Paying Tribute with Diamond Donation
May 14, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Rochester Adams and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood baseball players and coaches both had loved ones on their minds when they took the field at Comerica Park earlier this month.
And they paid tribute to those loved ones over their hearts and across the backs of their jerseys.
Together, the teams raised more than $3,500 for the Coaches vs. Cancer research initiative.
Instead of its usual brown and yellow, Adams wore jerseys of light blue with a green ribbon as the middle “A” in its name across the front in honor of those suffering with lymphoma, including 2011 graduate and former standout Matt Williams.
Cranbrook-Kingswood wore dark blue jerseys with a pink ribbon as the “A” in Cranbrook and with lime green writing on the back as the Cranes remembered longtime coach Jack Sanders, who died in 2012 after also battling lymphoma.
Sanders’ was among names adorning the backs of jerseys, along with other cancer victims the players and coaches knew.
Adams won the May 1 game, 18-3. Click to read more from the Oakland Press’ Keith Dunlap, who leading up to the game detailed both Williams’ fight and Sanders’ longtime contributions.
Net finder
Lake Fenton’s Jordan Newman will finish her high school soccer career later this spring as the top goal-scorer in MHSAA girls soccer history.
The Blue Devils’ senior forward broke the career record on April 28, scoring her 169th goal against Perry to pass the mark set by Newaygo’s Jaleen Dingledine from 2004-07. Newman also is a four-year varsity player.
Click to read more on her record run from the Flint Journal's Eric Woodyard.
5 K, 1 IP
The MHSAA doesn't keep a record for most strikeouts in an inning. But if it did, there’s a great chance Brighton’s Garrett Russell would top the list.
Against Ann Arbor Pioneer on April 5, Russell struck out five batters in an inning.
Yes, five.
Here’s how:
Russell struck out the first two batters of the inning swinging, leaving one out to get. He then struck out that third batter as well, but that batter reached first base because the third strike turned into a wild pitch.
The fourth batter of the inning was the only one to not strike out – he walked, putting runners on first and second base with two outs. Those runners advanced to second and third base, respectively, on a wild pitch thrown to the fifth batter of the inning.
That fifth batter then struck out swinging (which made it four strikeouts in the inning), but that third strike turned into a passed ball – and that batter ended up on first base, loading them for the sixth hitter of the inning.
But Russell found enough for one more K, striking out that sixth hitter swinging on a 2-2 pitch.
His line for the inning: 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 bases on balls, 5 strikeouts.
Brighton went on to sweep the doubleheader 12-4 and 11-1.
Family ties
Basketball clearly runs in a pair of families who have come through Corunna High School.
This winter, brothers M.J. and Mikhail Myles both scored their 1,000th career points – M.J., a senior, on Jan. 3 and Mikhail, a junior, in the team’s District Semifinal on March 5.
On Feb. 18, senior Payton Birchmeier became the fifth player in girls program history to score her 1,000th point – despite scoring only four points as a freshman before suffering a season-ending knee injury in her first high school game. She became the first Corunna girl to score 1,000 since her sister Megan finished accomplishing the feat in 2010.
Payton Birchmeier went on to play her final three seasons also on varsity, and M.J. Myles also was a four-year varsity player. Mykhail Myles has played three on varsity with next season still to play. The Myles' stepsister Klarissa Bell this winter finished an outstanding career at Michigan State University and won the Miss Basketball Award as a senior at East Lansing High School in 2010, and stepbrother Devlin Bell also was a Trojans standout.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams players congratulate each other during their May 1 game at Comerica Park. (Middle) The Adams' first baseman and a Cranbrook-Kingswood base runner await the next pitch. (Photos courtesy of Rochester Adams baseball.)
Record-Setter Dzurka Dreaming Big, but First Focused on Goal #1: Stay Healthy
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 22, 2026
When it comes to end of season goals, Midland Dow senior Zach Dzurka is keeping it simple: Get there.
To an outsider, that aspiration might seem overly simple for a runner who has the state’s fastest 300-meter hurdles time and is ranked fourth in the 110 hurdles this spring, regardless of division. But after the opportunity to compete at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals was taken away from him a year ago, Dzurka is taking nothing for granted.
