Northmen Rule Again in D2 Final
February 24, 2014
By Andy Sneddon
Special to Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS – A first for Cadillac, and more of the same for Petoskey.
Keenan Cooper became the first male skier in Cadillac history to sweep the MHSAA individual ski titles Monday when he accomplished the feat at the Division 2 Final at Nub’s Nob.
Petoskey, led by double-medalist Gunnar Lundteigen, ran away with the team championship, its fourth consecutive and 15th in the storied history of the program.
“The team’s been really solid in the past, obviously, and being a part of it really feels good,” said first-year Petoskey coach Erik Lundteigen.
“Watching this senior class, they haven’t lost a conference, a Regional or a state Finals in four years, which is unbelievable.”
Almost as unbelievable was the performance of Cooper, who edged Andrew Schumacher of Grand Rapids Christian to win the slalom, and beat out Robbie Cort of Birmingham Brother Rice to capture the giant slalom.
“I woke up feeling good today, and it was just an on day for me,” said Cooper, a senior whose previous best Finals finish was a fourth in slalom last season. “I took that first run today and it just felt smooth. From that point on I could let it all out today.
“I knew I had a chance at it, but I knew I had to ski really well because there’s a lot of good skiers here. Just had to ski my own race and not really think about what other people were doing. Just go out there and do what I could do.”
Familiarity with the steep and tricky terrain at Nub’s helped, said Cooper, who estimated he had competed on the hill at least five times in his career.
“Scarface is just a brutal hill no matter what course is set on it because you’re doing every type of turn you can throw in there, fall-aways, bank turns, and it just becomes a tough course,” he said. “You kind of take all the tools you’ve learned over the years and you apply it to one course.
“I’m decently familiar with it. Makes a huge difference.”
Gunnar Lundteigen was in Cooper’s ski boots a year ago, when he swept the individual titles at Marquette Mountain.
He failed to repeat, but brought home medals in the slalom (third place) and GS (fourth) as Petoskey dominated the team competition. The Northmen finished with 41.5 points, a whopping 62 better than runner-up Cadillac.
The Northmen ripped through the morning slalom competition, placing four skiers – Gunnar Lundteigen, Trevor Kingsbury, Garret Lundteigen and Patrick Sheperd – among the top 10.
By the time the afternoon giant slalom started, all Petoskey had to do was get four skiers to the finish line.
“Everybody skied up to their potential,” coach Lundteigen said. “They’re all good skiers, they’ve trained hard all year, they’ve worked hard all year. We had one of our best days today.
“There’s a lot of depth. If one guy makes a mistake or goes down, the rest of the guys pick him up.”
While Gunnar Lundteigen recorded Petoskey’s lone top-10 finish in the GS, the Northmen had four other skiers finish from 11th-16th.
Joining Cooper and Gunnar Lundteigen as double medalists were Schumacher, Nate Houk of Cadillac and Ben Hicks of Bellaire.
PHOTOS: (Top) Petoskey skiers celebrate with another MHSAA championship trophy. (Middle) Ironwood's Ethan Johnson works downhill during one of his runs Monday.
Lewandowski Sweep Paces TC West Boys' 3rd-Straight Championship Run
By
James Cook
Special for MHSAA.com
February 27, 2023
BELLAIRE – Dubs turned into trips, which could become quads.
Traverse City West won its third straight Division 1 boys skiing championship Monday at Schuss Mountain in Bellaire.
Titans junior Caleb Lewandowski won both the slalom and giant slalom, his third individual Finals crowns and his family's fourth (his older brother Aiden won the 2021 GS title), and next year three younger brothers who are part of quadruplets will join the West program as freshmen as well.
The Titans girls edged Central as well at their Division 1 Finals on Monday, making West just the sixth school to win boys and girls skiing state titles in the same year, joining TC Central, Petoskey, Cadillac, Harbor Springs and Marquette. Only Central, West and Marquette did that at the Division 1 (or Class A, previously) level.
After the Titans (52) and Traverse City Central (57) boys, Marquette placed third with 106 points, followed by Brighton (167), Clarkston (177), Fenton-Linden-Lake Fenton (194), Birmingham (238), Rochester Adams (256) and Milford (277).
TC West and Central combined for 24 of the 40 first-team all-state spots, including eight of 10 in boys slalom.
"It's exciting just for Traverse City in general to see first and second place from both sides," said West head coach Ed Johnson, who now has six Finals championships, three each for boys and girls. "Obviously, we love to win, but it's really cool to see how many trophies we took home to Traverse City today. It speaks highly of the programs that are going on there right now and the junior programs and the up-and-comers."
Four trophies were handed out Monday — two champions and two runners-up. All went back to Traverse City.
There wasn't much question about it, either. The third-place team resided at least 30 points back on both sides.
"Coming into it, I knew it was a real possibility that we could do it, but everything had to come together at the right time," Johnson said. "We've been working on getting the kids to peak at the right time in the season, and it's worked out pretty well."
"For a second year in a row we have shown the state how strong our skiing is here in Traverse City," said Central head coach Amy Kudary, who led the Trojans to back-to-back girls titles in 2021 and 2022. "That’s something we can all be proud of.”
Luke Wiersema's first slalom run wasn't great. The TC West junior hiked after missing a gate and still managed to sit in 22nd place. Then his second run was the third-fastest to move him all the way up to ninth place and a first-team all-state finish.
That move essentially boosted West's score by 13. The Titans won the boys championship by five.
"I just kind of leaned in (too much) and then just had to hike a little bit, but then made it down," Wiersema said. "(The second) was an awesome, surreal run."
Wiersema said the second run was his best of the season.
"Everyone's happy, so it's good," Wiersema said. "We've definitely put in a lot of hard work. Skiing in the rain and when it's 50 degrees, it's been a lot of hard work."
West's boys scored 18 in slalom. For reference, a perfect score in which all four top spots go to the same team would be 10.
Lewandowski also had won the slalom last season as a sophomore.
"It feels amazing," Lewandowski said. "Just to help my team out, helped my boys."
Lewandowski posted three of the day's four fastest times, with Wiersema getting the other one in his second GS run.
"I don't really want to sound cocky, but all of us were wanting to win it really bad," Lewandowski said. "We thought we could. We had a few mess-ups that gave us some pushback, but we fought hard and we came away with it."
The top 10 in giant slalom – who all earn first-team all-state honors – were Lewandowski, Wiersema, Marquette's Sam Dehlin, TC Central's Jace Rowell, Lake Orion's Broden Janczarek, Brighton's Cru Smith, TC Central's Asher Paul, TC West's Isaac Shapiro, TC Central's Didier Ramoie and Flushing's Anthony Trovato.
The top 10 in GS were Lewandowski, Dehlin, Paul, TC West's Ben Schramski, Shapiro, Rowell, Ramoie, Trovato, Wiersema and TC Central's Luke Farella.
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City West's Caleb Lewandowski approaches a gate during one of his runs Monday. (Middle) The Titans celebrate their championship at Schuss Mountain. (Click for more from Sports in Motion - Division 1.)