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.
Preparation Pays Off as Janczarek Caps Lake Orion Career with Best Finals Finish
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 13, 2025
The recent stretch of warm weather might have melted snow and ice and indicated ski season is over, but don’t tell that to Broden Janczarek.
Since he left the Division 1 Finals on Feb. 24 at Nub’s Nob, the senior from Lake Orion has been his usual busy self.
He has been to training and racing sessions in Oregon, Colorado, and Canada, adding to his world skiing travels.
Janczarek said the highlight came last summer, when he traveled to Chile (during its winter) to enjoy two weeks of breathtaking scenery, food that was cooked by chefs each day and skiing.
“We were staying right at the base of the mountain,” he said. “We were walking out of our little condo, skiing open to close and then starting right back over the next day.”
While his experiences skiing around the world and on junior circuits are near and dear to him, so is his experience skiing for the high school team, which was beyond fruitful.
During his time in high school, Janczarek:
- Won the Southeast Michigan Ski League giant slalom and slalom titles last year, and the slalom this year. He was second in giant slalom this season.
- Qualified for the MHSAA Division 1 Finals all four years. (This season the Dragons qualified as a team as well.)
- Posted three top-10 finishes at the Finals, including a runner-up in giant slalom this season.
- Accumulated a 4.0 grade-point average in the classroom.
Then again, competing as a skier from Southeast Michigan and nearly beating elite skiers from the Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, since he has done it for years at weekend junior competitions.
“It was nice to kind of show them what’s going on in Southeast Michigan,” Janczarek said.
Janczarek said his love for skiing started early in life, beginning when his dad taught him the sport at age 3. He got serious into racing when he was 7, and by the time he got into high school he was already accomplished, having trained with Pinnacle Alpine Racing based out of Pine Knob.
He said there were two big components that drew him most to the sport.
“Partially the adrenaline rush of racing, but also the community,” he said. “You wouldn’t realize it with skiing because it’s more of a solo sport. But the team bonding you make and the close friendships you have, it can make or break your experiences in the sport. I was fortunate to have some good teammates, some good friends and even better coaches along the way.”
Lake Orion head coach Karl Basigkow said the biggest thing that has separated Janczarek from the rest is the way he prepares for different tracks, gate placement and terrains each course has presented.
“He’s a student of the sport,” Basigkow said. “His technique is excellent. Every race course and venue is different, and with that in mind the tactical side is always in development.”
What also has complemented Janczarek on the slopes has been his time on the pitch as a soccer player.
He played soccer at Lake Orion for all four years of high school primary as a center back, which he said gave him extra cardiovascular endurance for ski races. In turn, he said skiing and all the concentration that sport forces an athlete to develop have helped him be a better soccer player.
“If I had just done one over the other, I wouldn’t have been a better athlete for it,” he said.
At the Finals, while the biggest accomplishment was finishing second in the giant slalom — which was his best finish at a high school state meet — the biggest compliment to him might have been how he handled one mishap in the slalom.
Janczarek had a straddle on the first run of slalom that pretty much took him out of the competition, but he didn’t hesitate to go up for his second run and finish.
“I know there is a lot of people in the sport of ski racing that if they have a bad run, they’ll just not take their second run or just leave and go home,” he said. “I think it’s important you give your all every time you’re on the ski hill.”
Janczarek will continue to give it his all in college, as he plans to ski for Northern Michigan University.
He said he wants to stick with skiing “as far as it will take him,” whether it’s something beyond college competitively, or just as a coach to influence others.
Basigkow said Janczarek was generous with his time all season in the way he counseled younger skiers on Lake Orion’s team, and saw firsthand how coaching could be in his future.
“Just to get other people the same love for the sport I have,” Janczarek said.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Lake Orion's Broden Janczarek cuts past a gate during a slalom run at the Division 1 Finals at Nub's Nob. (Middle) Janczarek comes to a stop after a giant slalom run. (Click for more by Tori Burley.)