“Just try to keep on PRing (setting personal records) and hope to not get injured,” Dzurka said. “I’ve always been super injury-prone for some reason. But the goal is to keep myself healthy until states.”
Dzurka set a pair of Dow records on April 17 at the Graves/Swayze Relay Meet in Midland, running the 300 hurdles in 37.82 and 110s in 14.47. His 300-hurdle time is the fastest in the state so far this year, and just 0.03 seconds off last year’s Division 1 Finals championship time, run by Will Smith of Belleville, who has since graduated.
“I wouldn’t say surprising is the right word; this is totally expected for him,” Dow coach Jenna Oskvarek said. “He’s been working his butt off to make sure he can reach his goals. It was kind of only a matter of time, we knew (times this fast were) going to happen, we just didn’t know when. We couldn’t be happier.”
Dzurka, who also holds the school indoor record for the 60-meter hurdles (8.33), had already claimed the 300 hurdles record a year ago and was unbeaten in both outdoor hurdles events throughout the 2025 season.
But a persistent hamstring injury ended his season early.
“It wasn’t anything so extensive that it was season-ending, but we didn’t want to push it and injure him more long-term,” Oskvarek said. “It was more of a conversation with Zach about, ‘This is why we’re making the decision we are, so what do we need to do to support you to get you back to where you want to be?’ As much as we wanted the team to have success and wanted him to run, it’s not about us. He was completely understanding. There was disappointment, of course, but he knew why we made the decision we made and was totally on board. He could see the long-term reasons.”
Dzurka said the injury was never fully diagnosed, but it also wouldn’t go away.
“One practice I was hurdling and I felt like a mild sharp pain, and it would not stop,” he said. “It hurt each time I would hurdle. I thought it was going to get worse if I kept going. I was doing all the hamstring exercises, but it wouldn’t stop. It was really weird, because it finally stopped, literally the day after (the Finals). That was annoying.”
Dzurka said he has been battling smaller injuries since his sophomore year, when he suffered a bulging disc in his back during a soccer game. In that moment, his feet got crossed up after making a pass, and when he fell to the ground took all the impact on his knees, which triggered the back issue, as well as arthritis.
He believes a lot of the soft-tissue injuries he’s dealt with stem from that back injury, which he’s mostly managed, but does still continue to work through.
“I would look up online how to fix back pain or how to fix bulging discs,” he said. “Then I would just brute-force the exercises until the pain went away. I was a pretty good coach for myself.”
Dzurka gives a lot of credit to Oskvarek and the Dow coaching staff for helping him get healthy – and keep him that way.
“We’re staying hopeful and staying careful as we do with all our athletes, so we can maximize his success and make sure not to run him into the ground,” Oskvarek said.
When healthy, Dzurka continues to thrive on the track in events he wasn’t introduced to until he was a freshman. He recently signed to run at Saginaw Valley State, where Oskvarek believes the resources and training available will allow Dzurka to take another leap forward.
“We always talk about how, especially at Dow, we’ve had such luck with such amazing athletes over the years, but we tell them that if you’re having this much success in high school, once you get to college, it’s just another ceiling to be broken,” Oskvarek said. “We prepare them to know that you’re having so much success here, imagine what you can do in college.”
Dzurka said the 400 hurdles will likely be his specialty moving forward, as he’s already seeing he’s more built for longer races.
“Before the season I said I was going to go sub-14 in the 110s, and that’s something to shoot for,” he said. “But I have super long legs that take a long time to get going, so I don’t know about that. But before the season I was joking with my buddies that I was going to go sub-37 in the 300 hurdles, and that’s actually possible.”
Sub-37 seconds would put him in rare company, as just four Michigan runners have ever done it. And, if he accomplishes his first goal of getting to the Finals in good health, could very likely put him at the top of the podium.
“It really would mean a lot because of how much I know I’ve put into the sport,” Dzurka said. “Even at indoor states, I came in third place this year, and at indoor states last year, I had my first-ever false start. So, getting to redeem myself would be great.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Midland Dow’s Zach Dzurka, with baton, takes off to start a relay race. (Middle) Dzurka, middle, leads a hurdles race during an indoor meet at Saginaw Valley State. (Photos courtesy of the Midland Dow athletic department.)