10 to Remember: Spring 2013
June 25, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nine teams won their first MHSAA championships this spring. Birmingham Brother Rice's boys lacrosse team won its ninth in a row.
And those are only among the toppers of the long list that made memorable moments during this season's Finals, which finished up the school year two weekends ago.
Locking down the 10 most significant performances is impossible. But endeavoring to do so, here are one person's guess at those that will continue to be discussed most in the years to come.
Among those that just missed this list: Brother Rice boys lacrosse, St. Ignace's girls track and field team after winning its fourth straight team title, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett's baseball team after its extra-innings Final win over Beal City, Grandville Calvin Christian's girls soccer team after winning a rematch of last season's Division 4 Final and Port Huron Northern's girls tennis team after it emerged from a loaded field to win the Lower Peninsula Division 1 title.
Sami Michell Shines Once More
In her final high school meet, Reed City senior Sami Michell won four more MHSAA Finals individual titles to finish her career with 12 – two more than the previous Lower Peninsula record. A year after becoming the second female to win four events at one Finals meet, she did so again by finishing first in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles, the 200 dash and the long jump. She scored 40 points to claim the team runner-up trophy for her school. Click to read more.
Best Class of All-Time?
That could be the argument for this season’s girls track and field seniors, as twins Hannah and Haley Meier and Erin Finn joined Sami Michell, Detroit Country Day's Kendall Baisden and a host of others in finishing their careers. The Meiers already are members of a national record-holding relay (which set its milestone in 2012), and Hannah won two more Division 1 individual titles (setting all-Finals records) while Haley placed in the same two races and joined her sister on two winning relays. West Bloomfield’s Finn, considered as well one of the nation’s top high school distance runners, finished third to the Meiers in the Division 1 1,600 before cutting nine seconds off her 2012 time in setting an all-Finals record in the 3,200. Click to read more.
Warriors Earn First Title for Winning Coach
Bay City Western’s baseball team strung together two 1-0 shutouts by pitchers Brett Adcock and then Connor Foley to claim its first MHSAA baseball championship – and the first to go with coach Tim McDonald’s other 563 wins over the last 21 seasons. The 1-0 championship game victory over Brother Rice was Western's 35th straight of the season; Western finished 42-2. Click to read more.
Gull Lake Soccer Makes Mark
Richland Gull Lake hadn’t played in a girls soccer Final since 1999, but survived two overtimes against reigning champion Bloomfield Hills Marian to win the Division 2 championship game 1-0. The title was Gull Lake’s first since 1992 and came against a program that not only won in 2012, but three of the last five Division 2 championships. Click to read more.
Upper Peninsula Ace Shoots Record Round
Snow and rain put a damper on a good portion of the girls golf season in the Upper Peninsula this spring. But no U.P. female golfer has ever finished as strongly as Marquette’s Avery Rochester. She claimed her second straight individual Finals championship with a U.P. Finals-record 69, which was three under par at Portage Lake Golf Course in Houghton. Her score also was just one more stroke than the all-Finals record of 68 shot by Grandville’s Stacy Snider in 1998. Click to read more.
7 ... 2 ... 1 ... Champion Tecumseh
Tecumseh entered the MHSAA Tournament after finishing the regular season an honorable mention in the Division 2 softball coaches poll. But the Indians defeated No. 1 Stevensville Lakeshore in the Quarterfinal, reigning champion and No. 2 Livonia Ladywood in the Semifinal and No. 7 Saginaw Swan Valley in the Final to claim their first championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Bishop Foley Sets Baseball Bar
Madison Heights Bishop Foley claimed its third straight Division 3 baseball championship to become the first in MHSAA baseball history to win that many consecutive titles. Bishop Foley is 112-8-1 over the last three seasons and finished 35-2-1 this spring. The Ventures outscored their Bailey Park competition by a combined 18-5 over Finals weekend – getting junior Garrett Schilling to 15-0 for this season and 31-0 for his career with a 6-0 Semifinal win. Click to read more.
