Today in the MHSAA: 10/10/16

October 10, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Arguably the most high-profile regular-season events in cross country and girls swimming & diving took place this weekend, with the forecasts looking good for MHSAA championship contenders who were highly ranked coming in.

Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.

Cross Country

The Portage Invitational annually brings many of the top teams in Michigan together for something of a barometer for the MHSAA Finals; champions Saturday included the Lower Peninsula No. 4 Bear Lake/Onekama boys and the top-ranked Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart girls in Division 4, the No. 1-ranked Saugatuck boys and No. 2 Lansing Catholic girls in Division 3, No. 3 Fremont boys and No. 3 East Grand Rapids girls in Division 2 and the LaGrange Lyons, Ill. boys (runner-up and No. 1 Saline was the top in-state boys team) and No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer girls in Division 1 – Athletic.net

The LPD1 top-ranked Birmingham Seaholm girls won a sixth straight Oakland County championship, while the No. 2 Novi boys also repeated – Oakland Press

Girls Swimming & Diving

The annual Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association Meet also draws many of the state’s top competitors each fall. Multi-winners this weekend included Saline sophomore Maddie Luther (200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke) and Saline junior Lizzy Spears (200 individual medley, 500 freestyle) as their team also won two relays and received the top place in diving from Camryn McPherson; the Hornets are ranked No. 3 in LP Division 1 – MISCAonline.net

Volleyball

Marquette swept Ishpeming in two sets to win the Northern Michigan University High School Invitational – Marquette Mining Journal

Lake Linden-Hubbell improved to 17-6-4 with a championship at the Michigan-Wisconsin Invitational played at Ironwood and Hurley, Wis. – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

Class A honorable mention Grand Haven downed Grand Rapids Catholic Central, Class B honorable mention Whitehall, Holland West Ottawa, Kalamazoo Central and Muskegon Mona Shores to the wins the Sailors’ invitational – Grand Haven Tribune

Adrian Madison downed Class D No. 7 Pittsford, Hopkins, Reading, White Pigeon, Camden-Frontier and Constantine to win the Homer Invitational – Adrian Daily Telegram

Today in the MHSAA: 5/23/16

May 23, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

It’s been an exciting few days especially for our track & field and girls tennis teams, which competed in Regionals over the weekend – with some of the many highlights among those linked below.

Baseball

Battle Creek Lakeview’s Ethan Eldridge threw a shutout to lead his team over Harper Creek for their all-city championship, 3-0 – Battle Creek Enquirer

Division 1 No. 4 Rockford swept Division 3 No. 1 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 4-1 and 4-2 – Detroit Free Press

Girls Soccer

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep won its first Detroit Catholic League A-B championship in this sport, downing Warren Regina in an overtime shootout – Oakland Press

Softball

Sierra Stoepker drilled a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th inning to lead Lake Odessa Lakewood to a 10-9 win over DeWitt in the championship game of the Lansing Softball Classic – Lansing State Journal

Napoleon (32-1) outscored its opponents 32-5 to win a second straight Al Glick Tournament championship, beating Parma Western 3-0 in the final – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Petoskey won the Lansing Waverly Invitational, opening with a 5-4 win over two-loss Grand Ledge – Petoskey News

Division 3 No. 4 Clinton beat Division 2 No. 7 Muskegon Oakridge and later Division 3 No. 9 Reese for the Best of Michigan Tournament title at Byron Center – Adrian Dailey Telegram

Girls Tennis

Bay City All Saints won its first Regional and qualified for the MHSAA Finals for the first time since 1992 – Bay City Times

Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern edged East Grand Rapids by three points to win its 15th straight Regional, in Division 2 – Grand Rapids Press

Edwardsburg claimed its first Regional title as well, dominating the field to finish six points ahead of the rest in Division 3 – Kalamazoo Gazette

Ludington shared its Division 3 Regional title with Whitehall, and in the process No. 1 doubles pair Julia Flewelling and Claire Maltbie won their 100th match to break the school’s doubles record – Muskegon Chronicle

Division 4 No. 3 Kalamazoo Hackett swept singles to finish ahead of No. 5 Kalamazoo Christian in their Regional – Kalamazoo Gazette

Track & Field

Lake Linden-Hubbell swept boys and girls Regionals for the first time since 1998 – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

The Reese girls edged Frankenmuth 122-121 to win their first Regional title in 22 years – Saginaw News

The Addison boys won their first Regional since 1995, beating Petersburg Summerfield by 12 points, 124-112 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

The Blanchard Montabella girls won their first Regional title, with the Division 4 victory also the school's first at that level of tournament competition in any sport since 2003 – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

Good Read

The Grandville Calvin Christian baseball team will take part this week in fundraising for the medical care of Kyle Petrlich, who is awaiting a second heart transplant and in December required CPR from her brother Griffin, a player on the Calvin Christian baseball team – Grand Rapids Press