Marquette Boys Continue D1 Dominance
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
March 1, 2016
MARQUETTE — It was a great day to be a member of the Marquette ski program Monday, as both team won MHSAA Division 1 championships at Marquette Mountain.
The Marquette boys turned in a dominating performance with 22 points, followed by Traverse City Central with 90 and Bloomfield Hills with 135.
Marquette, which earned its fourth straight championship, grabbed the top four places in slalom and top three spots in giant slalom on a sunny, but chilly and windy day.
“Everybody had to finish together,” Marquette coach Marty Paulsen said. “For the girls, this was probably their strongest performance as a team all year. The boys have been solid all year. Our junior (developmental) programs have coaches who start grooming these kids in elementary school. We also have supportive parents who drive their kids all over for ski tournaments, buy the equipment and pay for coaches, which is a big commitment for them.”
Junior Brad Seaborg captured the boys individual title in slalom in one minute, 11.3 seconds, followed by senior Joe Weber (1:12.49) and teammates Drew Thomas (1:14.16) and Adam Skendzel (1:14.37).
“We’ve been training for this all year and had good preparation for today,” Seaborg said. “We spent the past week training on this hill and have been very focused in practice all year. This was a great meet. The conditions were brutal this morning. The wind was very strong. I made sure I stayed low. In giant slalom, I think I did some of my best skiing all year.
“We had a good day as a team, and Joe had a great day. Joe and I have gone back and forth all year.”
Weber won the giant slalom in 57.54 seconds, followed by Seaborg (58.4) and Thomas (58.8) and Central’s Lars Hornburg (59.51).
“As a team we came out here to execute,” said Weber, who will attend University of Michigan this fall. “We performed the way we knew we could. There was a lot of wind out here today, but you really have to go for it. You can’t hold back. We have a lot of competition in practice, which helps a lot. We’re going at it every day, trying to win. It has been my goal for the last four years to help keep the title in Marquette.”
The Marquette boys have captured 11 MHSAA titles overall. Traverse City Central finished second for the third straight season.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette’s Brad Seaborg speeds downhill on the way to winning the slalom championship Monday. (Middle) Teammate Joe Weber cuts past a gate on the way to winning the giant slalom. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Petoskey Boys Take Back Top Spot in D2
February 24, 2020
By Andrew Rosenthal
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS – Petoskey is back on top of Division 2.
Coach Erik Lundteigen and the Northmen earned their 12th MHSAA Finals title scoring 56 points to win Monday’s Final at Nub’s Nob after finishing second last season to Great North Alpine. Harbor Springs was runner-up this time with a score of 64, and Great North Alpine placed third with a score of 84.5.
Petoskey had won eight straight Division 2 titles before last season's second-place finish.
“It’s great to be back on top,” Lundteigen said. “It's nice being on the home hill. We certainly had an advantage racing on our home turf.”
Harbor Springs was feeling the same way, earning the runner-up trophy seven miles away from its school.
“The boys team especially has been challenged every week,” Harbor Springs coach Jane Ramer said. “They've been working so hard, and it's really great to see all their hard work being paid off.”
Jimmy Flom led the Northmen on Monday with the individual title in the slalom and a sixth-place finish in the giant slalom. Flom raced for a time of 1:15.54 in the slalom with the second-best runs each side of the mountain.
Starting off the day with three Northmen on the podium, Petoskey scored 27 points off the giant slalom. Andrew “Tripp” Thomas took fourth place, joining teammates Anders McCarthy and Flom on the podium.
“We kind of locked it down a little bit,” Flom said. “We walked into slalom with a nice lead. Unfortunately our first seed skier tripped, he had a little bobble which kind of hurt us a little bit, but everyone else just skied calm and controlled.”
Andrew Truman of Harbor Springs took the title in the morning race, later turning around for a second-place finish in the slalom. In the GS race, Truman posted the best times in both runs.
It was Truman’s first Finals title after finishing second in both the slalom and GS in 2019.
“I was really hoping I could win at least one,” Truman said. “When I won it this morning, I was so relieved that I won.”
Flom beat Truman’s time by 22 hundredths of a second in the slalom. Flom, McCarthy and Will Goelz all finished within the top 12 of that event, and the Northmen were again the top boys team with a score of 29.
Truman joined Cole Huffman each with two medals. Huffman placed fifth in GS with a time of 51.60 and seventh in slalom with a time of 1:20.19.
“(Truman) is a great racer, and he is a great athlete,” Ramer said. “He's really focused, he's really dedicated to the sport. He practices like he's racing, he's got a great attitude and he’s a joy to coach.”
GNA’s Cooper Kerkhof was right in the fight for first in both events, taking second in the giant slalom and third in the slalom. Andrew Bliss won a pair of medals as well, taking eighth in slalom and ninth in giant slalom.
PHOTOS: (Top) Petoskey’s Jimmy Flom navigates the hill in leading his team to the Division 2 championship Monday at Nub’s Nob. (Middle) Harbor Springs’ Andrew Truman earned first and second-place finishes. (Click to see more from Sports in Motion.)