Past Shepherd Standout Moeggenberg Directs Wrestling's Return to Glen Lake
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 2, 2024
Showing support for school athletic programs is nothing new for the Glen Lake community.
And the Lakers faithful have welcomed back another team this winter that’s earning those cheers for the first time in more than 20 years.
That’s because wrestling hasn’t been offered at Maple City Glen Lake High School since 2001. But it’s back now, and quickly gaining momentum at a school known in part for its longstanding athletic success.
Nobody understands all of this more than Liz Moeggenberg, perhaps the most decorated athlete in the school’s history. As Liz Shimek and a graduate of the class of 2002, she was the winner of the statewide Miss Basketball Award. Her senior year also was the last that Glen Lake offered wrestling before the program returned this winter.
She went on to Michigan State University where she was a two-time All-America selection. She led the Spartans to the 2005 NCAA championship game, and later played in the WNBA. At MSU, she met her future husband Luke, a wrestler for the Spartans. The Moeggenbergs returned to the Glen Lake area after college and Liz’s professional and international basketball career.
Today the Moeggenbergs have five children — three of whom are competitive wrestlers. And Luke is the Lakers' head wrestling coach.
Liz, who served as the Lakers assistant basketball coach for years leading up to last season’s Division 4 championship run, was in an unfamiliar place Jan. 24 when Glen Lake hosted its first wrestling match in decades – the bleachers. The long-awaited moment featured Frankfort, Mancelona and Grayling in a quad meet.
“The community support has been pretty phenomenal,” Liz said. “It was amazing to see all the people that came out to that first home meet, and it was pretty cool to see that energy in the gym.”
Luke Moeggenberg wrestled in high school for Shepherd and was the Division 3 runner-up at 140 pounds in 2001 before going on to compete at MSU. He started the Glen Lake youth program a few years back and had dreams and hopes of starting a varsity program.
Originally the Moeggenbergs joined the Benzie County youth program. They wrestled there until they had enough wrestlers to start one for Glen Lake. The Lakers launched both a middle school and varsity program this winter.
For years, the young Moeggenberg wrestlers – Lamdin, 12, Fletcher, 10 and Cade, 8 – traveled for practices and competitions with their father, who recalls some very special times. The car rides regularly included discussions on how the boys and their youth teammates might impact the future of Glen Lake high school sports.
“The question would come up from my three boys, ‘When are we going to get wrestling at Glen Lake?’” the coach recalled. “I said actually, if we were ever to get wresting at Glen Lake, it would be because of you guys and all the three boys … they just got quiet.”
Coach Moeggenberg noted it may be years before the boys fully comprehend what they helped start.
“It got pretty emotional when wrestling got voted in by the school board,” he said. “I still don’t think the boys realize what they’ve done.”
The interest shown in wrestling by their oldest son, Lamdin, now a sixth grader on the middle school team, sparked the effort to bring wrestling back to the school’s athletic offerings. Also helping provide momentum was Josh Bullard, who comes from a long line of outstanding Bullard wrestlers in Shepherd’s history. He’s been a big help to Moeggenberg since getting his two sons involved way back in the Benzie travel days. Greg Ford and Kaleb Foss serve as youth coaches, and Moeggenberg has built a varsity staff including assistants Ethan Smith, Jaime Smith and Lance Bies. Ethan Smith is the middle school coach as well.
“I made it pretty clear if we’re going to get a program going I need everybody’s support and everybody to buy in and give it a chance,” Moeggenberg said.
Administrative changes played a big role in Glen Lake bringing back wrestling, Moeggenberg noted. Of particular significance was Jaimie Smith coming aboard as the Lakers’ athletic director. Smith, who now serves as the high school principal, was Frankfort’s wrestling coach previously. Her husband Ethan was previously an assistant coach at Frankfort and Traverse City Central.
The Smiths’ adopted daughter Emily Alaimo is one of 13 student-athletes on the roster. Alaimo, a junior, entered the season as the only Glen Laked competitor with high school wrestling experience. She was a part of the Frankfort program when her parents coached, and then on last year’s Glen Lake championship basketball team.
