10 to Remember: Spring 2015
June 25, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The close of June officially ends of another school year. And this season’s MHSAA Finals provided another strong finish with a number of memorable moments sure to be recalled for years to come.
Below is one person’s list of the 10 most significant, drawn from the title-earning performances of 129 teams and hundreds of individuals this spring.
10. Rockford Holds On for Third Straight Girls Lacrosse Title
The Rams saw an 8-1 lead dissolve to a one-goal advantage after Bloomfield Hills Marian scored in the 22nd minute of the second half of their Division 1 Final. Rockford goalie Katie Elwell turned away a shot to tie the game with 55 seconds left, and her team won a jumpball deep on its side of the field with 36 seconds to play to hold on to a 10-9 victory – and claim a third straight MHSAA championship. Rockford is one of three programs to win four MHSAA titles during the 11 seasons of tournament sponsorship. Marian is a two-time runner-up.
9. Hartland Baseball Goes 10 Innings to Win First MHSAA Title
Hartland scored in the first inning of the Division 1 Final in pursuit of its first MHSAA championship in the sport – but then didn’t score again until the bottom of the 10th inning. Junior pitcher John Baker threw all 10 innings for the Eagles, allowing only five hits and striking out 11 batters, and he also had two hits and drove in the game’s first run. Portage Northern also was making its first MHSAA Final appearance in baseball.
8. Northville Girls Tennis Joins First-time Champs; Nguyen Joins Elite
The Northville girls tennis team was one of 32 teams over all sports that won their first MHSAA championships during the 2014-15 school year. The Wildcats finished an impressive five points ahead of Midland Dow, winning three doubles and two singles flights. Utica’s Davina Nguyen, meanwhile, finished as one of the most accomplished champions in MHSAA history, becoming only the sixth player to win at least three titles at No. 1 singles. Nguyen also won in Division 1 as a freshman and junior.
7. Cranbrook Kingswood Regains Boys Lacrosse Title on Last-Second Winner
Johnny Wagner scored 177 goals over his three-season varsity career for Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, but his last had to be the most spectacular. Three days after sending the Cranes to the Final with an overtime game-winning goal, Wagner scored in the Division 2 championship decider with 10.5 seconds to play to give his team the final edge in a 10-9 victory over Okemos. The winner was his fifth goal of the game.
6. Gull Lake Girls Soccer Wins Again on Shootout Success
The only shots to find the net in the Division 2 Final came during an overtime shootout won by Gull Lake to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 victory and their third straight MHSAA championship. That’s not to say the game lacked for excitement, with the teams combining for 37 shots. Gull Lake had also won its Regional Semifinal in a shootout and finished the spring 25-1-1. Fenton was making its first MHSAA Finals appearance in the sport, seeking its first title in any sport since 1993.
5. Warren Regina Softball Stuns After Slow Start
Teams that open 3-11 usually don’t finish as championship contenders – but those teams don’t have the MHSAA’s winningest coach, Diane Laffey, running the show to go with a strong group of upperclassmen who emerged from a competative Detroit Catholic League Central. Regina won its sixth MHSAA title and first since 2007 by downing favored Caledonia 5-0 in the Division 1 Final. Senior Marissa Tiano struck out nine batters in giving up only two hits after giving up only four hits in a 7-1 Semifinal win over Mattawan.
4. DeWitt Boys Golf Sticks Winning Shots; Carlson Goes All-Time Low
DeWitt senior Geoffry Croley birdied off the flagstick on the No. 18 hole at Forest Akers East to help the Panthers edge Cranbrook Kingswood 594-595 and claim the Lower Peninsula Division 2 title, its first since 2011. His younger brother, freshman Joey, made par on his final hole (No. 16) to also help secure the win. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s Nick Carlson finished his high school career with a second individual title and the all-time low 36-hole score in MHSAA Finals history, a 134, to edge Matt Harmon’s 135 for East Kentwood in 2001.
3. Saline Unbeatable in Claiming First Girls Soccer Title
The Hornets compiled one of the most impressive seasons in MHSAA girls soccer history in making their first Final and then winning it. Saline gave up a mere four goals – tied for third-fewest in MHSAA history – in 25 games and finished with a 22-0-3 record capped by a 4-0 win over Grand Blanc in the Division 1 championship game. The team’s 22 shutouts also rank tied for third in MHSAA girls soccer history. Senior Taylor Mulder set a school record with 43 goals this season with her second of this game.
2. Legend of Beaubien Grows with Monroe St. Mary Softball Title
Meghan Beaubien already was known by those who follow softball statewide – not many sophomores get a chance to commit to the University of Michigan so early. But what she and the Kestrels did in winning the program’s first MHSAA championship was pretty legendary. Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central outscored its postseason opponents by a combined 29-0 over seven games, beating Bronson 2-0 in the Division 3 Final with Beaubien taking a perfect game into the seventh inning and hitting a two-run homer.
1. Fisher, Saline Finish Strong in Boys Track and Field Final
The Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final was filled with notable finishes – including a pair that will be listed in the national record book next month. Saline won its second MHSAA title in the sport and first since 2006, finishing ahead of East Kentwood – champion five of the last six seasons. The Hornets were keyed by a 3,200 relay of Logan Wetzel, Josiah Humphrey, Austin Welch and Kevin Hall that finished in 7:38.97 to rank among the best all-time in U.S. high school history Grand Blanc senior Grant Fisher posted the second-fastest 1,600 time in U.S. high school history, going 4:00.28.; he graduated with five individual MHSAA Finals titles. Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills’ Donavan Brazier also re-set the all-Finals record in the 800, running 1:48.98.
