Forest Hills Central Girls Win 1st Ski Title
February 27, 2017
By Brett A. Sommers
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS — Just two weeks ago, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central’s girls won their first Regional skiing championship in school history.
Now they have an MHSAA Finals championship trophy to place along side it, continuing a string of firsts.
The Rangers placed three skiers in the top 10 of the giant slalom and two in the slalom to edge Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 105-108.5 at Boyne Highlands Resort on Monday.
Sydney Reynolds added some personal hardware as well by winning the giant slalom — two years after winning a slalom title — with a time of 1:00.73.
“We won Regionals, and that is the first time it’s happened in the history of FHC,” Reynolds said. “Coming in we knew we had a good shot, so we just tried to finish. We came out on top, and it was amazing.”
Reynolds said taking the team trophy on the podium from head coach Alan Moore was unlike anything the senior had ever experienced.
“Being a senior, knowing we went off on that is amazing,” she said. “Hopefully they are able to do it again next year. They have a good chance, and knowing they can do it will make it even better.”
Moore has been coaching the Rangers for 26 years and said his athletes have kept him going for so long. Now he’ll have a championship to defend, too.
Forest Hills Central sat third after the morning’s slalom runs, trailing Notre Dame Prep and Houghton.
“We were still in the hunt. One skier fell and cost a few points,” Moore said. “We were (third) place, but not too far out of it. It was a pretty tight race, and we have pretty strong GS skiers. We held on for dear life, and it worked out.”
Rangers teammates Courtney McAlindon (1:01.51) finished third and Kayley Reynolds (1:02.86) 10th in the GS to help lead the comeback.
Sandwiched between the top two Forest Hills Central skiers was Houghton’s Jill Stein, who won the individual slalom championship, eclipsing long-time friend Reynolds by fewer than four-tenths of a second.
“I was super surprised,” Stein said. “Usually she’d be first in slalom and I’d be first in GS. Today I guess it flip-flopped.”
Monday marked the fourth season Stein has competed at the MHSAA Finals, but it was the first time she has completed all four runs without a fall.
Harbor Springs’ Maddy Fuhrman (1:01.54) was fourth in the GS, Notre Dame Prep’s Sydney Lintol fifth (1:01.79) and Gaylord’s Reagan Olli (1:01.80) sixth. Harbor Springs’ France Kelbel (1:02.55) was seventh, Cranbrook Kingswood’s Grace Krsul (1:02.70) eighth and Cadillac’s Emma Lloyd (1:02.80) ninth.
Notre Dame Prep hadn’t scored more than 17 points all season and won every meet leading into Monday.
“Really proud. Really proud,” Notre Dame Prep coach John Deibel said of his team. “They earned the right to be here. We were a pretty good team.”
Deibel had one of his top skiers post a DNF in each discipline, but the team was able to pull together for a runner-up finish anyway.
“It’s amazing. We’re such a close-knit team,” Deibel said. “Our girls come together. Our girls hug each, maybe they cry a little bit and get over (a fall) really quick.
“We expect to lose a skier. That’s the way we play our game.”
Lintol was Notre Dame Prep’s top finisher on the day, but Deibel said the Fighting Irish have a number of leaders, including some who will return next season looking to keep the program among Michigan’s best.
“I have four or five other kids on the team that are absolutely as good as Lintol is, and I fully expect they all will be competing next year for these same trophies.”
“We feel blessed to come here and work hard,” Lintol said. “We put all these hours in and all the seasons we’ve had as a group. We’ve grown up together. To see everybody improve and get to this point, and see not only team growth but self growth, is really exciting.”
Harbor Springs (120) finished third, Houghton fourth (147) and Great North Alpine fifth (153). Cranbrook Kingswood (167.5) was sixth, Spring Lake (186) seventh, Cadillac (207) eighth and Mount Pleasant (230) ninth.