“Emily is the only one who’s had experience competing at all,” Moeggenberg said. “She has really been our most successful wrestler.”
The Lakers will compete this weekend in the Highland/Mid Michigan Conference Tournament against Evart, Lake City, Manton, Mancelona, Roscommon, LeRoy Pine River, Kingsley, Benzie Central, McBain, Frankfort and Houghton Lake. They’ll be led by freshman Abraham Feeney (132 pounds) and sophomore Caden Sheehan (138). Feeney is leading the team in wins, and Sheehan joined the Lakers after the holiday break. They are practice partners.
“Those kids go 100 percent every day in practice, and it shows when they get into competition,” Moeggenberg pointed out. “They figured out amongst themselves what it takes to be successful already.”
Conference titles and postseason accomplishments are not yet on the Lakers’ radar. They are taking one day at a time, learning how to compete on the mat safely.
“My focus has been really trying to get our team into a position where they are safe to compete,” the first-year coach said. “When you’re talking three months of wrestling experience to this point and you are competing against kids that have maybe been wrestling 12 years, our focus has been getting our kids to compete with a little bit of confidence and in a safe manner.”
Glen Lake has a rich history of success – including MHSAA Finals titles – in sports like football, basketball, soccer, softball and track. The gym is full of banners recognizing those accomplishments.
There also is a banner recognizing Lakers with individual state wrestling titles – and Coach Moeggenberg is expecting the other sports’ successes to bode well for the restarted wrestling program.
“I think all the past successes and the current successes of our sports programs reflect heavy community support of student-athletes,” he said. “That basically makes the coach’s job easier.
“Having the support of the community and the support of the administration, ultimately it allows you to focus on what’s important – teaching student-athletes,” he continued. “It is helping us to create a good foundation for a successful program in the future.”
The measurement for success right now is simply experience and daily individual improvement.
“The kids know what this does for the community and what it has done for our family,” Moeggenberg said. “I don’t want our kids to have their mindset to be on wins and losses and conference titles and District championships.
“I want their mindset to be on progress every match,” he continued. “As we get more experience and have some of our middle school kids who are products of our youth program with some more mat time, it will start to evolve into more of a competitive-based goal.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Glen Lake's Max Galla and his Mancelona opponent lock up Jan. 24 during the Lakers' first home meet in more than two decades. (Middle) Glen Lake coach Luke Moeggenberg instructs one of his wrestlers on the mat. (Below) Glen Lake’s Emily Alaimo takes on her Mancelona opponent. (Photos by Trudy Galla Photography.)
D1 Preview: Powerful Pair Seeded to Meet for Finals Rematch
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 24, 2022
Three of the past five seasons have seen Davison and Detroit Catholic Central face off for the Division 1 championship. That could play out again this weekend at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo.
They are once again the top two seeds in the division with Quarterfinals – matchups below – set to begin at 2:15 p.m. Friday. Davison won last season’s championship match 29-24 over the Shamrocks, and defeated DCC this regular season 32-31 on Jan. 28.
#1 Davison (16-4) vs. #8 Warren Woods Tower (7-8)
#4 Macomb Dakota (22-3) vs. #5 Temperance Bedford (30-4)
#3 Hartland (28-1) vs. #6 Holt (21-3)
#2 Detroit Catholic Central (12-3) vs. #7 Grandville (15-3)
Semifinals will start at 9:30 Saturday morning, with the championship match at 3:45 p.m.
Tickets for Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals will be sold by the Wings Event Center box office. All matches for all three rounds also will be viewable on MHSAA.tv with subscription.
Below is a look at all eight teams competing in Division 1, listed by seed. (Girls Finals qualifiers are noted with “G” with weight class, as those classes differ from the other Individual Finals brackets.)
