Traverse City Supports in Force on Ski Hill
February 12, 2021
By Tom Spencer
Special for Second Half
This might seem like the logical time for Traverse City West’s girls Alpine ski team to discontinue its long-standing support of its cross-town rival at the upcoming MHSAA Finals.
While Traverse City’s Central’s girls won Wednesday’s Regional at Crystal Mountain, the Titans girls didn’t finish among the top three. So the West girls won’t be at the Feb. 22 Final.
Or will they?
Three qualified as individuals. And not many would be surprised if the rest of the Titans girls squad and their supporters make the 70-some mile trip to Nub’s Nob – and continue cheering on not only the Titans boys team, but of both Central teams as well.
The West and Central boys and girls have been competing with and against each other since their beginning days on the slopes. Their families all know each other well. And no one denies the special relationship the girls have.
“We’ve known them (West’s girls) for our whole skiing careers,” said Central junior Elle Craven after the Trojans girls’ Regional win. “So we always cheer for each other, and we always want each other to do great.
“They’ve been on my team until my freshmen year – that’s when we get split up,” she continued. “They are our great friends, and we hang out with them outside of school also.”
Central’s Sarah Beattie, a senior captain, echoed the sentiment.
“They are a great group of girls too,” she noted. “They are hilarious and so fun to be around.
“We all live in Traverse City and see each other around town, and our families know each other and that makes us closer.”
West freshman Charlie Schultz, one of the three Titans’ individual qualifiers, admitted it was tough seeing her Central friends move on but not her team.
West missed the final qualifying berth by eight points.
“We pretty much have been skiing together our whole lives, so we’re all pretty close,” she said. “It is competitive, but it is like friendly competitive.
“Our team was kind of bummed. We’re just hoping next year we can (reach the Finals).”
Lila Warren and Ellie Gruber also qualified for the Final for West. Central was led by Beattie and Craven. Trojans Maddy Cox, Lily Kuberski, and Pearl Hale also had top-10 finishes in the Regional.
West junior Aiden Lewandowski won both the slalom and giant slalom in the boys Regional as West topped the field including Central and third-place qualifier Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern.
The other top-10 West finishers on the boys side were Andy Hill, Luke Wiersma and Caleb Lewandowski. Max Werner, Will Russell, Michael Booher and Gus Dutmers posted top-10 finishes for Central.
West coach Ed Johnson has seen a lot during his more than 30-year tenure coaching West’s boys and girls. The closeness of the boys and girls teams from each school really adds to the fun for him.
“It doesn’t matter which side of town they’re from or which school they go to, they are all really close friends,” he said. “It is a close-knit group, and it is really fun to see.
“The coaches get along great. The athletes get along great. (Skiing) is a fun program for both schools.”
Central boys and girls coach Amy Kudary agrees.
“They have grown up together,” she said. “It is very cool when other teams look at us when we’re cheering for our biggest rivals.
“And, I think that is teaching the kids a lot beyond the ski hill too.”
Championships are in the sight for both Central squads and the West boys due to all three teams’ depth. Marquette’s boys, Division 1 champs the past eight years, finished fourth at the same Regional and did not qualify for the Finals. The Marquette girls, Division 1 champions the last five years, finished 33 points behind Central at the Regional.
“Today (at Regionals) that (depth) was why both of our teams did so well,” said Kudary. “They all skied as a team. We didn’t have to rely on one or two skiers.
“We each had a couple skiers go down,” she continued. “The other skiers stepped in and performed like they needed to. It was truly team skiing today, and that is what is most fun to see as a coach.”
Now, both coaches have the difficult, but welcomed, challenge of selecting the six skiers from their deep squads to compete for the Division 1 championships.
“That’s tough for those alternates,” Kudary acknowledged. “I have to tell them they’re not racing for the Regionals and states when they could be one of the top skiers on any other team in the state.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City West and Central skiers support each other’s teams together during their Division 1 Regional, from left: Maddy Cox, Pearl Hale, Mackenzie Cronk, Avery Sill, Charlie Schultz, Lola Hisenkcamp and Ellie Gruber. (Middle) One of the Titans’ boys competitors keeps an eye on the hill. (Photos by Tom Spencer.)
High 5s - 3/6/12
March 6, 2012
Every Tuesday, Second Half honors 2-4 athletes and a team for its accomplishments during the current season.
Have a suggestion for a future High 5? Please offer suggestions by e-mail to [email protected]. Candidates often will have accomplished great things on the field of play -- but also will be recognized for other less obvious contributions to their teams, schools or the mission of high school athletics as a whole.
Nathalie Kenny
Manistee senior
Skiing
Kenny finished her high school skiing career with her sixth and seventh top-10 MHSAA Finals finishes, including her second straight Division 2 championship in giant slalom in a two-run time of 59.79 seconds. She also finished runner-up in the slalom (1:13.31), her third runner-up finish over the last four seasons. Her Manistee/Traverse City St. Francis team finishined fourth, but won the meet when she was a freshman. Kenny also swam in the fall, and plays center midfielder for the soccer team.
