Today in the MHSAA: 11/18/16
November 18, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Four volleyball teams secured matches on the final day of the season, and a champion football coach will be coming back from retirement to start a new era next fall.
Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.
Volleyball
Class C: Reigning champion and No. 2-ranked Bronson swept honorable mention Calumet – Coldwater Daily Reporter
Class C: No. 6 Brown City will play in its first championship match after edging Adrian Madison in five sets – Port Huron Times Herald
Class B: Reigning runner-up and No. 3-ranked North Branch will play for the title again after coming back to beat No. 5 Buchanan 3-2 – Flint Journal
Class B: Top-ranked Lake Odessa Lakewood will play in the championship match for the third time in five seasons after downing No. 7 Cadillac 3-1 – Grand Rapids Press
Football
Former Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central coach Jack Giarmo, who led the Falcons to the Division 6 title in 2014, has been hired at Gibraltar Carlson – Monroe Evening News
Dundee Continues Winning Ways with 7th-Consecutive D3 Final Victory
By
Jeff Chaney
Special for MHSAA.com
February 24, 2024
KALAMAZOO -- One thing Dundee’s wrestling community knows about is winning.
The Vikings continued to make history in Division 3 on Saturday at the Wings Event Center, as they won their seventh-straight team title with a 49-20 clincher over Whitehall in the championship match.
In total, Dundee has won nine of the past 11 Division 3 team titles, and 16 Finals championships overall.
"This is a special group of kids, and a special community," Dundee co-coach Garrett Stevens said. "Every time we do something like this, it's just a special chapter, and I am thankful to be a part of it."
One of those special – and talented – athletes, Kade Kluce, got things started for Dundee in the Final with a hard-fought 8-2 opening win over Whitehall's Nolan Taranko in their 126-pound match.
Kluce, a senior, has played a major part of four team titles, and will look to join an exclusive group next week at Ford Field when he tries to win his fourth individual championship. If he accomplishes that feat, he will join former Vikings Braeden Davis, Casey Swiderski and Stoney Buell as well as Lowell's Austin Boone and Davison's Brent Metcalf as the only wrestlers in the state of Michigan to win four individual and four team titles.
"That's my biggest goal I have right now, aside from being in college," Kluce said. "That's what I have worked so hard for ever since I got to high school."
Kluce said it's easy to have goals and work hard at Dundee.
"This is a family," Kluce added. "We do everything together, and we have great leadership that helps us be a part of everyone's matches."
That strong camaraderie was on display all weekend for the Vikings, as they defeated Lake Odessa Lakewood in the Quarterfinal on Friday 58-18, followed by a 49-22 win over Constantine in the Saturday morning Semifinal.
Then in the championship match, Dundee won 10 of 14 bouts – none bigger than what senior Aiden Massingill achieved at 215 pounds, defeating an Individual Finals qualifier to give the Vikings a 32-18 lead.
That seemed to ease a little tension, as Whitehall had put up a nice fight by winning three of the previous four matches.
"I just told my kids to go out there and wrestle hard, and they did that," said Whitehall coach Justin Zeerip, whose team finished with a 29-4 record. "To be in the Finals three of the last four years has been awesome."
To make it three in the past four, Whitehall met an old foe in its Semifinal match.
"I was proud of our team for beating Clinton in the Semifinals," Zeerip said. "We beat them by one point earlier in the year and then beat them by 20 in the Semifinals. I was proud of how our kids wrestled this weekend."
But the weekend belonged to Dundee -- again.
"Winning like this starts at home," said Stevens, whose team ended with an 18-5 record. "You need to get your sleep, discipline in your diet, and do well in the classroom. Then you have to stay healthy and put in the work. And if you do all the things right and at the end of the day you get your hand raised -- that's winning."
PHOTOS (Top) Dundee’s Aiden Massingill has his arm raised in victory after a key win at 215 pounds Saturday. (Middle) Whitehall’s Gavin Craner, left, controls his match at 175. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)