TC West Girls Repeat, FHNE's Grzelak Adds Sweep to Family's Success
By
James Cook
Special for MHSAA.com
February 26, 2024
HARBOR SPRINGS – A Grzelak state champion seems to be the norm.
Katie Grzelak became the latest in the family to etch her name into the Michigan record books, becoming the third to claim an MHSAA Ski Finals championship over the last five years.
Her older sister Holly won the 2021 Division 1 slalom title also for Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, while cousin Anna (who skied for Marquette) shared the slalom title with Traverse City Central’s Quinn Gerber a season ago.
Katie one-upped them both, sweeping the slalom and giant slalom titles this time around at Boyne Highlands.
“It’s a family tradition,” Katie Grzelak said. “I've been working towards it for a while now. It just felt good to finally put it together.”
Last year, she took second behind Rochester Adams’ Katie Fodale in GS and third in slalom. She’s been all-state six times in three seasons.
“It pretty cool,” said Marquette junior Sam Dehlin, a former teammate of Anna Grzelak who won the 2024 boys slalom title. “They really have a good thing going with the Grzelaks.”
Katie Grzelak said she was already receiving texts from relatives from all over asking if she extended the family tradition.
“I wasn't really expecting it, but I was really happy in the end,” she said. “I probably could have gone harder. I was happy with it, so I didn't feel the need to put too much down.”
Traverse City West's girls repeated as team champion, going back-to-back for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. TC West's girls also won the state's top spot in the academic all-state awards, with a team grade-point average of 3.886.
West junior Olivia Bageris came out of the fourth flight to place second in both the slalom and giant slalom.
The five-time all-stater leads a Titans team that's aiming to extend its Finals championship streak at least another year, despite losing three of its top six skiers after this one.
"The goal is obviously to make it a three-peat," Bageris said. "Central, our best friends but our biggest rivals. It always comes down to the day of the race. Conference races are always different than the state meet, but the goal would be to make it a three-peat."
West also gets freshman Sarah Shapiro back from injury next season.
"It means a lot," Bageris said. "It hasn't happened in a while. The boys have done it, and we've kind of always been like the underdogs and overlooked compared to our boys. They had a great day, too. So that was exciting. But it means a lot to be able to do this two years in a row. Our freshman year, we come in runner-up and it was exciting because we were kind of unexpected to get that high up. But in the end, we really all wanted to win."
The Titans led by a single point (19-20) after the morning giant slalom session, but felt confident because the team's strength all season has been slalom. West outpointed Central 19-32 in slalom.
"We were only ahead by one point, so we knew we had to go for it," Bageris said. "My friend Ellie (Gruber), she had a really great day, came out skied really amazing. She definitely helped. It was a team sport today."
Gruber took seventh in GS, with Lila Warren 10th. Erinn Hale, Kellan Kudary and Quinn Gerber took eighth, fifth and fourth for Central.
West won the girls title with 38 points, compared to Central's runner-up total of 52. The rest of the field consisted of Clarkston (110), Marquette (158.5), Birmingham United (203), Milford (231), West Bloomfield (243), Brighton (242.5) and White Lake Lakeland (290).
Bageris was joined by Titans teammates Gruber (seventh), Dillyn Mohr (eighth) and Warren (ninth) in the slalom top 10, with Central represented by Gerber (third) and Cady Madion (10th), with Hale just behind in 11th.
West head coach Ed Johnson said he thinks the Titans can seriously make a run at three in a row next season.
"I think we can," Johnson said. "We're losing a couple, but we'll be back pretty strong."
Gerber took third in giant slalom and fourth in slalom to earn her third and fourth all-state spots in two seasons on varsity.
"West has a really good team, and we definitely wanted to show that we could compete," Gerber said. "We scared them a little bit, but they ended up with it."
Central brings back its entire varsity team next season and has several talented middle schoolers coming up as well.
"We want to get it, so we'll be working all offseason," Gerber said.
Traverse City as a whole was the day's big winner.
The Trojans and Titans took first and second in both boys and girls. Traverse City accomplished the same feat last year, although West won two championships and Central took runner-up honors in both.
