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: 2/2/16

February 2, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Statewide sports action Monday was light, so we’ll focus on a series of stories published today that should pull at your heart strings and put life’s little obstacles in proper perspective.

Good Reads

Mason’s Brendan Brown is fighting for his life, against a form of cancer that has led to the amputation of a leg and soon will mean the removal of parts of his lungs. The Bulldogs junior is fighting, and also continuing a high school bowling career that is inspiring opponents and those in his community – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Also at Mason, Storm Miller might be the strongest athlete at his high school and finished third in a national weight-lifting competition last summer. He’s relying on strength now to fight a rare form of cancer that also initially was found in a leg – Lansing State Journal

Molly Holmes hasn't joined her siblings on the Leroy Pine River wrestling team yet – wait until next year – but she plays junior varsity basketball and is one of 13 kids in a family that loves sports – a family that adopted her after five foster placements and a fight to survive no child should experience – Cadillac News