Adams' Fodale Repeats, Marquette's Grzelak Wins 1st & Titans Take Team Title

By James Cook
Special for MHSAA.com

February 27, 2023

BELLAIRE – Katie Fodale aims for three next year. Anna Grzelak got her first in her last chance.

Fodale, the Rochester Adams junior star, won the Division 1 girls slalom championship for the second-straight season Monday at Schuss Mountain in Bellaire.

Grzelak capped off her standout Marquette career with her first Finals championship after multiple all-state performances.

“I'd say it was pretty different last year,” Fodale said. “It was kind of unexpected and I was super happy to win, obviously, but I didn't know that I could do it. This year coming back, I knew I had done it last year. I felt the pressure from myself to try and win again. I knew I could do it, but I also knew that there was a lot of other girls that could beat me, too.”

She led by 12 hundredths of a second after the first run, but extended that to 0.89 following the second, posting the best time with each.

“When I was skiing it, I could feel I was getting a lot of speed and doing really well,” said Fodale, who also took fifth in giant slalom. “I was just full speed ahead. Then once I was on the last three gates, I was like, 'OK, I think I got it.' And then I finished through and I was like, 'Yeah, that was a great run.'”

Fodale said she was happy with the team's fifth-place finish, especially since the Schuss Mountain slopes are far bigger than their home hill. Adams arrived early and trained for three days on the Kingdom Come and Goosebumps courses they'd compete on Monday.

“It was really good because a lot of our team was intimidated coming up here,” she said. “Our hill is very flat, and obviously this hill is super steep. But we came up to the challenge, and I think we did a great job.”

Marquette won the team title Grzelak's freshman year. Ever since, a Traverse City team has won the overall crown.

“It took a lot of training, and a lot of people helped me out and support me,” Grzelak said. “I think that was really nice.”

Traverse City West emerged from a tiebreaker with the girls title, as both West and TC Central ended with 69.5 points. The Titans won the tiebreaker with 30 points to 38 for Central, counting the fifth skier in both disciplines (Dillyn Mohr and Avery Plummer for West).

"Our team goes really deep, all the way to six," West coach Ed Johnson said. "So many teams fall off after three or four."

Traverse City West's Quinn Gerber races amid some flurries.Johnson said it's the first time he saw the tiebreaker system used to decide the Finals champion.

Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, which won the Regional over both West and Central, finished third with 100 points, 30.5 back. The rest of the top nine were Clarkston (109), Rochester Adams (201), Bloomfield Hills (212), Brighton (242), Milford (246.5) and Farmington Hills Mercy (298).

West’s boys also won, completing a Finals sweep for the school.

"It's so cool," West junior Charlie Schulz said of winning both team titles. "It's never happened in our school history. It's so cool. I'm super proud of our team, and we've been working hard for it. I was pretty confident in us, but there's definitely some good competition here today."

Schulz said this year's outcome makes next year's goal obvious.

"I'm hoping to do it again," Schulz said. "We aren't losing anybody, at least for the girls side. So I'm hoping we can even be even better next year."

Grzelak, with two cousins also competing in the Division 1 Finals for Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, took third in slalom to earn dual first-team all-state honors.

“We got that family competition going on every time, so I think it's fun,” Grzelak said of her cousins. Katie Grzelak took third in slalom and Holly Grzelak fourth. Holly took third in GS.

“I'm glad I was able to get it in my last try,” Anna Grzelak said. “It's a good way to end off my high school career.”

Anna Grzelak tied Traverse City Central freshman Quinn Gerber for the GS championship, with both posting a combined time of 53.39 seconds.

"I did not expect it at all," Gerber said. "I was hoping to top-10 in both. My GS has been stronger this year, so I was hoping to do even better in that. I was hoping for top five in GS, so I was not really expecting this."

Gerber's first run was the fastest. Grzelak posted the best second run to put the two in a tie for combined time. They were both named GS champions.

“I was going all or falls on that one,” Grzelak said. “So I think I just had enough in me, and I was able to push through. I saw Quinn at the bottom, and we were celebrating.”

Gerber came out of the second flight to share the GS title.

"I was so happy to see Quinn ski so well today," TC Central head coach Amy Kudary said. "A state championship as a freshman is a pretty big deal. We are very young on both teams, so now I’m more excited than ever to see what we can do in the next couple of years."

Gerber said winning a championship as a freshman lifts her expectations for the future.

"I would hope for the same thing in the future, but the competition is so hard," Gerber said. "Especially tying like that. Any day, people ski differently."

The top 10 in giant slalom – who all earn first-team all-state honors – were Gerber, Anna Grzelak, Holly Grzelak, TC Central's Kellan Kudary, Fodale, FHNE's Jaycee O'Neill, TC West's Lila Warren, TC Central's Erinn Hale, Schulz and TC Central's Pearl Hale.

