Marquette Boys Extend Title Streak to 7
February 25, 2019
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
BELLAIRE — The dynasty of the Marquette boys skiing team is alive and well.
The Redmen captured their seventh consecutive MHSAA Division 1 championship Monday at Schuss Mountain, and their 14th overall, when they finished 27 points ahead of runner-up Traverse City West, 65-92, to take a convincing victory. Brighton took third with 111 points.
Marquette had the top two finishers in the giant slalom, with Hayden Kauppila finishing first in 47.25 seconds and Aaron Grzelak taking second in 47.54, and had three finishers among the top 10. The Redmen were able to overcome two skiers going down in the slalom by getting four across the finish line in the top 25.
“It feels pretty good for all the work we put in, and it finally pays off,” said Grzelak. “I think it feels pretty cool. All clean runs and a lot of people finishing. We are pretty excited.”
Kauppila led the way as the sophomore posted the top Marquette time in both disciplines, coming in second in the slalom in 1:00.58.
“It’s an awesome experience,” Kauppila said of winning another championship. “I thought I did a great job, personally. I’ve had a pretty good season.”
Keaton Jones, the lone senior among Marquette’s contributors, also recorded a top-10 finish in the slalom, taking ninth in 1:05.11. Logan Audette was 15th in the giant slalom (50.48) and 17th in the slalom (1:07.55), Truman Durand took 10th in the giant slalom (50.07) and Drake Scheidt was 25th in the slalom (1:09.52).
Head coach Dan Menze, who had been in charge of the last three championships for the Redmen, said his team definitely feels some pressure with the bulls-eye on its back each season. But he said his skiers are able to rise above it and perform at a high level.
“It helps because we’ve been there before,” he said. “Most of the teams racing here have some experience, but we’ve got a lot of experience with kids who have raced at this race before or races just as big. So, the nerves for the boys aren’t really much of a factor. It helps them with being calm and being ready to race. There’s definitely pressure to try and produce. We have a lot of great skiers up there. They’re used to it. It’s easier on them than it is myself. I get a little nervous at times.”
Rockford’s Nick Rupert, who won the Division 1 giant slalom a year ago, captured the slalom this season after recording the only time under one minute with a 59.9 to edge Kauppila by just over a half of a second.
Marquette could become the third boys ski team in MHSAA history to win eight championships in a row — joining Traverse City from 1988-95 and Petoskey from 2011-18 — if it wins another title in 2020. With three juniors (Grzelak, Durand and Scheidt) and two sophomores (Kauppila and Audette) eligible to return, the Redmen don’t appear to be going away any time soon.
“I’m very fortunate to have a great program up in Marquette that kind of feeds the high school and makes my job a lot easier,” said Menze.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette's Hayden Kauppila races downhill during a slalom run Monday at Schuss Mountain. (Middle) Rockford's Nick Rupert speeds toward the Division 1 slalom championship. (Photos by Jake Atnip. For more from Monday's Finals, see Sports in Motion.)
Petoskey Overtakes Rival to Repeat as D2 Champ
February 22, 2021
By Andrew Rosenthal
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS — The streak has started again.
Petoskey beat out Great North Alpine for the Division 2 skiing title at Boyne Highlands Resort on Monday after missing out on the Regional title to GNA last week.
The Northmen went back-to-back to make it 10 championships out of the last 11 years. The only team to win a Division 2 title during that run was Great North Alpine in 2019, the co-op program combining athletes from Elk Rapids, Traverse City St. Francis and Grand Traverse Academy.
Monday’s win also made the Northmen the third team in the Big North Conference to take home a Finals championship trophy this winter. Traverse City West’s boys and Traverse City Central’s girls won titles just across the street at Nubs Nob in the Division 1 Finals.
Ben Crockett, who coaches the Petoskey boys, wasn't really surprised at that given the reputation of BNC schools producing quality skiers.
"We're getting a lot more challenges from schools in the Grand Rapids and Detroit areas," Crockett said. "To stay on top, we're going to have to keep working hard to be able to stay in the position that we're in, but we're feeling pretty good that we've got such good strength locally here."
Both Petoskey and GNA had a bevy of all-state finishers Monday.
For Petoskey in the giant slalom, Anders McCarthy was the leader taking third (1:02.13), Wyatt Mattson took fifth (1:02.86), and William Goelz placed 12th for second-team all-state (1:04.02). McCarthy (fifth) and Goelz (10th) finished with all-state honors in the slalom, Nolan Walkerdine (11th) and Mattson (13th) earning second-team all-state. Michael Iverson finished 21st in slalom to narrowly miss making the second team.
Sully Husband was the only Great North Alpine skier to medal in the morning session, taking fourth in the GS with a time of 1:02.41. Ayden Ferris (13th), Shane Pilate (15th) and Corbin Murphy (19th) each earned second-team all-state nods. Husband doubled up in the afternoon, finishing sixth in slalom, and Ferris joined him at the podium in seventh.
Husband attributed the team's success to getting four solid runs in. He said that's also what led to GNA's Regional title win over Petoskey.
"I'm kind of happy that we got a nice finish," Husband said. "We got second place; kind of stinks that we didn't get first place. But you know, I'm happy that we made it down in one piece because that's really the challenge at the end of the day."
Ben Ferris, who coaches GNA, said it's always nice to bring hardware back. When a co-op school wins a Finals trophy, a duplicate trophy goes to each school that is a part of the co-op.
"It's really about who skis the cleanest all day long and brings things together," Ferris said. "D2 has a really strong skier population anyways, so anytime you get somewhere up and you can make (it) in that top three it's a pretty successful season."
Crockett said 10 titles in 11 years doesn't take away from the years the Northmen won eight straight. If anything, he said it's a good thing to have several teams knocking on the door.
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (72 points) finished just behind Great North Alpine (71 points), narrowly missing a first top-two Finals finish in program history.
"We want a sport where we have competitive teams and where we're all pushing each other to be better athletes and better competitors," Crockett said. "I think the more competition that we have, and the closer it is, the more the win means."
Jack Lintol led the Fighting Irish in their third-place finish, taking home a title from the morning giant slalom session with a time of 1:01.35. Reed Heathman, who competed individually from Houghton, took second in that same event.
But then Heathman, a junior, came back and beat out Lintol in the slalom for the other individual title of the day. He had the fastest time on his first run with a 39.17 and built on that time with the fastest on the second run as well, a 41.95 to win with 1:21.12.
Heathman took third in GS last year — and said his goal going into last offseason was to improve on that.
“I’m glad to see that was accomplished. I’m happy,” Heathman said. “I didn’t know that I was going to win, but that was the ultimate goal. I knew that competition was going be tough, so I had my work cut out for me.
“I felt in control the whole time. I stayed forward, I stayed ahead of it, it felt good.”
Outside of Petoskey or Great North Alpine, the only other skiers to medal in both GS and slalom were Harbor Springs' Conner Truman and Quincy Thayer, a Frankfort student who competes for Benzie Central. Thayer took seventh in GS with a time of 1:03.31 and eighth in slalom at 1:26.06, while Truman was fourth in slalom at 1:23.40 and ninth in GS with a 1:03.80.
PHOTOS: (Top) Petoskey celebrates its 10th Division 2 championship in 11 seasons Monday. (Middle) Houghton’s Reed Heathman races toward his championship in the slalom. (Click for more from Sports in Motion.)