Today in the MHSAA: 5/25/16

May 25, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Top Michigan teams in girls soccer and softball matched up Tuesday as most prepare for the start of District play next week – and check out also a great story of sportsmanship from the Muskegon area.

Baseball

Richmond downed Armada 4-0 to clinch a 17th straight Blue Water Area Conference championship – Port Huron Times-Herald

Boys Golf

Essexville Garber won its fourth Bay County championship in five seasons, led this time by Graham MacBride’s 78 – Bay City Times

Boys Lacrosse

Midland came back to edge Bloomfield Hills 15-11 in a Regional matchup of strong Division 1 hopefuls – Midland Daily News

Girls Soccer

Division 2 top-ranked DeWitt downed Division 3 No. 2 Williamston for the Capital Area Activities Conference Gold Cup championship – Lansing State Journal

Softball

Division 4 No. 2 Unionville-Sebewaing split with Division 2 top-ranked Saginaw Swan Valley 0-1 and 7-6, only days after beating Division 1 top-ranked Macomb Dakota in tournament play – Saginaw News

Petoskey’s Emme Williams tied her school's pitching record of 26 wins and broke the runs record with 53 in a sweep of Boyne City – Petoskey News

Track & Field

Lake Linden-Hubbell continued a dominant run by sweeping both girls and boys Copper Mountain Conference meet championships – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

Clare swept league titles in the Jack Pine Conference, the girls winning for the third straight season and the boys for the 13th consecutive spring – Mount Pleasant Morning News

Good Read

We love these stories of sportsmanship: North Muskegon soccer keeper Gus Keur made a big save during a collision in what was then a scoreless game, but after noticed the Muskegon Reeths-Puffer opponent who took the shot still on the ground – so Keur picked up her opponent and carried her toward the sideline. Reeths-Puffer scored not long after and won 1-0, but as Keur’s mother told her, more will remember her kind act than the goal she let by – Muskegon Chronicle

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