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.
Forest Hills Rules D2: FHC's Ohlman Repeats, FHN Takes Back Team Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 1, 2024
BYRON CENTER — The last day of actual school this year for Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central senior Lily Ohlman might have been May 6. But from a tennis perspective, it can be argued that her last day of school was May 4 — when she learned a few things that paid off during her final high school tournament.
It was then that Ohlman suffered a three-set loss to Megan Sullivan of Farmington Hills Mercy (10-8 in the third-set tiebreak). Earning a rematch with Sullivan in the No. 1 singles championship match at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Saturday, Ohlman tried to figuratively go to school and do her homework from that last match with Sullivan.
“Megan has an extremely good forehand,” Ohlman said. “She really hurt me with that in the last match. Going into this, I just tried as hard as I could not to hit it to her forehand. When I did, I tried to hit it deep and stuff.”
Ohlman certainly played like someone who did her homework from that match as well, as she earned her second straight singles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the junior from Mercy.
Ohlman reached Sullivan by surviving Ana Cheng of Mattawan in the semifinals, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
“I have thought about this every day for the past year since I won states for the first time,” Ohlman said of trying to repeat. “It’s been like a true dream come true for my tennis career.”
While Ohlman brought home an individual title for Forest Hills Central, rival Forest Hills Northern claimed the team championship for the third time over the last four years. The Huskies netted 29 points to edge 2023 champion Birmingham Seaholm, which finished with 23.
Northern had players in five flights advance to finals, with four of those flights producing championships.
FHN’s title was punctuated when the No. 1 doubles team of Ryan Morey and Paige McKenzie defeated Seaholm’s team of Jenna Ting and Katie Slazinski in a thrilling final, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. Northern actually had the team title clinched by that point, but head coach Steven Olson didn’t want his players to know that.
“I don’t want them to back off because they think the team has already won it,” he said. “I want them to think they are still hunting for a title the entire time.”
Huskies junior Andrea Wang defeated Keira Kirkland of Farmington Hills Mercy, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-2 to win at No. 2 singles, sophomore Harriet Ogilvie captured the title at No. 3, and the team of Lauren Jaklitsch and Morgan McKenzie won at No. 2 doubles.
Olson guided his team to a Finals title in his second year as head coach after taking over for Dave Sukup, who led the program for 49 years before retiring. Northern had fallen to No. 2 behind Seaholm in the final regular-season coaches rankings. And then the Huskies lost their No. 1 singles player Nathalie Lanne to a torn ACL last week.
Her replacement, Natalia Acevedo, managed to win a first-round match to earn a crucial point despite not being seeded.
Also stepping up was sophomore Aanya Dogra, who entered the tournament unseeded at No. 4 singles. Dogra recorded upsets of No. 3 seed Elisa Costeux of Mattawan and No. 2 seed Maddy Youngblood of Grosse Pointe South before falling in the championship match to No. 1 seed Gabby Owens of Farmington Hills Mercy, 6-0, 6-2.
Still, Dogra’s run earned some major points for the Huskies.
“The rest of the team just stepped up and performed,” Olson said. “It’s been a wild weekend, but I’m very proud of these girls.”
PHOTOS (Top) Forest Hills Central’s Lily Ohlman returns a volley during her No. 1 singles championship match Saturday. (Middle) Forest Hills Northern’s Paige McKenzie, right, with partner Ryan Morey, sends back a powerful volley at No. 1 doubles. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)