Today in the MHSAA: 1/19/16

January 19, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

An action-filled weekend included basketball milestones and matchups of Michigan’s top high school wrestling teams in a preview of what we might see at next month’s MHSAA Team Finals.

Girls Basketball

Ellen Doyle scored her 1,000th career point as Gobles improved to 79-5 during her four seasons by downing Saugatuck 42-19 – Grand Rapids Press

Three days after falling for the first time this season, to St. Johns, Haslett came back to deal rival DeWitt its first loss of the winter – Lansing State Journal

Farmington Hills Harrison moved to 9-1 by handing Clarkston its first loss of the season, 54-45 – Detroit Free Press

Jazmin Hildebrand became the first 1,000-point scorer in Martin history and also grabbed 20 rebounds in her team’s 70-48 win over Bloomingdale – Kalamazoo Gazette

Longtime Ithaca coach Bob Anderson, who earlier this season won his 700th game and coached 1,146 girls and boys games combined, retired because of health reasons with his team 9-0; he reportedly had a stroke in 2014 and brain surgery last year – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

Boys Basketball

Demetrius Lake scored a Holland record 50 points and made the game winning 3-pointer to get the Dutch past Zeeland West 69-68 – Holland Sentinel

Detroit Allen upended previously-undefeated River Rouge in only a slight upset, 58-47 – MLive-Detroit

Bowling

Macomb L’Anse Creuse North’s Samantha Gainor rolled five games of 200 or higher to win the Macomb County Championships girls singles title Sunday – Macomb Daily

St. Clair Shores Lake Shore’s Nathan Kuffer won matches by six and then 18 pins to claim the boys singles title at the Macomb County Championships – Macomb Daily

Wrestling

Central Michigan University’s McGuirk Arena hosted four of the top teams in Division 1 on Sunday; Detroit Catholic Central swept matches over Hartland and Grandville, and the top-ranked Eagles finished their day downing No. 2 Davison by a point – Livingston Daily

Also at CMU on Sunday, Division 3 No. 5 Remus Chippewa Hills downed the top two teams in Division 4, Hudson and New Lothrop – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

On Saturday, Dundee won the Hudson Super 16 ahead of field of elite teams including the host Tigers – Adrian Daily Telegram

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