#1 DAVISON
Record/rank: 16-4, No. 1
League finish: Second in Saginaw Valley League
Coach: Zac Hall, second season (28-4)
Championship history: Nine MHSAA championships (most recent 2021), six runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 119 Justin Gates (25-2) soph., 125 Caden Horwath (23-0) jr., 125 Kyle Jelinek (27-10) fr., 130 Brendan Maybee (23-9) sr., 135 Cameron Freeman (19-7) sr., 140 Evan Herriman (15-2) jr., 145 Owen Payne (9-1) sr., 152 Max Callahan (15-5) jr., 160 Kyle White (25-4) sr., 171 Josh Barr (21-1) jr., 189 Remy Cotton (20-3) jr., 215 Jimmy Colley (25-2) sr., 285 Zane Richardson (29-4) sr.
Outlook: Davison won last season’s championship – its first since 2006 and with five runner-up finishes in between – with eight starters expected to be in the lineup again this weekend. Gates (103), Horwath (119), Barr (160) and Colley (215) all are reigning Individual Finals champions – Barr and Horwath are both two-time title winners – while Herrman was last season’s runner-up at 135 and Freeman, Maybee and White were Finals placers.
#2 DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL
Record/rank: 12-3, No. 2
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic League Central
Coach: Mitch Hancock, 15th season (326-53)
Championship history: Fifteen MHSAA championships (most recent 2020), three runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Nathan Walkowiak (29-6) fr., 112 Simon Dominguez (25-13) soph., 119 Drew Heethuis (25-3) jr., 130 Clayton Jones (29-3) jr., 130 Anthony Walker (25-9) sr., 135 Mason Stewart (27-3) soph., 140 Dylan Gilcher (32-0) jr., 140 Jake Matigian (31-9) fr., 145 Steven Shellenberger (21-13) jr., 152 Tatum Bunn (20-11) jr., 152 Darius Marines (29-4) soph., 160 Cameron Adams (24-8) jr., 171 Manuel Rojas (32-1) sr., 189 Connor Bercume (29-8) fr.
Outlook: DCC has wrestled in five straight Division 1 championship matches – winning four straight from 2017-20 – and this lineup is anticipated to return despite only three senior starters. That hardly means there’s less experience than most. Heethuis (112), Gilcher (135), Marines (145) and Rojas are reigning individual champs, with Gilcher and Rojas wrestling next weekend for their third titles. Walker, Jones and Bunn also are returning Finals placers.
#3 HARTLAND
Record/rank: 28-1, No. 3
League finish: First in Kensington Lakes Activities Association (overall)
Coach: Kyle Summerfield, first season (28-1)
Championship history: Division 1 champion 2016, five runner-up finishes
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Jake Gillespie (38-3) soph., 112 Patrick Wlodyga (36-8) sr., 119 Easton Culver (22-6) fr., 125 Liam Wiitanen (31-9) jr., 135 Vinnie Abbey (36-4) soph., 140 Gabe Cappellano (39-4) jr., 145 Justin VanVaerenbergh (39-2) sr., 152 Nick Dimitroff (19-1) jr., 160 Nick Rochowiak (31-4) jr., 171 Brayden Bobo (37-3) jr., 189 Chase Kern (39-4) jr., 215 Avery Dickerson (4-1) sr., 255-G Eliana Bommarito (17-6) sr.
Outlook: Summerfield, a past Hartland standout, took over the program this season after longtime coach Todd Cheney retired as the fourth-winningest in MHSAA history. Summerfield has totaled more than 150 coaching wins including at Linden before coming to Hartland, and his team’s only loss this winter was to No. 10 Brighton. The Eagles haven’t given up a point over three postseason matches. Bobo, Dickerson, Kern, Abbey and Dimitroff all are returning Finals placers.
#4 MACOMB DAKOTA
Record/rank: 22-3, No. 4
League finish: First in Macomb Area Conference Red
Coach: Ed Skowneski, 10th season (269-60)
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Ozia Wilson (42-0) fr., 112 Caleb Weiand (42-0) jr., 112 Orion Wilson (10-2) jr., 119 Drew Astorga (30-9) jr., 125 Fritz Mueller (36-6) sr., 140 Jake Ferguson (29-12) jr., 140 Austin Alkazir (38-6) sr., Aiden Criteser (35-8) jr., 215 Anthony Coleman (35-8) jr.
