Today in the MHSAA: 1/16/18

January 16, 2018

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 Swimming & Diving – Holland West Ottawa, No. 4 in Lower Peninsula Division 1, emerged as the best among titans with wins over No. 3 Birmingham Brother Rice and No. 1 Ann Arbor Skyline in a tri-meet – Holland Sentinel

2. Wrestling: Four of Michigan’s best tested themselves against Ohio power Lakewood St. Edward, which finished 4-0 with wins over Division 1 No. 1 Detroit Catholic Central, No. 4 Davison, Division 2 No. 1 Lowell and Division 3 No. 1 Dundee – Observer & Eccentric

3. Wrestling: Division 2 No. 4 DeWitt claimed the Ada Forest Hills Eastern Invitational title, handing No. 10 Niles its first loss in the process – Niles Daily Star

4. Girls Basketball: Stanton Central Montcalm moved to 11-0 this season with a 48-39 win over Big Rapids, which also entered undefeated – Greenville Daily News

5. Wrestling: Division 2 No. 7 Stevensville Lakeshore won the Holland West Ottawa Invitational, downing Rockford in the final, and coach Bruce Bittenbender won his 900th career match during the run – St. Joseph Herald Palladium

6. Wrestling: Division 1 No. 2 Brighton finished the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Gold Duals 5-0 on Saturday and defeated No. 3 Macomb Dakota on Sunday to finish off a strong weekend – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

7. Boys Basketball: Marine City Cardinal Mooney’s Daniel Everhart scored 23 points in a 70-44 win over Allen Park Cabrini to become the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,423 over his career – Port Huron Times Herald

8. Wrestling: Sparta placed 11 wrestlers to win its invitational, with Grandville second and Division 4 No. 10 Springport third – Grand Rapids Press

9. Hockey: Kingsford won a high-scoring road game at Division 3 No. 5 Houghton, 6-5 – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

10. Cheer: Preparation paid off for Bay City Central as it won its Wolfpack Cheer Challenge by more than 50 points – Bay City Times

Also of note …

Boys Swimming & Diving: Just more than a week ago, Corunna’s Xavier Staubs and Grant Warner were the biggest winners during a meet against Owosso; they pulled an unresponsive Owosso competitor from the water so others could then revive him – Detroit Free Press

Today in the MHSAA: 1/15/16

January 15, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Thursday provided a substantial appetizer for another big weekend with key basketball games, noteworthy swimming and diving finishes and a milestone wrestling victory.

Boys Basketball

Clarkston earned a key Oakland Activities Association Red edge with a win over similarly state-ranked North Farmington, 60-47 – Oakland Press

Frankfort earned a similarly important win in Northwest Conference play, winning a matchup of Class D ranked teams 65-55 over Buckley – Traverse City Record-Eagle

For the second straight day, a basketball team made an incredible comeback; this time, it was East Jackson building off a 21-2 deficit at the end of the first quarter to beat Napoleon 42-39 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Olivet junior Delbert Redfield made nine of 11 3-point tries and scored 33 points total to lead the Eagles to a 73-55 win over Lansing Christian – MLive Lansing

Girls Basketball

Warren Cousino handed Grosse Pointe North the latter’s first loss this season, 64-58, to move to 9-1 overall – Macomb Daily

Boys Swimming & Diving

Lower Peninsula Division 3 honorable mention Spring Lake downed No. 4 Hamilton, No. 5 Grand Rapids Christian and Division 2 honorable mention Holland in its best meet of a strong run so far – Grand Haven Tribune

Wrestling

Leslie defeated Olivet (and also lost to Lake Odessa Lakewood) on Thursday, giving Blackhawks coach Todd Stern his 400th career win since taking over as head coach in 1987 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Good Reads

Battle of the Fans V kicks off tonight with our first visit to Yale, a finalist as well in 2015 – Port Huron Times-Herald

Grand Haven’s basketball teams will return to their former gym now part of Lakeshore Middle School – Pirates Pit – on Feb. 6 and for the first time since 2007 as the high school gym will be used for the league wrestling meet – Grand Haven Tribune

Vanderbilt’s boys basketball team has one win this season, but it was the first in nearly two years and a testament to the rebuilding of the program under first-year coach Darren Conn and assistant Amie Byelich – Petoskey News