Traverse City West Follows Another Lewandowski to 2nd-Straight Title
By
Andrew Rosenthal
Special for Second Half
February 28, 2022
BOYNE FALLS — Traverse City West’s two-year ski dynasty is bookended by two Lewandowski brothers.
Sophomore Caleb Lewandowski won the slalom championship Monday at the Division 1 Finals at Boyne Mountain to lead the Titans to the second of their first back-to-back ski team titles since the school opened in 1997. His older brother Aiden had led West's 2021 championship run with a giant slalom win.
Aiden also had won the respect of Rochester Adams senior Nathan Dehart, Monday’s GS winner. The two schools are separated by nearly a four-hour drive and 227 miles, but Dehart knew the Lewandkowski brothers well. He competed with Aiden in USSA Team Michigan events across the country.
“I’ve raced against (Aiden) for a long time,” Dehart said after he gave Caleb a celebratory carry at the finish line.
“I trained really hard to get into this situation, and I try to win every week. It feels good to finally win one my senior year.”
The two first-time Finals champions were runners-up in each-others disciplines, with Dehart edging Lewandowski in GS and Lewandowski racing past Dehart in slalom. They congratulated each other, they celebrated with each other on the podium, and Dehart even spent most of the awards ceremony hanging out with the Titans' boys team.
“I was trying to make it down, but also get a fast time. The team was doing really well, so I had to finish for them too,” Lewandowski. “I still have two more years to try and win some more.”
Traverse City West claimed the title over Traverse City Central by 36.5 points. The Titans should next season return several from a sophomore-heavy group, including Lewandowski.
A few seniors graduate — including all-state slalom finisher and captain Andy Hill — but West also returns several fast underclassmen. For example: TC West’s all-state sophomore Charlie Licht (3rd) wasn’t even on the Finals title roster last year. Juniors Luke Wiersma (fifth in GS, eighth in slalom) and Ben Schramski (seventh in GS, fifth in slalom) both had two all-state finishes.
“Any one of those top 4-5 boys could have won today,” TC West coach Ed Johnson said. “All of them skied where they needed to within their abilities. It was exciting to see Caleb win and then be able to have his teammates kind of stack up right behind him.”
Crosstown foe Traverse City Central finished runner-up to the Titans with a trio of all-state finishers. Asher Paul (eighth in GS, fifth in slalom) came home with two medals. Jace Rowell took third in GS, and Michael Booher claimed eighth in slalom.
The Trojans have now hit the 30 mark in boys skiing trophies, capturing their program’s 11th runner-up nod with 19 Finals championships. They finished fourth last year and have been runners-up in five of the past eight seasons.
It wouldn’t be fair to call the two schools rivals — well, at least for skiing. The two schools celebrated with each other for nearly a half hour.
Central coach Amy Kudary said the Trojans have been solid all year long and a runner-up nod to West is still a great accomplishment. The Trojans defeated the Titans at the Peppi Town Slalom meet earlier in the year — the biggest ski meet within the city limits of Traverse City.
“We knew that was a possibility, but still a lot of stars had to align to make it happen,” Kudary said.
Adams took third with a score of 90, led by Dehart’s all-state finishes. The Highlanders had a good showing in slalom, with Brayden Tapert (eighth) and Bryce Tapert (seventh) both landing in the top 10.
Individual all-state medalists not from the top-three finishing teams were Marquette’s Sam Dehlin (fourth in GS, fifth in slalom), Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern-Eastern’s JD Amann (sixth in GS), Hart’s Bryce Natter (ninth in GS, 10th in slalom), Clarkston’s Luke Farella (10th in GS) and Okemos’ Michael Benevegna (seventh in slalom).
PHOTO (Top) Traverse City West’s Caleb Lewandowski leans into a turn during a slalom run Monday at Boyne Mountain. (Middle) Rochester Adams’ Nathan Dehart pulls into the finish of a giant slalom run. (Click for more from Sports in Motion.)
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.)