Outlook: Dakota has won seven straight Regional championships and nine in 10 seasons under Skowneski. Weiand was the individual runner-up at 103 last season, while Orion Wilson is a two-time Finals placer and Alkazir joined them last winter. Alkazir also is one of only three senior starters, with seven juniors anchoring a lineup that should be tough again next season.
#5 TEMPERANCE BEDFORD
Record/rank: 30-4, No. 5
League finish: First in Southeastern Conference
Coach: Kevin Vogel, 11th season (255-59)
Championship history: Eleven MHSAA championships (most recent 2001), seven runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Vincent Cole (34-12) soph., 119 Brock Jandasek (38-12) jr., 125 Nathan Gerber (28-10) jr., 145 Jack Nigh (27-13) jr., 152 Tyler Boerst (37-6) jr., 160 Rollie Denker (50-2) sr.
Outlook: After a season away, Bedford is back at Finals weekend for the second time in three years and fifth time under Vogel. The Kicking Mules advanced this time with a 40-27 Regional Final win over No. 9 Westland John Glenn. Senior Randy Boisselle (35-4 at 171) was a Finals placer last season and is one of eight on the team with at least 30 wins.
#6 HOLT
Record/rank: 21-3, No. 8
League finish: First in Capital Area Activities Conference Blue
Coach: Stan Granger, first season (21-3)
Championship history: Four MHSAA championships (most recent 2008), two runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Jacob Harris (29-11) soph., 112 Ryan Mosher (28-8) jr., 112 Mariano Lopez (31-4) jr., 130 Jason Jones (19-7) sr., 135 Ralph Thompson (30-12) sr., 160 Alex Russell (25-7) sr., 189 Nathan Bremer (14-4) sr., 215 Cole Newman (30-13) jr., 285 Joshua Terrill (38-2) sr.
Outlook: Granger is a past Holt standout and served as an assistant under longtime coach Rocky Shaft since 1998 before taking over the program. The Rams downed No. 10 Brighton 45-29 in a Regional Semifinal on the way to Kalamazoo. A junior-heavy lineup last season has become a group anchored by seven senior starters plus five more juniors. Terrill was the runner-up at 285 last season, while Bremer, Mosher, Jones, Thompson and Russell also were Finals placers.
#7 GRANDVILLE
Record/rank: 15-3, No. 6
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference Red
Coach: Bubba Gritter, 12th season (187-76)
Championship history: Two MHSAA championships (most recent 1993), three runner-up finishes.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 112 Josh Vasquez (35-3) fr., 119 Jaxon Sanchez (27-9) soph., 135 Justin Gorman (23-4) jr., 171 Max Herrema (22-9) soph., 285 Jordan Kaat (32-3) sr., 105-G Beyonkah Rincones (10-11), fr.
Outlook: Grandville is returning to the Finals for the first time since 2017 and fourth time under Gritter, after claiming a 34-25 win over No. 7 Rockford in the Regional Final to advance. Sanchez and senior Anthony Taylor (23-10 at 152) were Individual Finals placers in 2021.
#8 WARREN WOODS TOWER
Record/rank: 7-8, unranked
League finish: Fifth in MAC Red
Co-coaches: Greg Mayer, 22nd season (409-266) and Russell Correll, ninth season (172-70)
Championship history: Division 2 runner-up 2017.
Individual Finals qualifiers: 103 Dominic Gumtow (27-4) fr., 112 Daniel Staniszwski (15-8) soph., 130 Tyler Daniel (28-10) sr., 135 Aidan Ede (22-10) fr., 145 Josh Howey (24-2) sr.
Outlook: The Titans are headed to Finals weekend for the seventh-straight season, but this time in Division 1 after previously making the trip in Division 2. Daniel and Howey were Finals placers last season, and they are two of four senior starters for an otherwise younger group – eight underclassmen help fill the lineup.
PHOTO Hartland, here against Westland John Glenn, is the No. 3 seed this weekend in Division 1. (Photo by Douglas Bargerstock.)