Today in the MHSAA: 1/23/20

January 23, 2020

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Two of the three No. 1-ranked hockey teams in Michigan faced off Thursday in league play to take today’s No. 1 spot, followed by one of the state’s annual wrestling powers claiming a conference championship.

1. Hockey: Division 2 top-ranked Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice edged Division 1 No. 1 Detroit Catholic Central 2-1 – Oakland Press

2. Wrestling: Division 3 No. 2 Richmond clinched the Blue Water Area Conference championship with a sweep of Croswell-Lexington and Imlay City – Macomb Daily

3. Hockey: Division 1 No. 4 Brighton avenged an earlier loss to No. 3 Salem with a 3-0 win in the rematch – Observer & Eccentric

4. Bowling: Bay City Central’s girls and Essexville Garber’s boys won Bay County championships – Bay City Times

5. Girls Basketball: Michigan Center avenged last season’s Regional Final loss to Springport, 61-49 – Jackson Citizen Patriot

6. Hockey: Division 2 No. 2 Livonia Stevenson continued its recent success against No. 4 Hartland, 7-0 – Observer & Eccentric

7. Girls Basketball: Bellaire remained undefeated and ended Gaylord St. Mary’s 59-game Ski Valley Conference winning streak with a 49-36 victory – Up North Live

8. Boys Basketball: Carrollton moved to 8-0 with a 77-70 win over Reese – Saginaw News

9. Hockey: Grand Haven came back from a one-goal deficit with four minutes to play to get past Hudsonville 5-3 – Local Sports Journal

10. Hockey: Will Dawson scored a natural hat trick during the first period to lead Division 2 No. 6 Traverse City Central past Petoskey 6-0 – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Also of note …

Football: Gwinn is mourning the unexpected death of football coach Dion Brown, who took over the program in 2014 and led it to multiple playoff appearances – WLUC

Football: Hudson coach Chris Luma has stepped down with a 180-70 record over the last 23 seasons – Adrian Daily Telegram

Football: Continuing Rockford’s streak of 25 straight winning seasons will rest with former assistant Brent Cummings, who was promoted to head coach – Grand Rapids Press

Did you see that? (June 3-9)

June 10, 2013

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

The second of three weeks of spring MHSAA Finals came to a close with four more champions from lacrosse – plus 16 teams still alive in both baseball and softball, eight in girls soccer and 60 in Lower Peninsula boys golf.

See below for some of the biggest headlines from the week that was June 3-9.

Girls lacrosse

Champions of the west: A pair of Grand Rapids-area teams claimed the girls championships Saturday. Rockford defeated Bloomfield Hills United 16-7 in Division 1, while East Grand Rapids repeated in Division 2 with a 16-6 victory over Livonia Ladywood. (Second Half D1) (Second Half D2)

Boys Lacrosse

East-side excellence: Birmingham Brother Rice came back from an early deficit in the Division 1 Final to win its ninth-straight title by beating Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern 14-10. In Division 2, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood scored with 20.2 seconds to play to edge reigning champion Forest Hills Central 10-9. (Second Half D1) (Second Half D2)

Girls Soccer

Defensive standoff: Top-ranked Plymouth and No. 3 Novi needed a shootout to decide Friday’s Division 1 Regional Final. But Novi won that final round 2-1 to earn a 1-0 win and hand Plymouth its first and only loss this season. (MLive Detroit)

Powers survives comeback: Up 3-0 at halftime, reigning Division 3 runner-up Flint Powers Catholic advanced to within one win of returning to the Finals with a 3-2 Regional Final win over Lake Fenton. (Flint Journal)

Baseball

Oilers upend No. 1: Mount Pleasant, ranked No. 4 in Division 2, beat top-ranked Bay City John Glenn on the way to winning their Regional on Saturday. (Mount Pleasant Morning Sun)

MCC wins big: Muskegon Catholic Central moved on in Division 4 with a 9-0 Regional win over No. 2 Gobles in another of the weekend’s biggest baseball matchups. MCC entered the postseason ranked No. 5. (Muskegon Chronicle)

Softball

Dundee gets its chance: The Vikings won their first Regional championship and defeated two-time reigning Division 3 champion Clinton in the process Saturday at Blissfield. Dundee entered the postseason ranked No. 1 in the division. (Monroe Evening News)

Romeo prevails in pair of nail-biters: The No. 10-ranked Bulldogs were down to their final out before defeating Troy in a Regional Semifinal and then beat Hartland 3-0 in the championship game. Both Troy and Hartland were honorable mentions in the final Division 1 coaches poll. (Oakland Press)

Escanaba headed downstate: The Eskymos will face reigning MHSAA Division 2 runner-up Saginaw Swan Valley in a Quarterfinal for the second straight season thanks to a walk-off home run by sophomore Michelle LaFave in a 5-4 Regional Final win over Remus Chippewa Hills. (Escanaba Daily Press)

Boys Golf

SMAC East dominates: Top-ranked Battle Creek Lakeview in Division 1 and Marshall and Battle Creek Harper Creek in Division 2 all qualified for LP Finals, giving the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference East three teams in this weekend’s championship tournaments. (Battle Creek Enquirer)

DeWitt outshoots No. 1: Previously unranked DeWitt shot a 313 to edge top-ranked East Lansing by a stroke at their Division 2 Regional at Gull Lake View. (Lansing State Journal)

Boys Basketball

CMU star takes over GRCC: Former Central Michigan University captain T.J. Meerman has taken over the Grand Rapids Catholic Central program after serving as an assistant coach last season at Grand Valley State University. Previously, Meerman coached the varsity at Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills. (Grand Rapids Press)