Today in the MHSAA: 6/1/16
June 1, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Softball, baseball, and girls soccer MHSAA tournaments kicked off Tuesday and were filled with exciting matchups – but highlights were hardly reserved for just those three sports during one of our busiest days of competition each school year.
Baseball
Division 1 No. 5 Bay City Western got past rival Mount Pleasant for the final time this season, downing the No. 6 Oilers 7-3 to open their District – Bay City Times
Boys Lacrosse
No. 3 Okemos downed No. 7 Vicksburg 19-10 in a Division 2 Regional Semifinal at DeWitt – Lansing State Journal
Girls Soccer
Division 2 No. 3 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep downed Catholic League rival and No. 8 Warren Regina in the first round of their District – Oakland Press
Libby Amley assisted on the first goal and scored the game winner with 50 seconds to play at Bay City John Glenn came back to beat Bay City Central 2-1 in Division 2 – Bay City Times
Goodrich scored its game’s only goal in overtime to get past St. Clair 1-0 in Division 3 – Flint Journal
Softball
Bay City Western opened the postseason with a 1-0 win over Mount Pleasant in a matchup of teams earning honorable mentions in Division 1 – Bay City Times
Flat Rock’s Lauren Hoffman drove in the tying run in the seventh inning and the winner in the ninth to lead her team past New Boston Huron 5-4 – Monroe Evening News
Track & Field
Jackson’s Anthony Owens is on his way to perhaps graduating as the top long jumper in MHSAA history after breaking the 39-year-old record at the Selby Track & Field Classic with a leap of 24 feet, 8 inches – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
Clare’s Kasey Staley tied the pole vault record of 11-6 at the Morning Sun Meet of Champions, matching the best by former Remus Chippewa Hills star and potential Olympian Kristen Hixson – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Today in the MHSAA: 10/19/16
October 19, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
District soccer continued Tuesday and league champions were crowned in volleyball and cross country all over the Lower Peninsula – but the must-see stories are a pair of “good reads” coming out of the Jackson and Alpena areas.
Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.
Cross Country
The Caro boys – No. 4 in Lower Peninsula Division 3 – and the No. 6 Shepherd girls won championships at the Tri-Valley Conference all-division final – Saginaw News
The Ubly girls and boys teams repeated as East champions at the Greater Thumb Conference championship race (Ubly's girls are No. 9 in LPD4), and the Reese girls and LPD4 honorable mention Cass City boys repeated as West winners – Huron Daily Tribune
Traverse City West swept the final Big North Conference jamborees, the West boys earning the league title and the Central girls finishing as overall league champion for the 14th straight season. The Central girls are No. 4 in LPD1 and the West girls are an honorable mention – Traverse City Record-Eagle
Harbor Springs’ boys (No. 2 LPD4) kept their undefeated season going with a third straight Lake Michigan Conference final championship, and Traverse City St. Francis (No. 2 LPD3) clinched the girls title – Petoskey News-Review
Boys Soccer
Division 1 No. 2 Portage Northern moved on with a 4-1 District win over Lansing Everett thanks to three goals by Ryan Melgar – Kalamazoo Gazette
Adrian Lenawee Christian freshman Zach Riordan set his school’s scoring record of 36 goals in an 8-0 Division 4 win over Clinton – Adrian Daily Telegram
Girls Swimming & Diving
LPD1 No. 2 Saline got past No. 10 Brighton 112-74 in a matchup of top Division 1 teams – Saline Post
Volleyball
Walled Lake Central repeated as Lakes champion in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association with a five-set win over Brighton – Livingston Daily Argus & Press
Class A top-ranked Novi swept Canton to win its fourth straight KLAA Kensington championship – Oakland Press
Marine City improved to 8-1 in the Macomb Area Conference Gold and clinched a share of the league title with a three-set win over Warren Mott – Port Huron Times Herald
Good Reads
The story of Brooklyn Columbia Central standout running back Micah Raby is captivating, if not from this passage alone about how his adopted parents found him: “Inside the missionary’s hut, on an ordinary table lay an ordinary bible box containing an extraordinary sight, and it caught Doug and Sandy Raby’s eyes and hearts immediately. Inside that bible box – no bigger than a size 10 shoebox – was a 1-month-old boy named Joseph, one of two surviving triplets. His brother did not survive the birth and the birth parents decided to keep the other one, believed to be a girl, because it was the biggest and had the greatest chance of surviving.” – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
Lincoln Alcona announcer Don Franklin first gave voice to the school’s athletic events in 1967, and will retire at the end of this school year with 50 years on the microphone announcing football and a number of other sports over a half century – Alpena News