Today in the MHSAA: 10/12/16

October 12, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Ranked teams matched up in cross country, soccer and volleyball Tuesday all over the Lower Peninsula with league trophies – with top-ranked teams in all three sports among those that won championships.

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

Pinckney’s Catherine Stone won the second race of her four-year varsity career to lead her team, ranked No. 5 in Lower Peninsula Division 1, to its first Kensington Lakes Activities Association West championship since 2010 – Livingston County Daily Argus & Press

The LPD3 No. 7 Saugatuck girls clinched their 10th straight Southwestern Athletic Conference title, while the top-ranked boys won their fifth straight championship – Holland Sentinel

Ithaca swept the Tri-Valley West Conference championships, the boys by a slim margin over St. Louis and the LPD3 No. 11 girls for the fourth straight season – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

Boys Soccer

East Lansing, the top-ranked team in Division 2, avenged an opening-night loss to Haslett by defeating the No. 18 Vikings 2-0 in the Capital Area Activities Conference Gold Cup championship game – Lansing State Journal

Shelby clinched a share of the West Michigan Conference title, its first league championship since 2000, by avenging an earlier loss to Division 4 No. 2 North Muskegon 2-1 – Muskegon Chronicle

Division 4 No. 16 Adrian Lenawee Christian downed Manchester 4-2 to clinch the Independent Soccer League East championship and will face No. 7 Hillsdale Academy on Thursday for the overall title – Adrian Daily Telegram

Division 1 No. 5 Rochester Adams got past No. 4 Troy Athens 2-0 to guarantee an outright Oakland Activities Association Red championship – Oakland Press

Volleyball

Class A top-ranked Novi finished its third straight KLAA Central title with a sweep of No. 4 Northville – Oakland Press

Class D No. 3 Leland won a match of top-10 teams, downing No. 9 Suttons Bay in three sets – Traverse City Record-Eagle

For the second straight season, Marcellus clinched the Southwestern Athletic Conference Central title with a win over Decatur – Sturgis Journal

From Monday, St. Joseph downed Class B No. 3 Buchanan in five games in a significant upset; the Bears are 9-22 and the Bucks are 34-4 – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium

Today in the MHSAA: 10/19/16

October 19, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

District soccer continued Tuesday and league champions were crowned in volleyball and cross country all over the Lower Peninsula – but the must-see stories are a pair of “good reads” coming out of the Jackson and Alpena areas.

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 Caro boys – No. 4 in Lower Peninsula Division 3 – and the No. 6 Shepherd girls won championships at the Tri-Valley Conference all-division final – Saginaw News

The Ubly girls and boys teams repeated as East champions at the Greater Thumb Conference championship race (Ubly's girls are No. 9 in LPD4), and the Reese girls and LPD4 honorable mention Cass City boys repeated as West winners – Huron Daily Tribune

Traverse City West swept the final Big North Conference jamborees, the West boys earning the league title and the Central girls finishing as overall league champion for the 14th straight season. The Central girls are No. 4 in LPD1 and the West girls are an honorable mention – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Harbor Springs’ boys (No. 2 LPD4) kept their undefeated season going with a third straight Lake Michigan Conference final championship, and Traverse City St. Francis (No. 2 LPD3) clinched the girls title – Petoskey News-Review

Boys Soccer

Division 1 No. 2 Portage Northern moved on with a 4-1 District win over Lansing Everett thanks to three goals by Ryan Melgar – Kalamazoo Gazette

Adrian Lenawee Christian freshman Zach Riordan set his school’s scoring record of 36 goals in an 8-0 Division 4 win over Clinton – Adrian Daily Telegram

Girls Swimming & Diving

LPD1 No. 2 Saline got past No. 10 Brighton 112-74 in a matchup of top Division 1 teams – Saline Post

Volleyball

Walled Lake Central repeated as Lakes champion in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association with a five-set win over Brighton – Livingston Daily Argus & Press

Class A top-ranked Novi swept Canton to win its fourth straight KLAA Kensington championship – Oakland Press

Marine City improved to 8-1 in the Macomb Area Conference Gold and clinched a share of the league title with a three-set win over Warren Mott – Port Huron Times Herald

Good Reads

The story of Brooklyn Columbia Central standout running back Micah Raby is captivating, if not from this passage alone about how his adopted parents found him: “Inside the missionary’s hut, on an ordinary table lay an ordinary bible box containing an extraordinary sight, and it caught Doug and Sandy Raby’s eyes and hearts immediately. Inside that bible box – no bigger than a size 10 shoebox – was a 1-month-old boy named Joseph, one of two surviving triplets. His brother did not survive the birth and the birth parents decided to keep the other one, believed to be a girl, because it was the biggest and had the greatest chance of surviving.” – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Lincoln Alcona announcer Don Franklin first gave voice to the school’s athletic events in 1967, and will retire at the end of this school year with 50 years on the microphone announcing football and a number of other sports over a half century – Alpena News