By 1 Point, Marquette Ties Title Record
February 25, 2020
By James Cook
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS — The goal sat there.
Dan Menze and his Marquette Redmen just didn't know if they'd quite reached it.
Marquette came into Monday's Division 1 Skiing Finals at Boyne Highlands with a chance to become only the third program in state history to win eight straight championships.
Monday didn't make that easy.
With high temperatures in the 40s making runs tricky and several teams putting up a big fight, it came down to the wire.
"It was a nerve-wracking day, but it was definitely a goal," Menze said. "Coming into the season, we knew we had a chance to go out and go for eight in a row.
"We didn't know until the last second when we finally got results in. Everyone is trying, we're trying to tally it up, and everything but when we finally saw it — I didn't think we had it — and then I saw that. Just joy."
By one point.
One single point.
Marquette survived a spirited chase from Brighton, Rochester Adams and Traverse City West, as the four teams finished within 12 points of one another.
The Redmen won with 81 points to Brighton's 82. Adams took third with 92, one point ahead of Traverse City West.
"That's crazy," said Marquette senior Aaron Grzelak, who won both the slalom and giant slalom titles. "I think that's awesome. That's so cool to be part of that class to be able to win number eight.”
The feat equals that of Traverse City Central’s streak from 1988-95 and Petoskey’s from 2011-18.
"That's eight different teams, but two teams that didn't have any of the same kids on them at all," said Marquette assistant coach Keenan Cooper, who won two individual Finals titles in 2014 with Cadillac. "It's awesome to see that it really speaks about the depth of the skiing in Marquette and all the junior programs and how that culture really brings up the skiers."
Traverse City West sophomore Aiden Lewandowski was Grzelak's closest competitor in slalom, almost two full seconds behind. Grzelak's two-run combined time of 79.23 seconds was 1.9 better than Lewandowski's. Marquette's Truman Durand placed third and Logan Audette eighth.
Rounding out the slalom top 10 were Will Blackmer of Stoney Creek in fourth, Brighton's Andrew Myers fifth, TC West's Luke Wiersema sixth, Rochester Adams' Zeke King seventh, Cru Smith of Brighton ninth and Adams' Jacob Corsi in 10th.
Rochester Adams' duo of Colin Dehart and King placed second and third behind Grzelak in giant slalom, Erik Koseck of Saline-Chelsea fourth, Lewandowski fifth, and then Durand, Blackmer, Brighton's pair of Ian Swanson and Luke Vaden and Traverse City Central's Gus Dutmers 10th.
"With Aaron skiing so well — he's phenomenal today, a couple bobbles here and there but solid," Cooper said. "And Truman Durand, phenomenal day. He put us up there when you take it by a point. Every place matters."
Hayden Kauppila, last year's giant slalom champ, placed 15th is GS and had a DNF in slalom. Audette had to hike during his first GS run.
"It's good to have depth because we had a lot of crashes today, and we had to use our fifth and six skiers' times," Menze said. "Most of the season we didn't, because the top — Aaron, Hayden, Truman and Logan — they're real consistent, they finish all the time, but today they had some troubles and the other guys picked it up. I can't say enough about all the guys in the competition within the team to push each other all year."
Marquette might be hard-pressed to extend that streak to a record-breaking nine next season, but the Redmen are game for going for it. The team loses seniors Grzelak, Durand, Drake Scheidt and Jack Franchino from its top six.
"We're going to be losing a lot for next year,” Grzelak said, “so we'll see how that plays out."
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette’s Aaron Grzelak won championships in both slalom and giant slalom Monday. (Middle) The Redmen celebrate their eighth-straight Finals championship. (Click for more from Sports in Motion.)
Marquette Peaks in D1 Final
February 26, 2013
By John Raffel
Special to Second Half
BOYNE FALLS – Marquette is back as MHSAA Division I Boys Skiing champions after the Upper Peninsula school ended competition Monday with a combined score of 57 points to finish ahead of defending champion Clarkston’s 74 at Boyne Mountain.
