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
Linked Up: 10/28/11
December 13, 2011
Each week I'll post links to stories that interest me most during my travels in online sports land. I was going to wait for next week for this first installment, but these seemed worthy of telling you about now.
See something high school sports-related that you think others would find valuable? Send me a link.
These two teams provide multiple reasons why 8-player football has been such a strong addition -- most notably, it is providing our smallest schools with an opportunity to still play football despite fewer players, and succeed. The sport took off in this state in 2009, and this weekend mark the start of the first MHSAA 8-player Tournament. Akron-Fairgrove will play its first postseason game since 1992, while Owendale-Gagetown will play its first since 1979.
Olivet's Peters coaching his heart out (Battle Creek Enquirer)
I covered Olivet and coach Dean Peters for more than a decade, including during last season's first-ever Eagles run to the MHSAA football finals. One of the great people in high school coaching, he needed emergency double-bypass surgery earlier this month but is back in the coaching booth. Olivet faces Lansing Catholic in a Pre-District game.
Megan Hubbard a standout for Hanover-Horton cross country (Jackson Citizen-Patriot)
This is a neat story about a runner who is second-best on her team and has never won a race -- but also is likely the second-best to ever run at her school. Usually, we hear only about who finishes first.
Standley Lake football player Rhett Gutierrez overcomes eye disease (The Denver Post)
Almost always, links I post will be Michigan-related. But this story is just incredible. We've seen athletes with different degrees of vision impairment do incredible things in high school athletics. But this is the first time I've heard of someone overcoming that obstacle to play quarterback for his football team.