Article - High School Sports Scene

It seems to be a tradition that the Chippewa Hills Warriors girls track team will not lose a meet and will take its conference title.

That’s been the case again this year, as the Warriors sealed another CSAA title on May 13 by winning the league meet.

Chippewa Hills boasted several CSAA champions, including all four relay teams. Erin Drouillard won the pole vault and the discus, Jennifer McNeal the high jump and the 400-meter run, Amanda Koepf the shot put, Arielle Esch the 100-meter hurdles, Megan O’Neil the 800- and the 3,2000-meter runs, and Nicole Snyder the 200-meter dash.

The Warriors ended their dual season with a 7-0 record and now have 84 straight victories, going back to the 2002 campaign, and have won 12 straight league titles. The Warriors were third at the MITCA team meet last season and sixth at the MHSAA state finals.

Sally Schafer has been the Warrior coach since 2000. “What’s really helped is the consistency of the coaching staff,” she said. “We’ve all been together for quite a few years. They know who their coaches are going to be. We have a great middle school program, too. They start off young in the program, and we build off of that. The younger kids have the older kids to learn from.”

Bob O’Neil has been Chippewa Hills girls’ middle school coach since 2001. He has averaged between 30 and 50 seventh- and eighth-grade girls on this teams. “This year, we have a bigger team,” he said. “We started with 60 and are down to 56 now.”

It’s O’Neil’s opinion that Chippewa Hills’ middle school success has something to do with the Warrior girls’ stunning success. “I think it helps a lot,” he said. “It gives them exposure. They see what the high school girls do.”

O’Neil, whose daughter Megan is an all-state distance runner for the Warriors, noted that not many of his athletes have much pre-middle school-level track and field experience. “Middle school track helps get them started,” he said.

“These kids want to do what the older kids are doing,” Schafer said. “So they work towards it.”

“We have really good coaches and dedicated athletes,” said Drouillard, a senior. “There’s a lot of kids starting off at a young age. In seventh grade, the middle school coach would want us to have fun. It’s like a big family.”

Many female athletes from Chippewa Hills have gone on to run college track. Drouillard is gong to Aquinas College and O’Neil to the University of Wisconsin.

In spite of all the success, though, not all of the 84 straight wins have been easy, acording to Schafer. “We had to go against Fruitport and Ludington, and we beat Ludington, when it came down to the mile relay. Spring Lake was in that conference that year. It was tough. Every team was beating out every other team. There’s been close calls for sure.

“One of my fondest memories is actually when we took second in the conference in one of my first years as coach. As head coach, we hadn’t been doing well and were trying to build up and were with Fremont, which has always been a powerhouse in track and field. They were pretty dominant. We tied them in the conference meet. They won the duals, so we ended up second in the conference. But that was the highest we had done in years. I remember being so happy for the kids. From that point on, we won.”

Schafer usually has up to 50 girls on her team. “The first few years, we were low 30s,” she said. “Each year it’s built up. The last few years we fall between 42 and 50.”

Schafer is obviously hopeful that the streak can continue when new teams Tri County and Grant enter the CSAA next season. “The girls want to keep it going,” she said. “Tri County, we were in a league with a few years back, and Grant, I’m kind of familiar with them. I think they’re good track schools. Hopefully, it will bring some good competition to the league. I’m looking forward to that.”

The Warriors have been deep across the board this season, Schafer noted. “We have speed and our distances are strong, and our field events are doing phenomenal. We have four high jumpers that have qualified for regionals. Three pole vaulters have qualified. Our throwers are doing great. We’ve got young throwers. Across the board, we are three-four deep. Because they’re on a quality team, they have to work their way in.”

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By BUTCH HARMON

With the bulk of its team back from a squad that won the Division 3 state title last year, expectations were high for the Lansing Catholic boys golf team heading into this season. As the season heads to the home stretch, the Cougars are well on their way to fulfilling those expectations.

“So far, the season has been going very well,” coach Charlie Furney said. “We have quite a bit of returning players who have experience from last year’s state championship team. We did lose one player, and he (Jacob Johnson) is at Oakland University now. We miss him because he was our number one player last year, but we are actually a deeper team this year.”

Johnson was one of the premier players in the state last year and was named the player of the year in the Lansing area.

Although Johnson moved on, the Cougars have plenty of talent back. Senior Brent Marshall and junior Niko Voutsaras lead the way this year. They were both averaging 77.2 for 18 holes at midseason, and they give the Cougars a strong one-two punch. Marshall finished second in the state as an individual last year, was the medalist at the Perry Invitational this year, and was second at the Ranger Invitational at Grand Valley State University. Voutsaras was third at the CAAC Open this season.

Overall, the Cougars have six golfers averaging under 83 for 18. Sophomore Owen Rush averages 79.4, junior Adam Elias 80.2, senior Avery Nelson 81.6, and junior Patrick Gillespie 82.2.

“They are all taking their turns leading us in scoring in tournaments this year,” Furney said. “They have finished in quite a few top 10s and have won a lot of ribbons. Three of them were in the top ten at the CAAC Open, and five out of six were in the top 20 at the Perry invite.”

The core group of players also has experience at the state meet. “Four of our players have state finals experience, and that will help out down the road,” Furney said. “We also have two seniors, three juniors, and one sophomore, so we have a nice mixture of classes.”

Lansing Catholic’s experience and depth has paid off this season with a number of strong efforts. The Cougars won three of the five tournaments they entered and finished third in the other two tournaments. They opened the season by winning the Dick’s Sporting Goods Classic at Green Briar in Perry. They then won the CAAC Open and the Forest Hills Central Ranger Open against mostly Division 1 and 2 schools.

