Today in the MHSAA: 5/23/16
May 23, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It’s been an exciting few days especially for our track & field and girls tennis teams, which competed in Regionals over the weekend – with some of the many highlights among those linked below.
Baseball
Battle Creek Lakeview’s Ethan Eldridge threw a shutout to lead his team over Harper Creek for their all-city championship, 3-0 – Battle Creek Enquirer
Division 1 No. 4 Rockford swept Division 3 No. 1 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 4-1 and 4-2 – Detroit Free Press
Girls Soccer
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep won its first Detroit Catholic League A-B championship in this sport, downing Warren Regina in an overtime shootout – Oakland Press
Softball
Sierra Stoepker drilled a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th inning to lead Lake Odessa Lakewood to a 10-9 win over DeWitt in the championship game of the Lansing Softball Classic – Lansing State Journal
Napoleon (32-1) outscored its opponents 32-5 to win a second straight Al Glick Tournament championship, beating Parma Western 3-0 in the final – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
Petoskey won the Lansing Waverly Invitational, opening with a 5-4 win over two-loss Grand Ledge – Petoskey News
Division 3 No. 4 Clinton beat Division 2 No. 7 Muskegon Oakridge and later Division 3 No. 9 Reese for the Best of Michigan Tournament title at Byron Center – Adrian Dailey Telegram
Girls Tennis
Bay City All Saints won its first Regional and qualified for the MHSAA Finals for the first time since 1992 – Bay City Times
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern edged East Grand Rapids by three points to win its 15th straight Regional, in Division 2 – Grand Rapids Press
Edwardsburg claimed its first Regional title as well, dominating the field to finish six points ahead of the rest in Division 3 – Kalamazoo Gazette
Ludington shared its Division 3 Regional title with Whitehall, and in the process No. 1 doubles pair Julia Flewelling and Claire Maltbie won their 100th match to break the school’s doubles record – Muskegon Chronicle
Division 4 No. 3 Kalamazoo Hackett swept singles to finish ahead of No. 5 Kalamazoo Christian in their Regional – Kalamazoo Gazette
Track & Field
Lake Linden-Hubbell swept boys and girls Regionals for the first time since 1998 – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette
The Reese girls edged Frankenmuth 122-121 to win their first Regional title in 22 years – Saginaw News
The Addison boys won their first Regional since 1995, beating Petersburg Summerfield by 12 points, 124-112 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
The Blanchard Montabella girls won their first Regional title, with the Division 4 victory also the school's first at that level of tournament competition in any sport since 2003 – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Good Read
The Grandville Calvin Christian baseball team will take part this week in fundraising for the medical care of Kyle Petrlich, who is awaiting a second heart transplant and in December required CPR from her brother Griffin, a player on the Calvin Christian baseball team – Grand Rapids Press
Stripes Worn Well (Muskegon Chronicle)
March 1, 2012
Tim Flahive has battled diabetes for all but a few years of his life. But he's also filled half of those years with high school sports as a longtime official based in the Muskegon area.
The Muskegon Chronicle's Mark Opfermann tells the story of Flahive's final basketball game last week -- and makes us appreciate even more the significant role our officials fill to no fanfare.
A powerful excerpt:
He left the court with no fanfare, took off his whistle and shed a few tears.
But Flahive's story isn’t just about sports and an official leaving the hobby he loves. It’s about courage, getting back up and pressing on.
So, I guess it’s a lot like sports after all. But it’s a whole lot more about life.
That’s because when Flahive took the court last week, he did it with half of his left foot missing.