Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
Congratulations go out to the football teams from Grand Rapids Christian and Grand Rapids South Christian for bringing home state championships to the West Michigan area. Christian won the Division 3 title thanks to a huge effort by junior wide receiver Drake Harris, who has already verbally committed to Michigan State University. South Christian won the Division 4 title after losing starting quarterback Jon Wassink to a broken collar bone in the semifinal the week before. Great effort by both teams.
* The high school wrestling season is just three weeks old, and already some jockeying has taken place throughout West Michigan.
On December 19 several big matchups took place, including a huge rivalry matchup in the OK Gold Conference.
Defending champion Thornapple Kellogg scored a big victory with a 41-20 win over neighborhood nemesis Hastings.
The Trojans won nine of the 14 weights wrestled, including a big win from Austin Sensiba at 140 pounds.
The match usually takes place at the end of the season but happened to start off the conference season this year.
Two other early matches surprised fans. Grandville beat defending OK Red Conference co-champion Grand Haven 42-29. And although it lost, Jenison made a nice statement in its first year in the OK White Conference by pushing defending champion Lowell before losing 34-28.
In the match, the Red Arrows, reigning Division 2 runners-up, needed pins from Lucas Hall at 112 and Bailey Jack at 130 and technical falls from Garrett Stehley at 189 and Taylor Korneley at 215.
Look out for Allendale in Division 3.
The Falcons have already beaten defending OK Blue regular season champion Comstock Park quite easily, won their own team tournament with key wins over Thornapple Kellogg and Catholic Central, and are still not healthy and don’t have wrestlers at the right weight class.
Of course, the high school wrestling season is a three-month grind, and most teams will not be at full strength until late January when the postseason nears, but it is an interesting start.
*Congratulations to former Forest Hills Eastern soccer standout Zach Myers. Myers became the first men’s soccer player from Saginaw Valley State University to be named NCAA Division II Player of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Myers scored 17 goals in 25 games this year, and even more amazing is that he did this from his forward spot after switching from defense last year. He helped the Cardinals to a 10-1-1 record in the Great Lakers Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and an 18-3-4 record overall.
*Staying with Saginaw Valley State University – The Cardinals football team picked up a solid player when Grand Rapids Catholic Central linebacker Joe Craven verbally committed to play for SVSU next year. The 5’11”, 210-pound Craven led his team in tackles this year and finished his high school career with 360 tackles, breaking the Catholic Central record for career tackles previously held by former GRCC and Hillsdale great Tom Korte. Craven was named all-state first team in Division 3-4 this past year and helped the Cougars to a 10-1 record and OK Gold championship.
*After falling to Division 2 second-ranked Holland on December 13, the Rockford boys swimming team bounced back nicely by winning the prestigious West Michigan Relays December 15 at Zeeland West High School. The Rams, the third-ranked team in Division 1, won with 348 points, 38 points better than runner-up Zeeland. Holland was third with 296 points and East Grand Rapids fourth with 282 points.
Rockford’s 200-yard backstroke team of Craig Wasberg, Nick Willison, Stephan Cress, and Trenton Babcock set a meet record with a time of 1 minute, 39.8 seconds.
*Former Lansing Sexton standout Sam Lockhart is having a huge start to the indoor track season for the Grand Valley State University women’s track team. The senior thrower won both the shot put and the weight throw at the GVSU Holiday Open on December 14. She won the shot put with a throw of 15.2 meters and then came back to win the weight throw with a toss of 20.88 meters. Both of those throws were automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships.