Team of the Month: Cadillac Girls Skiing
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 21, 2022
The Big North Conference, top to bottom, is the strongest skiing conference in Michigan.
On the girls side alone, Traverse City Central won its second-straight Division 1 championship this season, with Traverse City West the runner-up, and those two along with Division 2 power Petoskey have four Finals championships and seven runner-up finishes over the last decade.
It’s time to make way for Cadillac as well.
The Vikings – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for February, capped it off Feb. 28 by winning the Division 2 team championship at Schuss Mountain in Bellaire. The title was the school’s first in any sport since 1990 and first top-two Finals finish in girls skiing since 2001.
Cadillac had finished third in the Big North Conference behind the Traverse City schools and ahead of Petoskey this season, and then runner-up at its Regional to East Grand Rapids minus a top contributor out with an injury. But she returned at nearly full strength for the Final as the Vikings outpaced runner-up EGR by six points and third-place Harbor Springs by eight.
“Every week we’re facing the best teams in the state, and it’s hard to know how we’d do against teams outside of our league,” Cadillac coach James Netzley said. “Until Regionals, it’s hard to know how good we are, and even talking to the Traverse City coaches they were caught by surprise by how well we did at the state finals.
“We got third last year, and that opened up some eyes. We had several freshmen, and we skied well. Our goal was to improve one place – we were eying the big trophies, runner-up, or first place would be fantastic. Within reason, runner-up was right there, but again, we had to ski well.”
Here’s where it gets even more intriguing: Only one of the team’s top six was a senior.
Sophomores Onalee Wallis and Avery Meyer set the pace at Schuss. Wallis finished fourth in the slalom and 11th in the giant slalom, and Meyer was fifth in the slalom and 10th in GS.
The next placer’s performance will be recalled just as quickly. Junior Georgette Sake was the skier who had missed the Regional, and Netzley said she was about 80 percent for the Final. But that 80 percent was good enough to place 15th in the slalom and 24th in the GS.
Another sophomore, Mairyn Kinnie, rounded out the team’s scoring, placing 33rd in both events.
Netzley said his girls teams have always had the standouts to match up with the rest of the Big North Conference, but would end up in the middle of the standings with less depth – which makes sense as Central has twice as many students, West nearly the same and Petoskey an enrollment of roughly 130 more than Cadillac High.
But five of this season’s Vikings varsity should be back next year – junior Kinsey Cornwell and senior Emily Mason rounded out lineup.
Of course, Central, West and Petoskey will bring talented skiers back next season too, as will the other usual Division 2 Finals contenders. But the Vikings should enter next winter with an expectation of competing for the BNC title – which would be another first in a long time – and making another Finals championship run.
Past Teams of the Month, 2021-22
January: Hartland hockey - Read
December: Midland Dow girls basketball - Read
November: Reese girls volleyball - Read
October: Birmingham Groves boys tennis - Read
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.)