Today in the MHSAA: 6/3/16

June 3, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Nine Upper Peninsula teams won the first MHSAA Finals championships awarded this spring season Thursday, while a number of Lower Peninsula teams positioned themselves for trophy hunts this weekend and beyond.

Girls Golf

Escanaba, Cedarville and Iron Mountain provided some surprises and streak breakers in winning MHSAA Upper Peninsula Finals – Second Half

Boys Golf

The top three ranked teams in Lower Peninsula Division 2 played in the same Regional on Thursday – with top ranked Ada Forest Hills Eastern finishing two strokes ahead of No. 2 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern and four ahead of No. 3 St. Johns as all three advanced to next weekend – Grand Rapids Press

Jackson Lumen Christi, No. 2 in LP Division 3, won its 11th straight Regional title – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Houghton won its third straight MHSAA title, Carney-Nadeau repeated and St. Ignace also won a championship at Upper Peninsula Finals – Second Half

Girls Soccer

Bay City Western avenged an earlier 5-0 loss with a 1-0 win over Midland in a Division 1 District Semifinal – Bay City Times

Traverse City West downed rival Traverse City Central 1-0 with the lone goal coming in overtime – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Division 1 No. 6 Bloomfield Hills needed a shootout to get past Waterford Mott, 1-0 – Oakland Press

Fennville downed Dowagiac 1-0 in Division 3 to advance to a District Final for the first time – Holland Sentinel

Boys Tennis

Ishpeming Westwood ran its MHSAA title streak to three straight, while a pair of powers shared the Division 1 title – Second Half

Good Read

We’re big fans of playing more than one high school sport, and so we’re big fans of the work of Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills senior Alexis Baskin, who recently received the Michigan High School Coaches Association Rich Tompkins Multi-Sport Athlete Award after earning a combined 12 letters in volleyball, basketball and track & field – Grand Rapids Press

Today in the MHSAA: 11/3/15

November 3, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Monday saw the first games of this season’s MHSAA Volleyball Tournament – and with those, a number of key matches including a few that came down to the final set.

Volleyball

Class A No. 4 Lake Orion swept honorable mention Clarkston, guaranteeing an end to the Wolves’ string of eight straight District championships – Oakland Press

Portage Central won a matchup of Class A honorable mentions, sweeping Niles 3-0 in their opener – Kalamazoo Gazette

Class B top-ranked Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard started what it hopes will be a title run with a sweep of No. 10 Chelsea – AnnArbor.com

Class B honorable mentions Coopersville and Fruitport also met in an opener, with Coopersville coming away with a sweep – Grand Rapids Press

Also in Class B, Essexville Garber won a battle of Tri-Valley Conference teams, claiming the fifth game 15-12 to win the match 3-2 – Saginaw News

Concord lost the first two sets to Hanover-Horton in their Class C opener, but came back to win 3-2 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Good Read

We’ve heard a few stories like this in the past, but they never get old. Algonac’s Morgan Beadlescomb is one of the top cross country runners in Michigan and won the Lower Peninsula Division 2 title last season – and last week, pulled St. Clair’s Jack Keais to the latter's first sub-16 minute finish – Port Huron Times-Herald