Playng against some of the strongest golf schools in the state is by design, as the Cougars prepare for another deep tournament run.

“With six players back from last year’s team, we have the experience where we think we can compete for another state championship,” Furney said. “We are taking it one match at a time and we compete as best we can. We have been competing against good teams in Division 1 and 2 to get us ready for the Division 3 meet. The goal is to ultimately try to repeat. We certainly enjoyed the success we had last year and would like to have that success again this year.”

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Fourth-year coach Gene Lebron has enjoyed coaching a very talented Ithaca girls track team this spring.

“We’ve broken quite a few records,” said Lebron.

As of mid-May, the Yellowjackets had broken four records. Records have fallen in the 3200-meter relay, the 800-meter relay, and the 400-meter relay. The 400-meter relay record had stood since 1988. Brianne Draper has broken the school record in the 100-meter dash.

The 3200-meter relay features two freshmen and two sophomores, Courtney Allen, Kurstin Kalisek, Amelia Freestone, and Blaire Showers.

“It’s a deep middle distance field that I have,” Lebron said.

The 800-meter relay team includes Draper, Mikala Fairchild, Emily Foster, and Erica Sheahan, and the 400-meter relay has Fairchild, Draper, Sheahan, and Vanessa Waldron.

“Mid-Michigan is so tough in track,” Lebron said. “We have a really good team. But St. Louis is in our league. We’ve gone undefeated this year in dual meets, except against them. So we were 8-1. Our only loss was to St. Louis. For invitationals, we’ve been in the top two or three basically every invitational we’ve gone to. There are times once again that we’ve been second and St. Louis has been first.

“There’s just so many good track and field teams in this area. It’s tough to get into a meet in this area and bring home a championship.”

But before the season ends, the Yellowjackets have some lofty goals to achieve, one of which is to do well in the conference championship meet against St. Louis.

“They’re a tough team, but they make us better,” Lebron said.

The regionals came before the conference meet, and the Jackets were confident of sending a good number of athletes to the state finals. Pewamo-Westphalia, the defending Division 3 state champion, was slated to be at Ithaca’s regional, with many of its athletes returning from a year ago.

“This year, I’m hoping to get all of our relays there and several individuals,” Lebron said. “Draper, and whatever sprinting event we put her in, should make it. Erica Sheehan, and whatever event we put her in, should make it. My distance runners should advance in individual events.”

Lebron has enjoyed depth in Ithaca’s attack this season. “In the last few years, we’ve been strong in the distances,” he said. “We’ve had all-staters. We have a strong contingent of sprinters. We picked up a sprinter from Beal City, Erica Sheehan. Brianne is a battle-tested veteran. We’ve put together solid sprint relays.

“Where we’ve struggled is in field events. We’ve getting better there. We do have a pretty good all-around team. If there’s a weakness, it would be the field events.”

But when all is said and done, Lebron is confident this could be his best team at Ithaca.

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Midland Dow’s girls track team beat Flint Powers last week 84.5-52.5. Sophie Roeder won the 100 meters in 13.92 and Robyn Young took the 200 meters in 29.65. Kali Dent won the 1,600-meters in 5:27.19. Katya Karnoup won the 300-meter hurdles in 52.49. Amanda Kline and Baily Flint were field event winners. Dow won all the relays.

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Sammy Cuneo was first in the 100 and 200 meters for Rockford in a

91 ½-45 ½ track victory over Grandville last week. Also getting firsts were the 400, 800 and 1,600 relays, plus Maegan McCarthy in the shot put and discus, Maddi Trimble in the high jump, Megan Dileo in the pole vault and Bri Malstrom in the long jump.

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Grandville edged Rockford 70-67 in boys track action last week.

Getting firsts for Rockford were Josh Patterson in the 100 meters,

Nate Wozniak in the 400 meters, Isaac Harding in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter run, and all the relays.

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Carson City-Crystal lost 11-0 and won 3-2 against Coleman in the MSAC doubleheader on Tuesday last week. Whitney LaVictor took the loss in the first game and won the second game. LaVictor had the game-winning double in the second game, which featured two hits apiece for Ferguson and MacKenzie Geister.

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Forest Hills Northern swept Greenville’s baseball team 4-3 and 9-2 on Tuesday. Kaleb Vinton had three hits for Greenville in the first game. Kolton Dunham had two hits in the second game.

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Chase McNamara took first place in the 100, 200 and 400 meters to lead Midland Dow in track action with times of 11.85, 23.76 and 53.77 against Flint Powers last week. Josh Stauffer was first in 800 meters. Michael Carey was first in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs while Antoine Chauvette was first in the 110 and 300 hurdles. Dow won all the relays except the 3,200-meters. Nick Coon won the long jump.

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Montabella’s baseball team split with Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart on Tuesday losing 8-7 and winning 9-8. Brody Burgreen was the losing pitcher in the first game. Burggren and Austin Huber took the loss the first game. Dan Cutler was the winning pitcher in the second game. Cutler, Huber, Tyler House and Chase Murray had two hits apiece.

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Chippewa Hills track team’s winning streak continues

Lansing Catholic Central golf feature

Ithaca track team having solid season

Midland Dow girls prevail

Rockford girls roll

Rockford boys track team falls

CC-Crystal splits with Coleman

Greenville baseball team falls to FHN

McNamara leads Midland Dow

Montabella splits with Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart