Today in the MHSAA: 5/19/16

May 19, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

As tennis and track & field teams prepare to begin the postseason, there’s plenty of news to report from all over the state and a few features worth a little more of your time today as well.

Baseball

Howell claimed its first Kensington Lakes Activities Association overall title with a comeback win over Northville – Livingston Daily

Golf

Midland’s Top Kamnark shot a school-record 66 to lead his team to a second straight Saginaw Valley League overall championship – Midland Daily News

Softball

Canton rallied in the seventh inning to down Milford 5-4 and win the overall KLAA championship – Oakland Press

DeWitt handed Grand Ledge the Comets’ first loss this season to advance to the Lansing Softball Classic championship game with a 12-9 win – Lansing State Journal

New Haven won its first Macomb Area Conference championship since joining the league in 2005 with a 15-6 win over Clinton Township Clintondale – Macomb Daily

From Tuesday, Escanaba launched five homers over two games to sweep Gladstone by a combined 16-0 score – Escanaba Daily Press

Girls Tennis

Niles Brandywine won its fourth straight league title and ninth in 12 seasons by claiming the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference title – Niles Daily Star

Good Reads

The Adrian Daily Telegram did a quick Q & A with Blissfield baseball coach Larry Tuttle, one of two in MHSAA history with more than 1,200 wins – Adrian Daily Telegram

Saginaw Nouvel’s Mitch Morley is the son of former Nouvel star and Kansas City Royals minor leaguer Mike Morley, and also is talented on the diamond as well as the football field and basketball court – Saginaw News

Detroit Cass Tech’s Savalas Morgan has improved significantly to become an MHSAA contender in track, but that’s just one of his talents – Detroit 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