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.)
Gerber Sets Pace as Traverse City Central Girls Take Back Division 1 Title
By
Nick Cooper
Special for MHSAA.com
February 25, 2025
HARBOR SPRINGS – Unseasonably warm weather was the only thing that was different from past years at the MHSAA Division 1 Girls Skiing Final, as Traverse City West and Traverse City Central both found themselves atop the standings.
After a series of skilled runs, Central earned the championship Monday at Nub’s Nob thanks in large part to the outstanding skiing of Quinn Gerber.
“The girls were just dialed in,” said Traverse City Central head coach Amy Kudary.
Her crew delivered 31 points in the slalom and 29 in the giant slalom giving the team a combined 60 points, which was 33 better than second-place Traverse City West’s 93 points. Marquette finished third with 97 followed by Clarkston (163), Birmingham (201), Fenton/Linden/Lake Fenton (220.5), Canton (224), Holly/Oxford (240) and Brighton (257).
The championship was the fourth-straight won by either Traverse City Central or West, and Central's first since 2022 after finishing runner-up to the Titans the last two seasons.
Traverse City Central was piloted by Gerber’s giant slalom victory, where she blazed the slopes with a combined time of 54.18. TC West’s Summer Lewandowski took second place with a time of 54.43, while Estelle Dehlin secured third place with a time of 54.47.
Finishing in the top 10 and earning first-team all-state honors were Gerber, Lewandowski, Marquette’s Estelle Dehlin, Fenton/Linden/Lake Fenton’s Maddy Flack, Holly/Oxford’s Finley DeCubber, TC Central’s Avery Taggart, Berkley/Troy Athens’ Tessa Rontal, Clarkston’s Cameron Thomas, Canton’s Rhiana Savoie and TC Central’s Kellan Kudary.
While Gerber also finished in second place in the slalom with a combined time of 73.58 it was Grand Haven’s Neave Rewa who took home the championship with a time of 72.05.
“I came here hoping to do my best and being able to do that is really cool. It's a pretty cool feeling,” said Rewa.
Rewa’s team did not qualify for the Final but Rewa, also a gifted soccer player, was not without her teammates.
“I have two teammates here. It’s cool to have them watch me; it’s really nice,” said Rewa.
TC Central’s Taggart finished in third in slalom notching a time of 74.13.
Taking first-team all-state honors in slalom were Rewa, Gerber, Taggart, Birmingham’s Bianca Srock, Dehlin, Savoie, Marquette’s Lucy Stern, Rontal, TC West’s Olivia Bageris and Dillyn Mohr.
“Our team did really well, it was a good day. I had a pretty good season overall,” Gerber said.
Next season’s championship race could be similarly entertaining – both Gerber and Rewa are juniors with one more year to compete.
Click for full results. Click to watch NFHS Network broadcasts: Slalom | Giant Slalom
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City Central’s Quinn Gerber finishes a giant slalom run Monday at Nub’s Nob. (Middle) Canton’s Lucy Savoie races the slalom course. (Below) A skier breaks past a gate also during the slalom. (Click for more from Tori Burley – photos to be added throughout this week.)