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.)
Sintkowski's Final-Hole Eagle Secures UP Finals Repeat for Hancock
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
May 30, 2025
NORWAY — Hancock’s Jackson Sintkowski said he wasn’t playing the best at Friday’s Upper Peninsula Division 2 Final. His last hole, and what happened to be the team’s final one for the day, went exceedingly well, though.
His tee shot landed right down the middle of the fairway, he hit a 9-iron to within 10 feet of the hole and he drained the putt.
“I was pretty pumped up,” the senior said.
It was good for an eagle. The Bulldogs won the tournament by two strokes.
Hancock repeated as Division 2 champion, edging Painesdale Jeffers 324-326 at Oak Crest Golf Course in Norway.
“What we’ve always stressed to these kids is always play to the end,” Hancock coach Paul Sintkowski said. “You never know. I always tell them before every meet that every shot counts. Even though you’re not playing good — 87, if you would have shot an 89, we don’t win. Those kids did that today, they played till the end and I think that is part of the reason why we won again.”
He believes they were the favorites to win coming into the day. They won the Final last year and had won everything in the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference during the regular season.
“I think that’s probably why some of our scores were probably not where they should be,” Coach Sintkowski said. “I think it’s probably a little bit of the pressure.”
It all worked out in the end – thanks, in part, to the big-time eagle by Jackson Sintkowski, who finished with a score of 78, good for third place individually.
“It’s a great feeling” to repeat, he said. “We have a solid team. All of us put up pretty good scores.”
Every Hancock player shot under 90. Kirby Storm joined Sintkowski under 80 with a 79 to finish fourth. Teammate Nolan Hanner carded an 80 to finish sixth.
Four golfers among the top 11 wasn’t quite enough for Jeffers to avoid finishing runner-up as a team for the third straight year. Jets junior Griffin Heinonen finished individual runner-up himself with a 77, Max Nordstrom had an 81 to take seventh, Easton Therrian was eighth with an 82 and Benton Rajala was 11th with an 86.
Cedarville/DeTour placed third as a team with a 363, Ironwood was fourth with a 369 and Newberry rounded out the top five with a 375.
Stephenson’s Owen Kuehnau had the round of the day, carding a 71 to win the individual Finals title, with the runner-up Heinonen six strokes back.
“It feels good,” he said. “It was always a goal of mine, so it definitely feels good.”
The senior finished third at the Final last year and ninth the year before that.
It wasn’t easy to win it Friday.
“The pin positions were really tough, so you just had to go in the middle of green and hope to two-putt,” Kuehnau said.
His score was the lowest recorded by a U.P. Division 2 champion since the MHSAA created the division in 2001.
Munising’s Carter Deatsman rounded out the top five with a 79.
PHOTOS (Top) The Hancock boys golf team holds up its latest Finals championship trophy. (Middle) Painesdale Jeffers’ Benton Rajala follows his shot during Friday’s round. (Photos by Jason Juno.)