The top 10 in GS were Fodale, Katie Grzelak, Anna Grzelak, Holly Grzelak, TC West's Avery Plummer and Olivia Bageris, Gerber, Clarkston's Sydney Thomas, O'Neill and TC West's Ellie Gruber.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Rochester Adams' Katie Fodale speeds through a run Monday at Schuss Mountain. (Middle) Traverse City West's Quinn Gerber races amid some flurries. (Click for more from Sports in Motion - Division 1.)

Rivals Find Success in Cooperation

March 8, 2019

By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half

In the place where rivalries turn into partnerships and adversaries become teammates stands the Great North Alpine ski team and the Bay Reps hockey squad.

The two programs — cooperatives that both include neighboring foes Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids — have used that unique alliance to have great success in their respective sports this winter.

At last week’s Division 2 Skiing Finals, Great North Alpine’s boys team captured its first title, unseating Petoskey and ending the Northmen’s state record-tying streak of eight straight championships.

The Bay Reps, which also includes athletes from Kalkaska, Kingsley, Bear Lake and Mancelona, have also reached uncharted territory this season. The Reps advanced to the Division 1 Semifinals for the first time after beating Byron Center 4-3 in overtime in Wednesday’s Quarterfinal matchup.

It might be an unlikely union, given that Elk Rapids, St. Francis and Kalkaska compete against one another in the Lake Michigan Conference for most sports, while Kingsley is a rival in the Northern Michigan Football League. However, it would be difficult for either team to exist if not for the joining of forces between multiple schools.

“That’s the main reason we look for partnerships with other schools,” said St. Francis athletic director Aaron Biggar. “A smaller school like ourselves, or even our other partners, can offer a larger array of extracurricular activities. All the athletic directors that you talk to, they understand and know that athletics and extracurricular activities are good for students and you want to provide as many opportunities for those students.”

What they’ve done with those opportunities has been special. Even before the Great North Alpine boys team captured the Finals championship this season, it had been one of the elite teams in the state in Division 2. Beating Petoskey proved to be the big challenge and resulted in three consecutive runner-up finishes to the Northmen.

This year was different, though, and the Great North Alpine boys were able to interrupt the Northmen’s stranglehold on the crown and match the Finals championship the Great North Alpine girls won in 2016.

“It was a great feeling,” said Doug White, who co-coaches the Great North Alpine teams with Ben Ferris. “You felt like that monkey was finally off our back. We were able to overcome Petoskey, which was a great feat. They are a powerhouse.”

The Bay Reps have won four consecutive Northern Michigan Hockey League titles, but a postseason run this deep has eluded them in the nearly two decades since the program was formed. The Reps won Regional titles in 2002, 2003 and 2010, but were turned away in the Quarterfinals each time. This year they were able to string together four wins and break through that barrier, even though they opted to stay in Division 1 when they could have dropped to Division 2 due to fewer schools being part of the co-op (which resulted in a smaller combined enrollment).

“This year the kids are playing great, and we’re able to compete with those teams,” said first-year Bay Reps head coach Mike Matteucci. “We’ve come a long way this year. It’s been a lot of fun. A lot of growing and a lot of learning.”

Chemistry is the biggest obstacle for a co-op team, both coaches say, but they’ve found ways for team building and then meshing into a cohesive group.

“That’s something we focus on, getting the kids to work with each other,” said Matteucci. “Obviously when they get on the ice, that’s the best thing about hockey in my experience. You might go into a locker room not knowing who anyone is and you’re not going to talk much, but once you get on the ice it’s different. Everybody kind of comes together. Communicating on the ice and getting to know each other. That’s the bond that all these kids have.”

White also has seen similar results, but in his case it’s on the ski slopes.

“Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids are rivals. It is something to overcome,” said White. “As a coach you don’t look at it that way. You just look at it as another athlete on the team. The big thing is you work on it. As the team gets together when you first start out with dry land training, that’s the most challenging then. But after you get out on the hill and start training on the hill, they come together. Everybody starts to jell together and become one.”

Along the way new friendships are established between teammates who are not always classmates or live in the same town.

“You’re usually competing against these other schools, but when you’re on the same team as them you really have the opportunity to expand your friendships across schools, and you kind of start thinking about those schools differently,” said Elk Rapids senior Finn Husband, who won the Division 2 individual slalom and giant slalom this season. “I know coming into high school I was more like, ‘Oh, these schools are my enemies. We play them in basketball. We play them (in other sports). You really root against them.’ But when you compete on the same team and you have the opportunity to understand how kids in those schools are basically doing the same thing you’re doing, you come together, you make friends and it’s an awesome time for everyone.

“I feel like I have a connection (with St. Francis), knowing the guys on the team and knowing how awesome and competitive they are.”

Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. 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) Great North Alpine’s Cooper Kerkhof – a student from Elk Rapids – helps the co-op program’s boys team to its first MHSAA Finals title last month. (Middle) The Traverse City Bay Reps hockey team celebrates its Regional title last week. (Below) Members of Great Alpine’s boys and girls teams pose with the championship trophy. (Ski photos by Sports in Motion; hockey photo courtesy of the Bay Reps program.)