Today in the MHSAA: 3/5/20
March 5, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A series of hockey Regional championships and a titanic girls basketball District clash headlined a busy Wednesday across Michigan that saw both tournaments continue to advance.
1. Hockey: No. 7 Howell ended at least five seasons of losses to No. 3 Brighton with a 4-2 win in a Division 1 Regional Final – Livingston Daily Press & Argus
2. Hockey: L’Anse Creuse Unified clinched its first Regional championship, downing Rochester in Division 1 3-0 – C&G Newspapers
3. Girls Basketball: Michigan Center finished a fourth-quarter comeback with a 42-41 win over Grass Lake – State Champs Sports Network
4. Hockey: No. 10 Grand Rapids Catholic Central upset No. 8 Forest Hills Central 5-0 to claim a Division 3 Regional title – FOX 17
5. Girls Basketball: Munising finished the regular season 6-13, but defeated Rapid River 44-31 in Division 4 to claim a third-straight District title – Marquette Mining Journal
6. Hockey: No. 6 Traverse City Central downed Muskegon Mona Shores 6-1 in Division 2 to win the sixth Regional title in program history – Traverse City Record-Eagle
7. Girls Basketball: Unbeaten Port Huron came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Macomb L’Anse Creuse North 44-41 in a Division 1 District Semifinal – Detroit News
8. Hockey: No. 9 Midland Dow locked up a Division 3 Regional title with a 2-0 win over Flint Powers Catholic – Midland Daily News
9. Hockey: Muskegon Reeths-Puffer came back to defeat Traverse City West and clinch a Division 1 Regional championship – Local Sports Journal
10. Girls Basketball: Centreville got past White Pigeon 63-57 in a Division 3 District matchup of local rivals that split during the regular season – JoeInsider.com
Also of note …
Girls Basketball: Chelsea coach Todd Blomquist announced his retirement after 20 seasons and more than 300 wins – Chelsea Sun Times News
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