Done Deal for Dundee
The Dundee softball team eliminated two-time reigning champion Clinton on the way to Bailey Park this spring, and then beat three-time champion Unionville-Sebewaing in the Division 3 Final to claim its first MHSAA championship in the sport. In the process, Dundee finished 45-1 – setting an MHSAA record for wins in a softball season. Click to read more.
Troy Moves Up to No. 1
After two-straight Division 1 runner-up finishes, Troy earned its first girls soccer championship since 2003 with a 2-1 Final win over Grandville. The Colts had been outscored a combined 3-0 in the last two MHSAA Division 1 Finals, and began this season 3-6-2 before rattling off 15 wins and a tie on the way to claiming the championship. Click to read more.
Tie-Breaker After Heart-Breaker
The Battle Creek Lakeview boys golf team had finished one stroke behind Birmingham Brother Rice at the 2012 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, and found itself tied with Plymouth this month after the final round was complete. But thanks to a fifth-player tie-breaker, Lakeview claimed its first MHSAA championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Fowler Girls Award 1st-Year Coach with Program's 1st Finals Title since 2019
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 2, 2024
HUDSONVILLE — Sometimes it actually isn’t so hard to replace a legend. Just ask Fowler girls track & field coach Neil Hufnagel.
After last year, Hufnagel took over for longtime Fowler coach Jill Feldpausch, who built the program into a dynasty.
Feldpausch led Fowler to five MHSAA Finals titles from 2011 to 2019, but there was no need for anyone to feel sorry for Hufnagel going into this year.
On the contrary, it might have been the track & field version of inheriting a Fort Knox-sized gold mine.
“She left the cupboards absolutely packed,” he said.
That was evident during the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals on Saturday at Baldwin Middle School, where Fowler reigned supreme again with a dominant performance.
Fowler finished with 70.5 points, well ahead of the 44 collected by runner-up Portland St. Patrick.
Fowler had only one first-place event finish, and that was in the last one, taking first in the 1,600 relay in a time of 4:08.44.
But that didn’t end up mattering as Fowler used its depth to score points.
The Eagles, who finished fourth last year, snapped a mini drought by their standards.
“We talked a little bit about being workmanlike,” Hufnagel said. “We know that it doesn’t take first places to finish first in the state. We had some good team depth, and we were able to use that.”
Saugatuck was third with 34 points.
There were several individual standouts who flanked Fowler’s team victory.
Buckley senior Aiden Harrand, who will run next for Wake Forest, won the 1,600 in a time of 4:53.25 and the 400 in a time of 58.25. Harrand also finished second in the 800.
Between cross country and track, Harrand finished her high school career with 10 Finals championships and showed impressive versatility.
“It’s hard for sure,” Harrand said. “I do a lot of distance training. I have to because I have to be prepared for that mile. I think the speed comes naturally. I do a lot of speed workouts and stuff. But you’ve got to train distance.”
Another individual standout was Addison junior Molly Brown. She repeated in the 100 hurdles in a time of 15.22, and then won the 300 hurdles in a time of 45.07.
Brown was second in the 300 hurdles last year, and she obviously was thrilled to build on that defeat and set up what should be a big senior year in 2025.
“I knew the girl that beat me last year graduated, but I knew that coming in this year, I was going to have to run a really good time to win,” Brown said. “I just really wanted to win.”
In the field events, Marlette senior Olivia Findlay shined the brightest, winning the long jump with a distance of 17-feet, 4½ inches and the high jump in 5 feet, 5 inches.
Other champions included Unionville-Sebewaing sophomore Layla Bolzman in the 100 and 200, Johannesburg-Lewiston junior Allie Nowak in the 800, Whitmore Lake freshman Kaylie Livingston in the 3,200, Chesterfield Austin Catholic senior Lyla Mullins in the shot put and discus and Mason County Eastern junior Payton Haynes in the pole vault. Frankfort (400), Portland St. Patrick (800) and Whitmore Lake (3,200) also won relays. Athens junior Aleyah Deller won the adaptive 100, 200 and shot put events.
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler's Katie Spicer crosses the finish line during a sprint Saturday. (Middle) Addison's Molly Brown, right, finishes her 100 hurdles championship win. (Click for more from Ken Swart/RunMichigan.com.)