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.
Greenhills Finds 'June Magic' Again to Extend Division 4 Streak to 3-Peat
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
June 1, 2024
ANN ARBOR — The Ann Arbor Greenhills High School girls tennis team has a motto:
“All joy, no fear, can’t lose.”
On Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals, the Gryphons felt plenty of joy, feared no one and just could not lose.
Led by junior Maddie Morgan’s three-set thriller at No. 1 singles, Greenhills collected its third straight Finals team trophy and its fifth overall by claiming all but one flight championship at the University of Michigan’s William Clay Ford Outdoor Courts.
“We’re very thrilled at the outcome. They worked very hard, the parents have been incredibly supportive, the school has been supportive, and when you have all of that going for you, it’s hard not to put in a good effort,” said coach Mark Randolph, who in addition to coaching the past three Finals champions also coached the team to titles in 2017 and 2009.
“We feel very privileged, and we want to use our privilege the right way. We want to be grateful and play the game the right way.”
Greenhills nearly swept the tournament, scoring 38 of a possible 40 points to outdistance Division 4 newcomer Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s 27 points. Traverse City St. Francis was third with 19, followed by Elk Rapids with 17 and Wixom St. Catherine and Grand Rapids West Catholic tied with 16.
Greenhills and Notre Dame Prep entered Saturday’s matches tied at 24 after each advanced all eight entries to the semifinals Friday. Greenhills then put seven singles and doubles teams into the finals, including all four singles entries, while Notre Dame Prep advanced one singles player and one doubles team to the championship matches.
Morgan, the second seed at No. 1 singles, faced top seed and undefeated senior Ayva Johnstone of Elk Rapids in a rematch from a meeting earlier this year, won by Johnstone in three sets.
“Ayva had beaten Maddie earlier in the year, and when she walked off the court, I said to her, ‘June,’” Randolph said. “The magic happens in June.”
Morgan finished on top this time with a back-and-forth 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 victory. Johnstone had a 4-1 lead in the first set before Morgan roared back, and Morgan led 3-1 in the second set before Johnstone responded. The third set was all Morgan as she repeated as No. 1 singles champion after falling in the semifinals as a freshman.
“Of course it was going to be a close match,” Morgan said. “It was essential to focus at the beginning of that third set and kind of get her off her feet a little bit. After that, it felt like I was in the zone.”
Freshman Ellie Kim won the No. 2 singles championship 6-0, 6-1 over Elk Rapids junior Anneka Croftchik to polish off a 25-0 campaign. The top seed, Kim lost just three games over four matches during the weekend.
“It’s really nice. I’ve been preparing the whole season, so it feels really nice to have it pay off,” Kim said.
Junior Shangyang Xia won at No. 3 singles to collect her third-straight singles and team championships. Xia, who defeated Notre Dame Prep senior Addison Bellows 6-2, 6-0, was the No. 2 singles champion the past two seasons and provided a massive spark for the team.
“Maddie has been a real cornerstone, but you look at what Shangyang Xia has done,” Randolph said. “She’s now won three individual state titles and three state team titles. No one in the history of our school has ever done that. She’s another essential part. As I go through the team, everybody is essential to our team concept.”
Sophomore Danica Rakic-Dennis was the No. 4 singles champion with a 6-0, 7-6 victory over St. Francis senior Ava Pomaranski.
In doubles, Greenhills sophomore Lauren Ye and freshman Nina Malani teamed up to claim the No. 1 championship with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 thriller over West Catholic junior Alivia Mott and senior Brooke Tietz.
Juniors Sophie Chen and Sophia Kleer defeated St. Catherine senior Sarah Palushaj and junior Lily Wolocko 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles, while senior Parini Rao and freshman Alyssa Hong took the No. 4 doubles title with a 6-1, 0-6, 6-2 victory over West Catholic seniors Carly Wright and Emily Dorato.
Rao played No. 1 doubles as a freshman for Randolph, before Greenhills began its tear through Division 4, and was the only senior on the team.
“She was a ninth-grader when people used to clown us,” Randolph said. “We were trying to build. The next year Maddie, Shangyang, Sophia, Sophie, Meera (Tewari), Meera (Pandey), all joined our team, and they stayed with it. I credit my wife (Becky Randolph) with creating a team atmosphere and getting these kids to appreciate staying at Greenhills. They’ve helped Parini become a three-time state champion.”
The only flight that alluded the Gryphons was No. 3 doubles, where the Notre Dame Prep duo of junior Erin Delaney and senior Megan Fitzpatrick defeated Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian freshmen Laura Brandt and Leah Ulstad 6-3, 6-1.
The fourth seed, Delaney and Fitzpatrick earned a hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 victory in the semifinals over top-seeded Tewari and Pandey to claim the Fighting Irish’s lone flight championship.
A year after a fourth-place finish in Division 3, third-year coach Brandon Clayton was thrilled with his team’s showing.
“This core group of girls has really raised the standards for the program,” Clayton said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Division 4 or Division 3. We came into this with expectations, and they lived up to every one of them.
“About four years ago, they weren’t a team that anybody had any thought about, let alone fear about. Now we’re at the top of the state. It’s a little Cinderella story for them, so that makes it pretty special despite it not being first place.”
Randolph, who was hired as an assistant coach for the girls team at Greenhills 27 years ago, said he began to contemplate this year’s Finals on the drive back from Kalamazoo after the Gryphons won last year’s championship. While he’s already doing the same for next year, he said he plans to savor this one if not just for a bit.
“We’re at the mountaintop right now, but it took 27 years to climb the mountain,” he said. “I’d just like a minute to enjoy the view.”
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Shangyang Xia smashes a forehand during a No. 3 singles match Saturday. (Middle) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Megan Fitzpatrick sends back a backhand at No. 3 doubles. (Click for more at High School Sports Scene.)