Today in the MHSAA: 10/1/15

October 1, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

A pair of neat stories on three-sport athletes are worth your time today as we prepare for another full weekend and celebrate our first MHSAA champions.

Girls Golf

Lower Peninsula Division 2 top-ranked Midland Dow captured the first of what it hopes will be multiple championships this fall, winning its third straight Saginaw Valley League title – Saginaw News

St. Joseph, No. 7 in Division 2, claimed the Southwest Michigan Athletic Conference championship by 31 strokes with a score of 338 – Kalamazoo Gazette

Boys Soccer

Ortonville Brandon, No. 19 in Division 2, notched its ninth shutout of the season and sixth straight win by blanking Linden 2-0 – Flint Journal

Girls Tennis

Munising clinched its first MHSAA title, edging Iron Mountain by a point to win Upper Peninsula Division 2 in the first postseason final of this school year – Second Half

Volleyball

Tri-County Conference rivals Clinton and Adrian Madison played five sets Tuesday, none decided by more than four points in Clinton’s win to stay undefeated in the league – Adrian Daily Telegram

Good Reads

Since joining the Sanford Meridian varsity during Week 2 of 2012, four-year quarterback Christian Petre has a 25-9 record and has the Mustangs off to a 5-0 start. He also plays baseball and is a reigning MHSAA champion in the 100 meters – Midland Daily News

The Dean family is synonymous with Lowell football (and wrestling too), with Noel Dean the longtime football coach and Zeth Dean on the team now – along with his sister, Darby, the kicker this fall – Grand Rapids Press

Today in the MHSAA: 8/24/15

August 24, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

All MHSAA fall sports but football kicked off competition last week, with cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming and diving and volleyball starting Saturday.

Below are some notable headlines from the first weekend of this season, plus links to coverage.

Cross Country

St. Johns hosted its second “Under the Lights” meets Friday; Ithaca’s girls and Saugatuck’s boys bested fields loaded with much larger opponents – Lansing State Journal

The St. Joseph girls and Bridgman boys won championships at the Niles Stampede – the St. Joseph girls, who finished fourth in Lower Peninsula Division 2 last season, by a large margin – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium

Girls Golf

Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox, last season’s LP Division 4 individual champion, came back to defeat Brighton freshman Annie Pietila at the two-day Lober Invitational at Grand Traverse Resort – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Boys Soccer

Two of the state’s powers met in the championship game of the Detroit Country Day Tournament on Saturday – with 2013 Division 1 runner-up Bloomfield Hills downing the host Yellowjackets 1-0 in a shootout – Oakland Press

Girls Swimming & Diving

Howell won its Kenzie Klassic, which honors swimmer Mackenize Watts, who died in 2005 at age 15. The school also raised enough money to award three scholarships and begin funding cardiac-related causes – Livingston Daily

Volleyball

Novi won the Lakeshore Classic by coming back after losing the first two games to beat Grand Haven 3-2 in a rematch of a 2014 Class A Semifinal – Muskegon Chronicle

Battle Creek Harper Creek, for the first time, won the gold championship at the long-running Carrie Adams Memorial Tournament hosted by reigning Class D champion Battle Creek St. Philip – Battle Creek Enquirer

Good Read

Mike Steele, a Midland Dow grad and now pitching coach at Long Beach State in California, argues that parents need to raise their athletes to compete instead of providing specific training in one sport – Midland Daily News