Lots of Fight in Pontiac Notre Dame Irish
June 7, 2012
Last week was the busiest on the MHSAA school schedule. And it was a great one for Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.
Over three days, the Fighting Irish won three District and one Regional championship, plus two more track and field individual Finals titles.
Successes were celebrated across six sports.
Thursday: Notre Dame’s boys golf team won its District, led by individual medalist Aaron Knutson; the senior shot a 71.
Friday: The boys lacrosse team won its third straight Regional title with an 11-2 win over Warren DeLaSalle in Division 2. (The Irish since have lost to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central in a Semifinal.)
Saturday: Senior Sara Barron finished an outstanding track career by winning the 1,600-meter run with a Division 2 Finals record time of 4:51.67. She also won the 800 in 2:15.83 and teamed with Taylor Timko, Sarah LewAllen and Candice Mark to finish third in the 1,600 relay.
Timko also scored the game-winning goal as Notre Dame’s girls soccer team beat Detroit Country Day 1-0 in a Division 3 District championship game.
The Irish’s softball team beat Bloomfield Hills Lahser and Detroit Country Day by a combined score of 25-1 to win its sixth straight District title. Notre Dame had only one error on the day and didn’t give up a hit in the five-inning win over Lahser.
Finally, the girls tennis team posted its best MHSAA Finals finish to cap its best season ever. Notre Dame placed seventh in Division 4, keyed by runner-up finishes by Erin Moncrief (No. 4 singles) and Maddie Riley and Gabby Bering (No. 4 doubles). Notre Dame ended with a 10-1 dual record, losing only to eventual Division 4 champion Bloomfield Hills Academy of Sacred Heart.
PHOTO: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s softball team won its sixth-straight District championship Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Lynn Wroubel).
Hackett's Butkiewicz Runs to Record, Hillsdale Academy Runs to Repeat
November 2, 2024
BROOKLYN — After a hard-fought race, juniors Marek Butkiewicz of Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep and Abenezer Cerone of Royal Oak Shrine Catholic parked themselves on the ground at a fence near the finish line, clasped hands and exchanged congratulations with one another.
They looked like two old friends who have known each other forever but, truth is, they’ve met only a few times.
But in the Michigan high school running community, two runners from different parts of the state can form a bond that isn’t common among competitors in other sports.
Butkiewicz said he hasn’t raced against Cerone in cross country this year, but did during track & field season.
“It’s great,” Butkiewicz said after shattering the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals record with a time of 15 minutes, 9.7 seconds Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
“We all love communicating with each other and talking with each other. We’re just a super-close community. Every meet where we’re at and we’re all together, we’re all talking, we’re all having fun. It’s just a blast.”
It’s moments like the one the top two finishers shared while still exhausted after the race that make cross country special for Cerone.
“The running community is like no other,” he said after finishing second in 15:40.6. “I played a lot of sports, and there is no community like this one. We haven’t raced a lot, but for some reason I feel like we’re really good friends or we would be really good friends. That’s what I love about this sport.”
Butkiewicz broke the Division 4 Finals record of 15:22.4 set by Tec Adams of Harbor Springs in 2008.
Although Butkiewicz won by a comfortable margin, he was very much uncomfortable after crossing the line, falling to the ground and needing help to get over to the fence where he would eventually connect with Cerone.
“I was just trying to put everything else I had into that finish, and I did,” Butkiewicz said. “I was on the ground at the end.”
Butkiewicz finished sixth at the Division 4 Cross Country Final last year before winning the 3,200-meter run in 9:25.52 and taking second in the 1,600 in 4:19.38 at the MHSAA Division 4 track meet.
“It means a lot, it really does,” he said. “I’ve worked so, so hard for this all season. Even from the end of track I knew I had a chance, so I wanted to do everything I could in the offseason and in season to get it done.
“It takes so much. It has to be your life. You have to dedicate every ounce of energy you have to doing this. I did that, and I made it possible and I won.”
Hillsdale Academy came into the meet ranked second in Division 4, but repeated as Finals team champion by winning for the third time in four years. The Colts scored 113 points to win by 40 over Holland Calvary.
Junior Grayson Rorick was fourth in 15:57.1 and senior Reece Poole eighth in 16:13.4 to lead Hillsdale Academy. Rorick has been in the lineup for all three of the Colts’ MHSAA championships, finishing as the fifth man as an eighth-grader in 2021.
Rounding out Hillsdale Academy’s scoring were junior James Rahe (37th in 16:55.9), junior Henry Lindley (47th in 17:05.4) and junior Luke Molenkamp (52nd in 17:12.8).
PHOTOS (Top) Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep’s Marek Butkiewicz takes the final strides of his record-setting run Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Hillsdale Academy’s Grayson Rorick (1238) and Dansville’s Theodore Davis sprint for position on the way to the finish line. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)