Harbor Springs Girls Retake D2 Title
February 23, 2015
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
HARBOR SPRINGS — For the past three years, Harbor Springs has been trying to get back to the top of the mountain.
On Monday, the Rams reached the pinnacle.
Harbor Springs captured its first girls MHSAA skiing title since 2012, edging Petoskey by just 3.5 points (81.5-85) in a dramatic battle for the Division 2 crown at Nub's Nob. Elk Rapids/Traverse City St. Francis was third with 94 points.
The Rams outscored Petoskey by 14 points in the slalom and used that to carry them to the win, even after they finished third overall in the giant slalom to the Northmen and Elk Rapids/Traverse City St. Francis.
"I'm really excited for the girls," said Harbor Springs coach Jane Ramer. "They've worked so hard all season. We have a lot of seniors, and they needed to get a state championship. They fell short the last few years, so it's a real positive thing."
Harbor fell short of repeating in 2013 as Petoskey took top honors, then watched as Bloomfield Hills Marian won the championship last year and Houghton/Hancock took second.
This year was the Rams' shot at redemption.
"Yes, (it was redemption) because we're meeting the teams we have in the past that we've lost to," said Harbor Springs senior Tia Esposito. "Our team really came together.
"We won it freshman year, and to come back and have this experience again is really incredible. I think we all walked out here feeling good about the day because of how we've been training on these hills for four years."
Maddy Fuhrman led the Rams with a pair of 10th-place finishes. She had a time of 56.7 in giant slalom and 1:08.72 in slalom. Esposito took 13th in GS (56.85) and 12th in slalom (1:09.27). Marin Hoffman (17th, 56.7) and Sadie Cwikiel (19th, 57.81) rounded out Harbor Spring's GS counters, while Demi Trabucchi (13th, 1:09.37) and Alexa Wespiser (14th, 1:09.78) were third and fourth in slalom.
Ramer felt her team had a chance to capture the title, but she wasn't going into the day overconfident.
"It's ski racing so you never know what's going to happen," she said. "We knew we wanted to come in and get ahead in the slalom, so when we went into the afternoon we had a little comfort zone. That's what happened. As you can see, Petoskey beat us in the GS, but we beat them in the slalom. It was a good formula and it worked."
Houghton's Jenna Stein was the individual winner of the giant slalom, recording a time of 53.04. She edged Carlee McCardel of Elk Rapids/St. Francis, the two-time reigning champion in the event, who skied a time of 53.31. McCardel had the top time after the first run of GS, but Stein overtook her in the second run and ended up with the title.
In the girls slalom, Sydney Reynolds of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central was the champion in a time of 1:05.52.
PHOTOS: (Top) Members of Harbor Springs' girls ski team hold up their championship trophy Monday. (Middle) Houghton's Jenna Stein was the individual champion in the giant slalom. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Notre Dame Prep Finishes Title Climb
February 25, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
BOYNE FALLS – Christmas shopping wasn’t the motivation for Pontiac Notre Dame Prep ski coach Craig McLeod to go on Amazon back when the ski season got going in December.
Instead, he visited the popular internet shopping site to order some motivation for his team, in the form of plastic rings that glow different colors when you turn the top.
“Our cheerleading team has won the state championship five years in a row,” McLeod said. “They have these really cool Super Bowl type of rings. I said, ‘We’ve got to get a ring. The ring is the thing.’ That’s been our motto all season.”
Pretty soon, the Notre Dame Prep girls ski team will have to be fitted for much more expensive rings after what it accomplished at Boyne Mountain on Monday
For the first time since winning the 2006 Class B-C-D title, the Notre Dame Prep girls captured an MHSAA Finals ski title, topping the Division 2 field with a meet-best 64 points, well ahead of the 102 accumulated by runner-up Petoskey.
The favorite going in, Notre Dame Prep’s supreme depth was on display, with three girls finishing among the top 15 in both the slalom and giant slalom.
KC Kennedy led the way for Notre Dame Prep with a pair of top-five finishes, taking third in the slalom with a time of 1:07.70 and fifth in the giant slalom in 1:16.10.
Meghan Kozole was sixth in the slalom (1:09.52) and seventh in the giant slalom (1:16.46), Delaney Flavin was 15th in the slalom and Natalie Uhazie 15th in the giant slalom.
It was a vindicating day for the Fighting Irish, who finished as runners-up to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central in 2017 and Houghton/Hancock in 2018.
This time, it was the championship trophy they took home.
“The harder you work, the luckier you get,” McLeod said. “I would say we worked pretty hard, and some luck fell in our favor. Everything came together.”
The individual star of the meet was Bloomfield Hills Marian senior Olivia Weymouth, who won both the giant slalom and slalom titles.
Weymouth started her day by overcoming what’s been a personal nemesis, the slalom, winning that event in a time of 1:04.88.
Crossing the finish line itself represented a major mental barrier that was overcome, given Weymouth fell at the last two Finals in the slalom, doing so last year on the same Boyne course when Marian competed at the 2018 Division 1 Finals.
“The slalom, I’ve been working on it because it’s been my weakest event in the past,” Weymouth said. “I had a lot of nerves coming into it. But I finished, and it was exciting. But I had to keep my nerves level even because I knew there was GS to come. I didn’t want to bring too much excitement there.”
Weymouth stayed steady and calm in the giant slalom, winning that event in a time of 1:13.84, barely ahead of Kaylee Richardson of Rochester Adams, who was second at 1:13.92.
Richardson also was fourth in the slalom with a time of 1:07.98.
Megan Pasche of Grand Rapids Northview finished second in the slalom with a time of 1:07.35.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls ski team celebrates its first Finals title in the sport since 2006. (Middle) Marian's Olivia Weymouth races toward the championship in the giant slalom. (Top photo courtesy of Notre Dame Prep's athletic department; middle photo by James Cook. For more from Monday's Finals, see Sports in Motion.)