'Prepapalooza' Kicks Off 3-Week Celebration
May 31, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nearly 30,000 athletes will take part over the next six days in what will again be the busiest week of the MHSAA calendar, with teams in all nine spring sports competing for District, Regional or Finals championships at sites across both peninsulas.
The first Finals champions of this spring will be awarded Wednesday in Upper Peninsula boys tennis (UPDATE: both U.P. tennis Finals have been moved to Thursday due to rainy weather concerns), followed by six more in Upper Peninsula boys and girls golf Thursday. Four divisions of Lower Peninsula girls tennis start their two-day tournament Friday, and on Saturday, more than 7,000 athletes will join them competing in four Lower and three Upper Peninsula Track & Field Finals.
In addition, baseball, softball and girls soccer teams begin District action tonight, with most of those tournaments wrapping Saturday. Girls and boys lacrosse teams continue Regional play this week, and Lower Peninsula boys golf teams will play Regionals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Second Half again will serve as your home for all MHSAA Finals coverage, with correspondents providing stories and photos, along with full results, from all of the Upper Peninsula Finals this week and then all 18 LP and UP Finals this weekend, Lacrosse and LP Golf Finals on June 14, and Baseball, Softball and Soccer Finals being played June 19-21.
Check back as well for video highlights from most competitions and sign up to watch all broadcast tournament action over the next three weeks for only $9.95 on MHSAA.tv. All schedules, lists of competitors and tournament brackets updated with scores real-time can be found on MHSAA.com. Keep connected as well with the MHSAA’s social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PHOTO: The Unionville-Sebewaing softball team celebrates last season's Division 4 championship.
Potter's House's Osterink, Hillsdale Academy Earn 1st Finals Wins
November 6, 2021
BROOKLYN — Lezawe Osterink’s arrival among the state’s elite was deferred for a year.
He was ready to make a run at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 cross country championship in 2020, but was unable to run at Regionals after breaking his collarbone on a training run.
Who says cross country isn’t a contact sport?
The junior from Wyoming Potter’s House showed up Saturday at Michigan International Speedway as a different runner than the one who had a respectable 55th place as a freshman in 2019.
Osterink completed an undefeated season by winning the Division 4 race in 15:50.60. He won by 23.76 seconds ahead of Concord senior Jonathan Mikovits.
Last year, Osterink was on track to get to MIS when he won the Pre-Regional meet.
“I broke my collarbone before Regionals, then I got COVID,” he said. “That was kind of a big disappointment. I couldn’t run at all. We were going to try to push it and try to win state that year.”
Osterink won all 13 races in which he competed this fall, giving him a 14-race winning streak going back to last season.
After racing at MIS as a freshman, he began to dream about becoming a Finals champion.
“I didn’t know if it would become realistic,” Osterink said. “I put in a lot of work. Our coach knows what he’s doing. I had good teammates to train with. That’s what I would say got me here.”
Osterink reached the mile mark in 5:03.3, giving him a 4.6-second cushion over Mikovits. The lead increased to 7.6 seconds when Osterink hit a two-mile split of 10:10.1.
“I could feel myself running away,” he said. “I was surprised. They went out good. They stuck with me for a while. I was scared of the guy behind me. I didn’t look back, but people who were there said he was close, so I had to keep hammering the whole time.”
In the team competition, Hillsdale Academy grouped its second through fifth runners only 13 seconds apart to win with a score of 154 points.
Senior Emil Schlueter gave Hillsdale Academy a low stick with his eighth-place finish in 16:49.75, good for sixth among team runners. Two eighth-graders scored for the Colts: Cole Bates (64th, 17:56.70) and Grayson Rorick (72nd, 18:02.22). Also scoring were sophomore Thomas Holm (51st, 17:49.17) and freshman Vincent Reagle (69th, 17:59.71).
It was the first MHSAA team championship for the Colts, whose best finishes were 10th-place showings in 2010 and 2018.
Concord had three runners in the top 22, but had to count runners who were 75th and 159th overall.
PHOTOS Potter’s House’s Lezawe Osterink approaches the finish of the Division 4 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Hillsdale Academy’s Thomas Holm (844) and Adrian Lenawee Christian’s Grant Long (764) push down the final stretch. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)