Stein won the slalom in 1:03.19, and Reynolds was second in 1:03.26. Harbor Springs’ Furhman (1:03.98) was third in the slalom, Kayley Reynolds (1:04.16) fourth, Houghton’s Ally Fenton (1:04.44) fifth and Olli sixth (1:05.42). Milford’s Morgan Watts (1:06.35) was seventh, Lintol (1:06.58) eighth, Spring Lake’s Hannah Klein (1:07.35) ninth and Houghton’s Katherine Jarvis (1:07.36) 10th.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Central’s Courtney McAlindon races Monday in helping her school to its first MHSAA team title. (Middle) A competitor at Boyne Highlands speeds past a gate. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
TC Central Repeats in D1, While Adams & Marquette Celebrate Winners
By
Andrew Rosenthal
Special for Second Half
February 28, 2022
BOYNE FALLS — If Rochester Adams sophomore Katie Fodale was going to win a Division 1 Finals title this year, she didn’t think it would be in slalom.
Last year’s giant slalom runner-up showed off on the other side of the mountain Monday. Fodale won slalom with the only sub 31-second run of the day at Boyne Mountain for her first Finals championship of her early ski career.
“I probably skied like the best slalom of my life today,” Fodale said. “I think I was super aggressive. I was trying to go as fast as I could. I wasn’t worried about falling. I think that’s like a big thing because if you’re going to ski cautiously then it’s just not going to be your fastest. I didn't; I just went as fast as I could.”
Fodale managed to top last year’s slalom runner-up, Traverse City Central senior Elle Craven, after Craven hiked on her first run, but the one damper on the day didn’t seem to hurt the perennial state-contending Trojans much.
Craven medaled in GS with a team-leading fourth-place run, and Central clinched back-to-back team titles after last year’s group won its first since 2013. It was the Trojans’ 13th Finals championship in girls skiing.
“Each one is just as special as the other, for sure,” Central coach Amy Kudary said. “This one is so special to me because we both came into the program at the same time. I started four years ago when this group was freshmen. We’ve all grown together over the last four years. We’ve all changed, grown and gotten better at everything we do.”
Kudary took over for longtime — and successful — Central ski coach Jerry Stanek in 2018-19, and he’s been an assistant with the program since. She also skied for him when the Trojans won the Open Class Finals championship in 1989.
“For him to be back coaching with me now and winning with him is one of the most special things in my mind,” she said.
For the Trojans, senior Maddy Cox went home with twin all-state honors, finishing fifth in GS and sixth in slalom. Avery Sill finished eighth in GS, and Pearl Hale, Sill and Lilly Kuberski all took top-15 spots in slalom.
“It’s bittersweet because it’s coming to an end, but I’m so happy with how I was able to race today and how I was able to help the team,” said Cox, who was all-state in GS as a junior.
Cox joined Charlie Schulz from Traverse City West (10th in slalom, sixth in GS) with two medals. Lila Warren (10th in GS) and Olivia Bageris (seventh in slalom) had all-state finishes for the Titans. Dillyn Mohr and Ellie Gruber were top-15 in slalom. Gruber was 18th in GS.
The Titans, who ended the day runners-up, went into the lunch break with a team lead and landed four in the top 15 for the girls slalom. West has won three Finals championships and now two runner-up trophies.
“For the girls, this is incredibly exciting because they weren't even at this meet last year,” West coach Ed Johnson said. “We just saw at the beginning of the year that there was that much potential with the girls and how they were skiing together and their consistency. We just knew if we could keep building on that throughout the season they could probably get to this point.”
Marquette didn’t make an appearance as a team, but that didn’t stop the lone Upper Peninsula school in Division 1 from bringing a championship back over the Mackinac Bridge.
Senior Maddy Stern landed on the podium twice, winning the GS title and earning all-state in slalom finishing eighth.
“I just was able to stick to it and carve all my turns well,” Stern said. “I could just carry my speed from the steeps to the flats pretty good.”
She and Anna Grezlak represented Marquette at the Girls Finals. Like the two Traverse City schools, Marquette is a rightful ski dynasty of its own, having won five of the last seven Division 1 championships.
“I really wish my team was here to support and so I can support them, but I really am having a great time just showing what Marquette can do,” Stern said. “We did have a tough season this year, but it was a great way to go out.”
She’s off to represent the U.P. some more. In four days, Stern travels to Attitash, New Hampshire to race with USSA Team Michigan.
“I did a lot of training this year just preparing for this day,” Stern said.
PHOTOS (Top) Rochester Adams’ Katie Fodale cuts past a gate during a slalom run Monday at Boyne Mountain. (Middle) Marquette’s Maddy Stern speeds toward the finish of the giant slalom. (Click for more from Sports in Motion.)