Today in the MHSAA: 10/19/17

October 19, 2017

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Each weekday of the school year, we break down the top headlines courtesy of Michigan’s sports media.

Today's Top 10

1. Boys Soccer: Unranked Brighton eliminated top-ranked Ann Arbor Skyline in a Division 1 District Semifinal, 2-1 – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

2. Cross Country: Clare’s girls claimed their eighth straight Jack Pine Conference championship and the boys won their 10th consecutive; the girls are ranked No. 7 in Lower Peninsula Division 3, and the boys are No. 10 – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

3. Boys Soccer: No. 2 Leland advanced to a Division 4 District Final with a 3-0 win over No. 15 Harbor Springs – Traverse City Record-Eagle

4. Cross Country: Zeeland West, Zeeland East (honorable mention in LPD2) and Holland’s boys all finished as co-champions in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Green, while the LPD2 No. 7 Holland Christian girls won outright after sharing the title in 2016 – Holland Sentinel

5. Boys Soccer: Division 1 No. 10 Rochester downed No. 16 Rochester Hills Stoney Creek 3-0 for the second straight time this season – Oakland Press

6. Boys Soccer: Roscommon edged Division 4 No. 19 Lincoln Alcona 4-3 in a District Semifinal – Alpena News

7. Volleyball: St. Joseph Michigan Lutheran earned its fourth straight league title in the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph White with a four-set win over Three Oaks River Valley – St. Joseph Herald Palladium

8. Cross Country: The Bangor boys and Bloomingdale girls clinched the inaugural Southwest 10 Conference championships – Sturgis Journal

Boys Soccer: Division 4 No. 6 Hillsdale Academy needed a shootout but got past Jackson Christian in a District Semifinal – Hillsdale Daily News

10. Boys Soccer: Troy scored with fewer than three minutes to play to get past Birmingham Brother Rice 2-1 in Division 1 – Oakland Press

Also of note:

Girls Cross Country: From Tuesday, Quincy won its third straight Big 8 Conference championship – Coldwater Daily Reporter

Volleyball: From Tuesday, Class C No. 6 Adrian Madison claimed a share of the Tri-County Conference championship by going 1-1 in a doubleheader against Whitmore Lake – Adrian Daily Telegram

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