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: 8/26/15

August 26, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Today is prep football preview section day for most newspapers around the state, and copies will be flying as fans get prepped for Thursday’s opening games.

But there are plenty of headlines that pop up up from Tuesday’s non-football events – see those and links to coverage below, and yes, also a link to a great football story.

Cross Country

Reigning Lower Peninsula Division 4 champion Ava Stenge of Battle Creek St. Philip kicked off this fall with a win at the South Haven Rust Buster Invitational in a time of 18:18 – Battle Creek Enquirer

Staying in LP Division 4, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart won its second invitational this season, claiming the gold division title at the Remus Chippewa Hills Warrior Invite ahead of reigning Division 4 champion Beal City – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

St. Joseph sophomore Anna Fischer set a school record at Tuesday’s St. Joseph Invitational, running 18:52 – but finished second to another impressive underclassmen, Portage Northern freshman Peyton Witt (18:48) – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium

Girls Golf

Big Rapids hasn’t had a golfer shoot in the 70s since Elizabeth Dawkins in 2009, but younger sister Alexis did so Tuesday in a league jamboree win – Big Rapids Pioneer

Boys Soccer

Flint Powers won the first soccer game played in 29 years at Atwood Stadium, defeating Detroit Country Day 4-1 at the renovated long-serving local landmark, now managed by Kettering University – Flint Journal

Volleyball

Lake Orion, an expected contender in Class A this fall, finished undefeated at the Oxford quad against Oxford, Grand Blanc and reigning Class B semifinalist Pontiac Notre Dame Prep – Oakland Press

Good Read

First-year Traverse City Central varsity football coach Eric Schugars will begin his head coaching career this weekend but grew up following the program of his father Jack Schugars, the longtime and MHSAA championship-winning leader at Muskegon Oakridge – Traverse City Record-Eagle