Did you see that?
April 30, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It's only the end of April. But a number of Michigan's contenders already are in championship form.
Check out our best of results, news and notes from the week that was April 23-28.
Boys Track
What a toss: Walled Lake Central junior Cullen Prena tossed the discus an incredible 187 feet, seven inches, to win the event at the Oxford Invitational by nearly 36 feet. In fact, the toss would've won every MHSAA Final dating back to 2003. Earlier in the week he broke the Oakland County record as well. He also won the shot put at Oxford. (Oakland Press)
Girls Track
South still on top: Reigning MHSAA Division 1 champion Grosse Pointe South earned a strong early win at the Michigan State Spartan Invitational ahead of a field that included annual powers Rockford and Williamston and a strong DeWitt team. Bay City Western won the boys meet. (Playmakers.com)
Baseball
Flint Final set: Goodrich’s Bob Foreback and Davison’s Timm Rye will bring more than 1,000 victories worth of experience into this season’s Greater Flint Area Baseball Tournament championship game when their teams face off on Memorial Day. The two will meet after emerging from the field this weekend. (Flint Journal)
How do you score that: Most telling lines from the Kalamazoo Gazette’s story about Comstock turning a triple play and three double plays in one game came from Comstock coach Rich Bailey: “We have not played particularly good defense. In fact, our defense has been a problem. The skill is there; the execution hasn’t been.” (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Girls Soccer
Poll position: Rochester Adams continued to affect the Division 1 rankings while moving up itself. Adams likely helped to knock rival Rochester out of this week’s honorable mentions with a 2-0 win Thursday. The Friday before, Adams downed then top-ranked Troy 4-1. The Highlanders have opened 7-0 and are ranked No. 3 in Division 1. (Oakland Press)
Boys Basketball
Flint Powers coach moves on: Tim Herman led the Flint Powers Catholic boys basketball program only seven seasons, but they were seven of the Chargers’ most memorable. Herman resigned his post last week after more than 100 wins and the team’s only MHSAA championship, in Class B in 2009. (Flint Journal)
Football
Michigan's finest take next step: At least nine former MHSAA athletes were drafted by NFL teams (by my count) over seven rounds Thursday through Saturday. They were:
- DE Nick Perry (Detroit Martin Luther King/University of Southern California) Green Bay, first round
- DT Mike Martin (Detroit Catholic Central/University of Michigan) Tennessee, third round
- QB Kirk Cousins (Holland Christian/Michigan State University) Washington, fourth round
- WR Keshawn Martin (Westland John Glenn/Michigan State University) Houston, fourth round
- CB Chris Greenwood (Detroit Martin Luther King/Albion College) Detroit, fifth round
- S Trenton Robinson (Bay City Central/Michigan State) San Francisco, sixth round
- LB Audie Cole (Monroe/North Carolina State University) Minnesota, seventh round
- RB Edwin Baker (Oak Park/Michigan State University) San Diego, seventh round
- K John Potter (Grand Haven/Western Michigan University) New York Jets, seventh round
Editor's note: Did we miss something? Comment below and tell us about it. Is there an event coming up that we should make sure to note? Comment or e-mail [email protected].
'Battle-Tested' Frankenmuth Sweeps Match Play to Clinch 1st Finals Title
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
March 1, 2024
JACKSON – Ron Krueger is old school, so the Frankenmuth High School boys bowling team decided to throw it back to the 1980s.
It worked to perfection as the Eagles pounded the pins at Jax 60 in Jackson on Friday with urethane balls — made popular decades ago and experiencing a resurgence during the past few years — to win the Division 3 championship, the program's first Finals title.
Frankenmuth polished off a perfect day in the match play portion of the Final with a dominating performance over Milan, sweeping the best-of-five Baker match 221-126, 196-154 and 199-156.
“We got a little niche (with urethane), and it worked out really well,” Krueger said. I knew that if we could get in the top eight, with the new format being head-to-head best of five, we were tested throughout the year with Bakers.
“We’ve bowled a lot of tough tournaments and faced a lot of tough teams. And I knew we could compete against the top ones here today.”
The Eagles qualified fifth after eight Baker games and two regular games with 3,393 pins and dispatched Portland in the Quarterfinals with games of 154, 214 and 216. They topped top seed Gladwin in the Semifinals shooting 201, 134 and 201.
In the Final, they opened the first game with five of seven strikes while Milan struggled through seven opens over the first nine frames. About the only thing that could stop the Eagles was the gutter — which came into play at an inauspicious time during the second game. The team had a spare and four strikes in a row before throwing gutters on three of the next four shots.
That could have derailed a lesser team, but Frankenmuth responded with a double to win the second game comfortably.
“That’ll put a little stress on you, but again, that’s what this team is made of,” Krueger said. “The guy that came up behind steps up and throws a strike and we mark behind that and away we go.”
Frankenmuth made up for some of the disappointment from last year’s postseason when the Eagles missed qualifying for the Finals by 11 pins. Krueger said the team responded by returning to the lanes the next week and training the entire summer, showing resolve and commitment.
“I didn’t think from the beginning of the season we’d go on to actually qualify for the state championship,” said senior Mayson Knop, who last weekend won the singles competition at his Regional. “But we just kept qualifying first in tournaments over and over, and it was like, ‘Wow, we actually have a shot at this thing.’ And then absolutely popping off during match play, it’s an unbelievable feeling. There’s no words to even describe it.”
Knop will join junior teammates Miles Paetz and Liam Liddle at the Singles Final on Saturday, a week after they swept the top three Regional positions, and Krueger has a good feeling about how they will fare.
“All have a really good shot,” Krueger said. “They all threw a lot of balls today so they should feel real comfortable going into tomorrow. I think they’re prepared. All you want to do is make that cut.
“Once you get into the cut, the pressure is on and our guys are battle-tested.”
Milan qualified sixth with 3,358 and beat Blissfield in three straight, then advanced to the Final with a 3-1 victory over Midland Bullock Creek.