"It's good for Traverse City to bring that clean sweep again," TC West head coach Ed Johnson said. "That's one of the things I'm most excited about is to see that clean sweep for Traverse City. One-two for the boys, one-two for the girls. It goes from one side of town to the other, but it's all good."
Traverse City Central and West have combined to win the last four Division 1 titles in both boys and girls.
Twenty-three of the 40 first-team all-state spots went to skiers from Traverse City, with another 17 on the second team.
Only four spots in the slalom top-10 didn’t go to Central or West. After Grzelak, Grand Haven’s Neave Rewa was fourth, Birmingham’s Blanca Srock fifth and Clarkston’s Cameron Thomas sixth.
The same applied to GS, where Holly’s Finley DeCubber placed third, Berkley’s Tessa Rontal was sixth and Rewa placed ninth.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern's Katie Grzelak skis a championship run Monday at Boyne Highlands. (Middle) Traverse City Central's Olivia Bageris completes a run for the eventual team champion. (Photos by Tori Burley. Click for more; photos will be added throughout this week.)
Gerber Sets Pace as Traverse City Central Girls Take Back Division 1 Title
By
Nick Cooper
Special for MHSAA.com
February 25, 2025
HARBOR SPRINGS – Unseasonably warm weather was the only thing that was different from past years at the MHSAA Division 1 Girls Skiing Final, as Traverse City West and Traverse City Central both found themselves atop the standings.
After a series of skilled runs, Central earned the championship Monday at Nub’s Nob thanks in large part to the outstanding skiing of Quinn Gerber.
“The girls were just dialed in,” said Traverse City Central head coach Amy Kudary.
Her crew delivered 31 points in the slalom and 29 in the giant slalom giving the team a combined 60 points, which was 33 better than second-place Traverse City West’s 93 points. Marquette finished third with 97 followed by Clarkston (163), Birmingham (201), Fenton/Linden/Lake Fenton (220.5), Canton (224), Holly/Oxford (240) and Brighton (257).
The championship was the fourth-straight won by either Traverse City Central or West, and Central's first since 2022 after finishing runner-up to the Titans the last two seasons.
Traverse City Central was piloted by Gerber’s giant slalom victory, where she blazed the slopes with a combined time of 54.18. TC West’s Summer Lewandowski took second place with a time of 54.43, while Estelle Dehlin secured third place with a time of 54.47.
Finishing in the top 10 and earning first-team all-state honors were Gerber, Lewandowski, Marquette’s Estelle Dehlin, Fenton/Linden/Lake Fenton’s Maddy Flack, Holly/Oxford’s Finley DeCubber, TC Central’s Avery Taggart, Berkley/Troy Athens’ Tessa Rontal, Clarkston’s Cameron Thomas, Canton’s Rhiana Savoie and TC Central’s Kellan Kudary.
While Gerber also finished in second place in the slalom with a combined time of 73.58 it was Grand Haven’s Neave Rewa who took home the championship with a time of 72.05.
“I came here hoping to do my best and being able to do that is really cool. It's a pretty cool feeling,” said Rewa.
Rewa’s team did not qualify for the Final but Rewa, also a gifted soccer player, was not without her teammates.
“I have two teammates here. It’s cool to have them watch me; it’s really nice,” said Rewa.
TC Central’s Taggart finished in third in slalom notching a time of 74.13.
Taking first-team all-state honors in slalom were Rewa, Gerber, Taggart, Birmingham’s Bianca Srock, Dehlin, Savoie, Marquette’s Lucy Stern, Rontal, TC West’s Olivia Bageris and Dillyn Mohr.
“Our team did really well, it was a good day. I had a pretty good season overall,” Gerber said.
Next season’s championship race could be similarly entertaining – both Gerber and Rewa are juniors with one more year to compete.
Click for full results. Click to watch NFHS Network broadcasts: Slalom | Giant Slalom
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City Central’s Quinn Gerber finishes a giant slalom run Monday at Nub’s Nob. (Middle) Canton’s Lucy Savoie races the slalom course. (Below) A skier breaks past a gate also during the slalom. (Click for more from Tori Burley – photos to be added throughout this week.)