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March 12, 2012

Check out our must-know scores and news from March 5-10.

(Click on links for coverage.)

Gymnastics

Where no team has gone before: Grand Ledge indeed accomplished what no team had before Friday by winning its fifth-straight MHSAA team championship. Senior Christine Wilson and junior Sara Peltier then won the Division 1 and 2 individual titles, respectively, on Saturday. (Second Half Team) (Second Half Individual)

Swimming and Diving

Celebratory dip: Saline isn’t the first boys swimming and diving program to win three straight MHSAA championships. But it’s definitely the program of the day after claiming another Division 1 title Saturday and breaking four records -- including two all-division/class records -- in the process. (Second Half)

Hockey

Consider it avenged: There are few better ways to go out than with a championship after falling in the Final the year before. That’s how Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and super senior Mackenzie MacEachern  finished off this season Saturday, beating Grosse Pointe South 4-1 after falling by the same score in the 2011 championship game. (Second Half)

Girls Basketball

Only one can move on: Detroit Martin Luther King won its third and final meeting this season against Detroit Pershing to move on to this week’s Class A Quarterfinals. King had lost to Pershing by five during the regular season, then beat Pershing by three in the Detroit Public School League Final before defeating Pershing again 54-53 on Thursday in a Regional Final. (Mlive.com)

Boys Basketball

Another championship down, two to go: Top-ranked and reigning Class B champion Lansing Sexton eliminated what was perceived heading into the postseason as one of the biggest obstacles standing between the Big Reds and a repeat. They downed No. 4 Lansing Catholic 66-56 in a District Final on Friday to improve to 22-1. (Lansing State Journal)

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Livingston Claims 1st Title to Lead Whitmore Lake to Championship Sweep

November 2, 2024

BROOKLYN — When Kaylie Livingston finished second to Buckley senior Aiden Harrand at last year’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals, the moment she enjoyed Saturday seemed inevitable.

And it very well could be repeated each of the next two years.

After finishing as the Division 4 Final runner-up as a freshman, Livingston dominated the field to take first place in 18 minutes, 6.5 seconds at Michigan International Speedway.

Eliza Keith of Auburn Hills Oakland Christian was second in 18:20.1.

“That motivated me a lot,” Livingston said of her runner-up finish last year. “Aiden was an amazing runner. I got to train with her, and she helped me my first year to know the course, when to speed up and when to kick. I’m just happy I got to accomplish that today.”

Livingston was no stranger to MIS when she arrived in Brooklyn her freshman year, but watching the Finals as a spectator and racing the course are two entirely different experiences.

“I’ve been coming here since I was younger,” she said. “It was my first time racing it. I was just happy to execute my finish today.”

Elodie Weaver (1538) pushes through the final stretch on the way to crossing the line third for Whitmore Lake.Livingston actually ran a faster time last year, going 17:44.7, but she didn’t need the extra gear Saturday. When she hit the mile mark in 5:39.5, she already had an 8.6-second lead. That lead increased to 21.6 seconds at the two-mile mark.

“It wasn’t my fastest mile of the season,” Livingston said. “It was a little behind. I had to make up for it in the last two miles.”

Livingston is Whitmore Lake’s first individual champion since Betsy Speer won the Class D team race with the fastest time of the day in 1995. The Trojans had winners at the Finals four straight years from 1992-95, with Speer also winning in 1993.

What also could be inevitable for at least the next two years is Whitmore Lake winning team Finals championships.

Whitmore Lake repeated as team champion by a 110-125 margin over Oakland Christian.

The Trojans had only one senior in their lineup, No. 6 runner Isabella Nelson-Daniels.

Whitmore Lake had three all-staters (top 30 in Livingston, 11th-place junior Carina Burchi (19:20.3) and 24th-place junior Elodie Weaver (19:53.0). Also scoring for the Trojans were freshman Malynda Lambros, who was 63rd in 20:57.7, and junior Sofia Robertson, who was 65th in 20:59.5.

“I wanted this state individual championship, but the team is most important to me,” Livingston said. “This program has meant a lot to me. I get to run with my best friends. I’m just so happy we get to accomplish this great thing and show off our hard work.”

Oakland Christian had three all-state finishers in Eliza Keith (second, 18:20.1), Raley Keith (13th, 19:29.5) and Lydia Gleason (19th, 19:41.8), but Whitmore Lake had five runners across 16 team places before Oakland Christian’s final finisher.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Whitmore Lake’s Kaylie Livingston approaches the finish during her Division 4 championship race Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Elodie Weaver (1538) pushes through the final stretch on the way to crossing the line third for Whitmore Lake. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)