance,” Tarr said. “But Seth’s parents have done a great job at keeping him grounded. You’d usually do separate workouts with a kid like Seth, but Nolan does workouts with him. It’s nice they’ve come along together. They’ve pushed each other really well.”
Tarr said athletes typically plateau in running during their senior seasons of high school so he’s expecting more brilliance to come from Norder next year.
“With his talent and genetic makeup, I’m not worried about him slipping,” he said. “He could easily drop time, and honestly, he has a chance to become the greatest distance runner in the state of Michigan.”
But with running, Tarr said, like that 95-degree day in Rockford recently, sometimes it all depends on the weather. 