Up next: Kenny hopes to earn her bachelor's and master's degrees and eventually a doctorate as well, and has applied to St. Olaf's (Minn.), Dartmouth, Harvard and Middlebury (Vt.), as well as to the U.S. Air Force Academy. She'd like to continue skiing competitively, but at what level -- NCAA, intramural or not at all -- will depend on where she attends college. She's planning on a career in science. "I am interested in a plethora of concentrations including, but not limited to, biology, environmental science, law and medicine."
Some day, I will be: "When I was younger I would have answered: the President. But now, I find myself leaning towards a lawyer, researcher, scientist, physician or world traveler. However, I will still just be me; my job won't define who I am."
I learned the most about skiing from: "Dan Janowiak. I have worked with Dan for about six or seven years now, and I don't know many others with the ski racing knowledge that he has. From technique to tactics, visualization to preparation, Dan has stuffed my brain. Without him, I would not be the skier I am today."
I look up to: "My coach's daughter, Lyndee Janowiak, has always been a role model for me in skiing. She has natural talent, and I admire her hard work and passion for the sport. She is very fast and has had a successful career that recently came to an end when she graduated college. When she isn't busy racing herself, she is always giving tips and helping me improve. She believes in me and has helped me become a better skier. That is something that I will always be grateful for."
I love skiing because: "... I love the speed, and the adrenaline rush that pumps through my body when I fly down the hill. I love the feeling of carving my edges into the snow and making angles so big that I feel as if my butt will touch the ground. And I love the challenge that it presents. Between the speed, gravitational forces, use of energy, and complexity of a seemingly simple turn, skiing is one of the most difficult and technical sports there is. The list never ends, and neither does my hunger to improve."
Paige Arrington
Gibraltar Carlson senior
Competitive Cheer
Arrington, a four-year member of the squad, helped the Marauders to their third MHSAA Division 2 championship of her high school career. Carlson posted the meet's highest scores in both Round 1 and Round 2, and then tied for the high score in Round 3 to finish with a total of 807.3944 points, 2.9 ahead of runner-up Dearborn Divine Child.
"It's absolutely mind-blowing. I'm so happy to leave my senior year with three state championships and two of them being back-to-back. It is absolutely an amazing feeling, and I wouldn't trade it for the world."
Up next: Arrington will attend Oakland University and study nursing. She also expects to join the Oakland cheer team.
I learned the most about cheer from: Shumate Middle School coach Marissa Mousouleas.
I look up to: "All my coaches. Danielle (Jokela), Christy (Wilson), everybody. They just do so much for us and help us so much. It's hard to pick one."
I'm motivated by: "Winning. I just love to win, so (I) work hard to do it."
My career highlight was: "Probably winning states my freshman year. Sending out our seniors with their back-to-back championships. I felt good because I helped do that. And then this year, my freshmen helped send me out with back-to-back state championships, and that's amazing."
To those who say cheer isn't a sport: "First off, I would laugh. And then I would say ... we even had one practice that was 10 hours long to everything perfect. We've been with each other six days a week since November. We put everything into this sport and we flip around, jump around, hit things tight. And it has to be perfect. It's a sport."
Jordan Thomas
Greenville wrestling
Senior
Thomas, who will wrestle next season at the University of Michigan, won his third-straight MHSAA championship Saturday, in Division 2 and 189 pounds. Thomas defeated reigning champion Gabe Dean of Lowell 5-1, giving him two wins over Dean this winter and a final record of 45-0 -- and 217-3 for his high school career. Thomas and St. Johns senior Taylor Massa led the opening wrestlers march onto The Palace of Auburn Hills floor. Massa is the only wrestler who has stopped Thomas in an MHSAA Final -- he beat Thomas 5-2 in the 145-pound Final when both were freshmen.
"I knew (Dean) was thinking overtime. I thought I had one more good shot in me. With 12 seconds (left), I go after it. I got a good shot off, strong finish. It felt good."
Up next: Thomas hopes to redshirt his first season at Michigan plans to study business. "I love math."
I learned the most about wrestling from: Thomas thanked Tom, Doug and Ben Bennett, Rodger and Taylor Massa, and his Greenville coaches.
I look up to: Ever since I was little, people asked me do you look up to Cael Sanderson, do you look up to Brent Metcalf? I think those guys are great. But I try not to look up to anybody. ... I want to make my own path, do something nobody else has done. Obviously, I can't have an undefeated career. Cael already had that undefeated college career. I want to do something else for the first time. It doesn't matter who you look up to. There's a lot of people I think are great. I just pick up little things from everybody."
Richmond Competitive Cheer
The Blue Devils improved from third place at the Division 3 Final in both 2009 and 2010, to second last season and finally finished first Saturday at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex.
Richmond won all of its events this winter, and scored the meet high in each round on the way to its first MHSAA championship.