PHOTO: Grant Fisher, far right, set an MHSAA all-Finals record in the 1,600 that also ranks as the second-fastest in U.S. high school history. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com. Photos by John Brabbs.)
Goals Grow as Gladwin's Klein Seeks to Follow School Record with Big Finish
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 24, 2024
Logan Klein wanted to leave his mark on Gladwin athletics – and one could argue, as a starting offensive lineman on the 2022 Flying Gs football team which won the Division 5 title, he had already done that.
But Klein was looking for more, so that spring, he switched from baseball to track & field, and went after it.
“Really, I mean, I wanted a school record,” Klein said. “I had played baseball for freshman and sophomore year, and I knew I wasn’t getting it in baseball. I was good, but I wasn’t that good. I did (track & field) in seventh grade, and I was pretty good. I was really close in junior high (to school records) but then in eighth grade, we had COVID.”
In his first year back in the sport, Klein achieved his goal, setting the Gladwin school record in the shot put and throwing his way to a third-place, all-state finish at the 2023 Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals.
Now, with a little more seasoning under his belt, he’s looking for even more.
“The big goal is to be a state champ,” he said. “The second goal, with how I’ve been throwing in the (discus) lately, I think I can be all-state in both events. That’s a really big one for me, too.”
Klein’s immediate success as a thrower didn’t come as a total surprise, as he really was quite good in seventh grade. He’s also a 6-foot-3, 270-pound athlete who, as mentioned, was a starter on a state championship-winning football team. The baseline was there.
He also had a willing teacher in teammate Logan Kokotovich, a 2023 Gladwin graduate who was a captain and Klein’s teammate in football, and the Gs’ top thrower prior to Klein’s arrival.
“(Klein) threw in junior high and he was pretty good, and then last year he started off real strong,” Gladwin boys track coach Buddy Goldsworthy said. “After lots of work on just technique stuff, he realized all the things he was doing wrong, then he just started throwing 50 footers. One person that helped make a good transition was Logan Kokotovich – he was good at football, too, and good friends with Klein. He showed Klein how to do a couple things better.”
On May 5, 2023, at the Nike Trax Invite at Meridian, Klein first threw over 50 feet in competition. Five days later, at the Jack Pine Conference meet, Klein had his school record, throwing 51 feet, 9 inches, smashing the old mark of 50-5 set in 1988.
“I was starting to get up into the 50s, and I knew it was going to happen in the next meet,” he said. “I had been on a PR streak.”
He broke it again in his next meet, the first of four times he has eclipsed his chart-topping mark – which now stands at 55-4¼.
“He’s a big, strong kid, and he loved throwing in junior high,” Goldsworthy said. “We knew that he could be that guy. Now, we didn’t know he would be that guy so quickly. That was a pleasant surprise for us. He loves throwing. He spent a lot of time during the summer saying, ‘Hey, can we go up and throw? Can I take a shot or disc home this weekend and just throw?’ ‘I know you’re going to be gone on vacation, but can I have a shot to work on throws?’ He’s a real student of the game.”
Klein said he’s fallen in love with throwing, and there is certainly a part of him that wishes he had started as a freshman, knowing the massive leap he’s taken in such a short amount of time.
But his being so new to the sport makes him a very intriguing prospect for college coaches, if he chooses to go that route. There has been some communication, but Klein hasn’t decided yet if wants to follow up on throwing at the next level or go into the workforce by becoming an electrician, something that is waiting for him if he wants it.
“I was definitely not planning on (throwing in college),” he said. “I was actually a four-year starter for football, so that’s what I thought I was going to do. I’ve only been doing this for two years now, and I definitely can grow a lot more. A couple colleges have talked to me, and that’s what they were saying, that I really have a lot more potential.”
While he mulls over that decision, he’s working toward reaching those end-of-year goals he’s set, and also bringing along the next wave of Gladwin throwers.
“We talk about it a lot,” Goldsworthy said. “You want to leave a legacy. If you’re a jerk, no one’s going to remember, or they’re going to remember you not in the ways you want. He’s really taken that to heart and he’s the person that people want to be around. He’s going to be remembered that, yeah, he threw 60 feet, but he helped (junior Jacob) Hurst, he helped (freshman Harvey) Grove, he helped (freshman Nick) Brasseur. They’ll remember, ‘We wouldn’t have been as good if we didn’t have Klein around.’”
Klein said coaching also is in his future, whether that’s next year as he starts his career, or later down the line if he chooses to go to college.
With his mark already firmly left on Gladwin athletics, he wants to make sure others can do the same.
“I just like seeing my teammates grow,” he said. “We’ve got a freshman right now that’s really good. I told him, ‘I don’t care if you beat my record. I just want to be there to coach you through it.’”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gladwin’s Logan Klein prepares to launch during a turn in the shot put circle. (Middle) Klein has high aspirations in both the shot and discus this spring. (Photos courtesy of the Gladwin athletic department.)