Did You See That? (April 15-21)

April 30, 2013

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

A rough survey of Michigan newspapers over the last week found at least 13 reported on how this spring's rainy (snowy?) weather has affected spring high school sports.

But a few more teams finally made it outside – although all-weather sports like soccer again dominated play during the middle week of April.

Here's a look at some of the highlights, with links to local coverage: 

Girls Soccer

Fraser rolls to Ladywood title: After upsetting Division 2 No. 2 and tournament host Livonia Ladywood in a semifinal Saturday, unranked Fraser won the Ladywood Invitational by defeating Division 2 honorable mention Haslett 3-2 in the championship game at Madonna University. (Mlive.com)

Rockford shuts down, shuts out: The Rams shut out all three of its opponents to win Saturday’s Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern Invitational, capping the day with a win over Division 2 No. 3 Forest Hills Northern. Rockford is No. 7 in Division 1. (Grand Rapids Press)

Hawks soar: Unranked Saginaw Heritage, a Division 1 team, edged Division 3 No. 3 Flint Powers Catholic 2-1 on Saturday. (Saginaw News)

Softball

Lakeshore beats Indiana No. 1: Stevensville-Lakeshore, ranked No. 1 in Division 2, beat Indiana Class 3A top-ranked Mishawaka 11-4 on Friday. (St. Joseph Herald-Palladium)

Girls Tennis

FHN takes First: Forest Hills Northern – ranked No. 2 in Division 2 – welcomed co-No. 10s Petoskey and Bloomfield Hills Lahser, plus Mason, on Saturday, and won all four doubles flights to earn the quad championship. (Grand Rapids Press)

Girls Track and Field

Marquette girls Superior: There still was snow in the Upper Peninsula last week, but not inside the Superior Dome as Marquette’s girls won the top division of Tuesday’s Superior Dome Invitational by finishing first in six races at Northern Michigan University. (Marquette Mining Journal)

Boys Track and Field

Raymond keeps running: MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 cross country champion Nick Raymond of Erie Mason won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 to earn Athlete of the Meet honors at Saturday’s Monroe Jefferson Invitational. (Monroe Evening News)

Baseball

Eskymos open with title: Escanaba traveled south and won the Remus Chippewa Hills Invitational, a run that included beating this week's Division 2 No. 10 Chippewa Hills, 12-3, in the championship game. (Escanaba Daily Press)

Football

Waterford Our Lady waves bye to Boyd: Mike Boyd won more than 1,000 varsity games over three sports, and his 361 football wins are third-most for a coach in MHSAA history. He announced his retirement earlier this month. (Oakland Press)

Wrestling

Bronson’s Sosinski retires: Longtime Bronson wrestling coach Al Sosinski has retired after 30 seasons. He coached five MHSAA individual champions and two teams that finished runner-up in MHSAA Team Finals. (Sturgis Journal)

Today in the MHSAA: 6/3/16

June 3, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Nine Upper Peninsula teams won the first MHSAA Finals championships awarded this spring season Thursday, while a number of Lower Peninsula teams positioned themselves for trophy hunts this weekend and beyond.

Girls Golf

Escanaba, Cedarville and Iron Mountain provided some surprises and streak breakers in winning MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals – Second Half

Boys Golf

The top three ranked teams in Lower Peninsula Division 2 played in the same Regional on Thursday – with top ranked Ada Forest Hills Eastern finishing two strokes ahead of No. 2 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern and four ahead of No. 3 St. Johns as all three advanced to next weekend – Grand Rapids Press

Jackson Lumen Christi, No. 2 in LP Division 3, won its 11th straight Regional title – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Houghton won its third straight MHSAA title, Carney-Nadeau repeated and St. Ignace also won a championship at Upper Peninsula Finals – Second Half

Girls Soccer

Bay City Western avenged an earlier 5-0 loss with a 1-0 win over Midland in a Division 1 District Semifinal – Bay City Times

Traverse City West downed rival Traverse City Central 1-0 with the lone goal coming in overtime – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Division 1 No. 6 Bloomfield Hills needed a shootout to get past Waterford Mott, 1-0 – Oakland Press

Fennville downed Dowagiac 1-0 in Division 3 to advance to a District Final for the first time – Holland Sentinel

Boys Tennis

Ishpeming Westwood ran its MHSAA title streak to three straight, while a pair of powers shared the Division 1 title – Second Half

Good Read

We’re big fans of playing more than one high school sport, and so we’re big fans of the work of Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills senior Alexis Baskin, who recently received the Michigan High School Coaches Association Rich Tompkins Multi-Sport Athlete Award after earning a combined 12 letters in volleyball, basketball and track & field – Grand Rapids Press