Today in the MHSAA: 6/1/17
June 1, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first MHSAA Finals championships of this spring were celebrated Wednesday in golf and tennis, while Hudsonville’s longtime softball coach celebrated a milestone win few have equaled.
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.
Girls Golf
Escanaba repeated as Upper Peninsula Division 1 champion, finishing 18 strokes ahead of Houghton – Second Half
Boys Golf
Escanaba pushed past three-time reigning champion Houghton to win the Upper Peninsula Division 1 title – Second Half
Lower Peninsula Division 3 No. 10 Shepherd won its first Regional title in more than a decade – Saginaw News
Unranked Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central edged No. 7 Rockford by a stroke to win an LP Division 1 regional title – Grand Rapids Press
No. 6 Plymouth won a third straight LP Division 1 Regional title, shooting a 319 to edge No. 10 Ann Arbor Skyline by five strokes – Observer & Eccentric
Boys Lacrosse
No. 3 Hartland claimed its first Regional title in boys lacrosse with an 11-10 win over Midland in Division 1 – Livingston Daily Press & Argus
No. 5 Warren DeLaSalle edged No. 8 Grosse Pointe North 10-8 to claim a Division 2 title – Macomb Daily
No. 9 Clarkston avenged a regular-season loss by downing No. 8 Lake Orion 12-9 in another Division 1 Regional Final – Oakland Press
Girls Soccer
Swartz Creek continued its perfect run with a 2-1 Division 1 District Semifinal win over Davison, which scored first – Flint Journal
Newaygo escaped with a 2-1 win over Muskegon Oakridge after a shootout in a Division 3 District Semifinal and thanks to 36 saves by Jenna Janke – Muskegon Chronicle
No. 17 Portage Central got past rival Portage Northern 1-0 in a Division 1 District Semifinal – Kalamazoo Gazette
Softball
Hudsonville downed Allendale 10-0 to give 36-year coach Tom Vruggink his 1,000th career win, against only 263 losses – Grand Rapids Press
Division 1 No. 10 Mount Pleasant split with Division 2 top-ranked Saginaw Swan Valley, with a 6-5 win in the first game the Vikings’ first loss this season – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Boys Tennis
Ishpeming Westwood won six flights in claiming a fourth straight Upper Peninsula Division 2 title – Second Half
Negaunee won its fifth MHSAA Finals title this decade, claiming six flights during a Division 1 run – Second Half
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