The championship was the Redmen’s first since 2009 and eighth since skiing became an MHSAA-sponsored sport in 1975.
Marquette had a score of 34 in the slalom to match 2012 champion Clarkston. But Marquette was superior with a 23 in the giant slalom compared to 40 for Clarkston.
“I was proud of the boys,” said Marquette coach Marty Paulsen, who finished his third season running the program. “We scored well as a team. They all skied as a team and all knew what had to be done.
“It marks a pretty long tradition of skiing excellence and top skiing performances in the state,” he added. “It's great to be a part of that tradition.”
Taylor Janssen of White Lake Lakeland was the giant slalom individual champ while Finley Clark of Traverse City West took first place in the slalom.
Traverse City Central was third among teams at 95 points, Traverse City West fourth at 127 and Lake Orion fifth at 143. Okemos took sixth at 237 followed by South Lyon at 240, Grand Blanc at 271 and Brighton at 279.
Monday’s meet was Marquette’s finest performance this season, Paulsen said.
Luke Johnson, Nick Weber and Matt Anderson paced the Marquette attack in the giant slalom by placing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Dylan Larson scored a 14th place for Marquette. In the slalom, Nick Weber was eighth, Joe Weber 10th, Johnson 13th, Larson 15th, Anderson 23rd and Kyle King 36th.
“We had good results in giant slalom at Regionals,” Paulsen said. “All three top teams – Traverse City West, Traverse City Central and Marquette struggled in slalom a little bit. At Regionals, Traverse City West pulled it out. They had a great slalom performance. So today, we were able to put together our giant slalom with our slalom.”
Lakeland’s Janssen was the giant slalom individual champ with runs of 29.77 and 30.39 for a combined championship time of 1:00.16. Derek VanItallie of Clarkston was second at 1:00.49.
Also in the GS, Loan Stetsko of Lakeland was third at 1:00.50 while Johnson, Weber and Anderson had combined times of 1:00.55, 1:00.60 and 1:00.61, respectively.
Seth Thompson of Fenton/Linden was seventh at 1:00.63, Robbie Cort of Birmingham Brother Rice eighth at 1:00.71, Clark, the slalom champ, finished ninth at 1:00.80, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston 10th at 1:00.88.
Janssen's family has a place in the area and he considers Boyne as his home hill.
“I grew up on this hill so it's kind of nice to win it my senior year,” he said. “I was really happy with my results. It's my senior year and I'm trying to get it done. The results speak for themselves. I had a really good day and I was happy.”
Fifth in the slalom was Janssen's previous best finish at an MHSAA Final.
“I knew I was going to ski well today,” he added. “I took kind of a conservative first run and had not my best run. I kind of got angry after my first run and was in seventh. I went into my second run saying 'it's do or die here. I went in with complete confidence that whatever I do on this run will be my high school legacy. I went after it and it all worked out.”
Clark, a senior at Traverse City West, took first in the slalom with runs of 31.44 and 32.85 for a 1:04.29. John Merchant of Walled Lake Northern was second at 31.65 and 32.67 for 1:04.32, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston was third in 32.28 and 32.96 for 1:05.34.
“Last year, I was going in and one of my skis popped off, and I was sitting second after the first round, Clark said. “I changed bindings in skis, and I matured a little more so I knew what I was doing a little bit more.”
Also in the slalom, Janssen, the GS champ, was fourth in 1:06.05, followed by Cort at 1:06.58, VanItallie at 1:06.81, Kalvis Hornburg of TC Central at 1:07.49, Nick Weber at 1:07.59, Alex McIntosh at 1:07.79 and Joe Weber at 1:07.86.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette celebrates its eighth MHSAA team championship. (Middle) Traverse City Central's Kurt Frick races down the mountain during Monday's competition. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)