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.)
Marquette Peaks in D1 Final
February 26, 2013
By John Raffel
Special to Second Half
BOYNE FALLS – Marquette is back as MHSAA Division I Boys Skiing champions after the Upper Peninsula school ended competition Monday with a combined score of 57 points to finish ahead of defending champion Clarkston’s 74 at Boyne Mountain.
The championship was the Redmen’s first since 2009 and eighth since skiing became an MHSAA-sponsored sport in 1975.
Marquette had a score of 34 in the slalom to match 2012 champion Clarkston. But Marquette was superior with a 23 in the giant slalom compared to 40 for Clarkston.
“I was proud of the boys,” said Marquette coach Marty Paulsen, who finished his third season running the program. “We scored well as a team. They all skied as a team and all knew what had to be done.
“It marks a pretty long tradition of skiing excellence and top skiing performances in the state,” he added. “It's great to be a part of that tradition.”
Taylor Janssen of White Lake Lakeland was the giant slalom individual champ while Finley Clark of Traverse City West took first place in the slalom.
Traverse City Central was third among teams at 95 points, Traverse City West fourth at 127 and Lake Orion fifth at 143. Okemos took sixth at 237 followed by South Lyon at 240, Grand Blanc at 271 and Brighton at 279.
Monday’s meet was Marquette’s finest performance this season, Paulsen said.
Luke Johnson, Nick Weber and Matt Anderson paced the Marquette attack in the giant slalom by placing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Dylan Larson scored a 14th place for Marquette. In the slalom, Nick Weber was eighth, Joe Weber 10th, Johnson 13th, Larson 15th, Anderson 23rd and Kyle King 36th.
“We had good results in giant slalom at Regionals,” Paulsen said. “All three top teams – Traverse City West, Traverse City Central and Marquette struggled in slalom a little bit. At Regionals, Traverse City West pulled it out. They had a great slalom performance. So today, we were able to put together our giant slalom with our slalom.”
Lakeland’s Janssen was the giant slalom individual champ with runs of 29.77 and 30.39 for a combined championship time of 1:00.16. Derek VanItallie of Clarkston was second at 1:00.49.
Also in the GS, Loan Stetsko of Lakeland was third at 1:00.50 while Johnson, Weber and Anderson had combined times of 1:00.55, 1:00.60 and 1:00.61, respectively.
Seth Thompson of Fenton/Linden was seventh at 1:00.63, Robbie Cort of Birmingham Brother Rice eighth at 1:00.71, Clark, the slalom champ, finished ninth at 1:00.80, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston 10th at 1:00.88.
Janssen's family has a place in the area and he considers Boyne as his home hill.
“I grew up on this hill so it's kind of nice to win it my senior year,” he said. “I was really happy with my results. It's my senior year and I'm trying to get it done. The results speak for themselves. I had a really good day and I was happy.”
Fifth in the slalom was Janssen's previous best finish at an MHSAA Final.
“I knew I was going to ski well today,” he added. “I took kind of a conservative first run and had not my best run. I kind of got angry after my first run and was in seventh. I went into my second run saying 'it's do or die here. I went in with complete confidence that whatever I do on this run will be my high school legacy. I went after it and it all worked out.”
Clark, a senior at Traverse City West, took first in the slalom with runs of 31.44 and 32.85 for a 1:04.29. John Merchant of Walled Lake Northern was second at 31.65 and 32.67 for 1:04.32, and Ryan Callahan of Clarkston was third in 32.28 and 32.96 for 1:05.34.
“Last year, I was going in and one of my skis popped off, and I was sitting second after the first round, Clark said. “I changed bindings in skis, and I matured a little more so I knew what I was doing a little bit more.”
Also in the slalom, Janssen, the GS champ, was fourth in 1:06.05, followed by Cort at 1:06.58, VanItallie at 1:06.81, Kalvis Hornburg of TC Central at 1:07.49, Nick Weber at 1:07.59, Alex McIntosh at 1:07.79 and Joe Weber at 1:07.86.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marquette celebrates its eighth MHSAA team championship. (Middle) Traverse City Central's Kurt Frick races down the mountain during Monday's competition. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)