Cook Caps Career of Setting for Success
October 9, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Freeland setter Betsy Cook graduated this spring after a four-year run of setting her teammates up for success – and in the process became one of the most successful doing so in MHSAA history.
Cook finished with 3,738 assists over four seasons – ranking 15th all-time – and including 1,362 assists as a senior to earn two of her seven entries in the MHSAA record book. She also had a match high of 54 assists among four entries on that list.
Cook also made the single-season aces list with 110 last season, and then-sophomore teammate Caitlinn Pistro made the list with 122. Cook is continuing her career this fall at Madonna University.
See below for more recent record book additions for volleyball, baseball, softball, boys basketball and girls soccer, and click on the headings to see those record books in full.
Baseball
Nick Johnson finished his career at New Lothrop this spring as one of the most accomplished hitters in MHSAA history, ranking among the highest achievers on a number of record book lists. His 227 runs scored over 164 games and four varsity seasons rank fourth all-time, while his 256 hits are second and only one off tying the record set by Brighton’s Drew Henson from 1995-98. Johnson’s 56 career doubles also rank fourth, and his 78 hits as both a junior and senior are tied for third-most for a single season. Johnson also finished with 13 career triples and a career .491 batting average. He’s continuing his career at Adrian College.
Holland Christian’s Chris Mokma joined his brother Mike, who graduated in 2016, among four pitchers who have tossed at least two perfect games in a season. Chris’ came this spring against Hudsonville Unity Christian and Grandville Calvin Christian. He also was added to the records for a 0.55 season ERA. He’s now a senior and has committed to Michigan State.
Vassar then-sophomore Addison Hansard earned his school’s first baseball records listing since 1992 with 48 stolen bases over 32 games this spring. He was caught only twice in 50 attempts.
Boys Basketball
Mason Saubert will start his senior season next month at Wakefield-Marenisco with some impressive all-time credentials after a sharp-shooting junior year. Saubert finished 2017-18 with 98 3-pointers (in 227 attempts), his makes good for sixth most in one season. He had a career-high 11 3-pointers in a 75-30 win over Baraga on Jan. 24.
Girls Soccer
Elysia Mattos closed her four-season varsity career at Muskegon Reeths-Puffer with 14 shutouts as a senior in 2017 to make the single-season list in that category. She also finished with 47 shutouts, which ranks 15th all-time. Mattos is playing basketball at Muskegon Community College.
Sterling Heights Parkway Christian has its first record book entry for girls soccer, with Lauren Turner added for 32 goals in 2016 and 33 in 2017 and for 123 career goals from 2015-18. She’s playing at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Softball
Utica Eisenhower made team record lists with 60 doubles, 32 home runs and 261 RBI over 33 games this spring, with a pair of sluggers contributing big to the latter two totals. Now-senior Paige Kolinski made the single-season home runs list with 16 and also the single-game RBI list twice with eight and six, respectively. Aspen Starr also made the RBI list with two games of six apiece. Starr is continuing her career at University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Kolinski has committed to sign with Saginaw Valley State University.
Pinckney’s Britney Lapum also was added to the RBI list for seven in her team’s 15-5 win over Ann Arbor Huron on April 18. The senior was 3-for-5 with a double and a triple.
Volleyball
Burr Oak senior Zoe Lewis served 17 aces in only three games against Litchfield on Sept. 6. Those 17 aces are tied for seventh most for a best-of-five match in MHSAA history.
PHOTOS: Freeland’s Betsy Cook sets during a match last season against Saginaw Swan Valley. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Nadolny Blasts Way to Top of MHSAA Career Homers List
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 20, 2021
Brooke Nadolny capped her career at Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse in 2019 with 30 record book entries – and as the most prolific power hitter in MHSAA history.
Even as home run totals have increased over the last decade, Nadolny’s 73 over 141 career games are 18 more than the next-highest total. She also is listed for career hits (243), doubles (61), runs (226), RBI (196), walks (80) and batting average (.533).
Teammate Cynthia Galvan also was added to the MHSAA record book for a 2019 achievement of 16 doubles, and Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse as a team was added for 60 doubles and 36 homers in 2017 and 80 doubles and 27 homers in 2019.
Galvan, who graduated in 2020, has joined Nadolny in continuing at Wayne State.
See more recent record book additions below in boys basketball, softball, volleyball and wrestling, and click on the sport headings to see those record books in full.
Boys Basketball
Tyler Horky capped his four-season Manchester varsity career in 2020 with more of the scoring that made him tough defend, especially that Feb. 12 against Vandercook Lake. That night he scored 58 points, including 27 in the third quarter – tying the second-most for a quarter all-time with the most by any player since 2008. He also made the record book with 170 free throws in 203 attempts as a senior and 328 in 415 attempts for his career. Horky is continuing at Kalamazoo College.
Pellston’s Blake Cassidy graduated last spring as one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in MHSAA history. He made 227 3-pointers in 596 attempts over 95 games from 2017-20, tying for 18th-most 3-pointers for a career. He’s continuing his career at Lake Superior State.
Brad Simonsen reached the record book with the 13th-most points in one game on Feb. 4, 2020, scoring 63 for Houghton against Ishpeming to also break the school record of 60 scored by Gary Lange in a 1970 contest. Simonsen is continuing his career at Michigan Tech.
Wyoming 2020 grad Menalito McGee established himself as one of the state’s sharpest 3-point shooters as a senior, putting up two of the top-five long-range shooting performances of all-time over a two-week span. He made 12 3-pointers – tied for fourth – against Middleville Thornapple Kellogg on Jan. 28, 2020, then connected on 14 – second most all-time – against Wayland that Feb. 11. He is continuing his career at Aquinas College.
Over the first five days of February 2020, Hannahville Nah Tah Wahsh accomplished a 3-point shooting feat rarely seen – and did so twice. That Feb. 1, Hannahville sank 20 3-pointers, tying at the time for sixth-most in one game, in a 68-20 win over Mackinac Island. Four days later on Feb. 5, Hannahville connected on the third-most 3-pointers in a game, 24, during a 73-39 win over Big Bay de Noc. The Soaring Eagles scored all of their points on 3-pointers and free throws in both games.
Softball
Heidi Walters was among standouts who was unable to add to her career totals in 2020 because the season was canceled due to COVID-19, but she planted multiple entries in the records for home runs and RBI. She had 14 homers and 71 RBI as a junior in 2019 for Traverse City Central, making the record book for both, and she finished with 27 career homers over her first three seasons including playing her first two at Traverse City St. Francis. She is continuing at Concordia-Ann Arbor.
Volleyball
Bloomfield Hills’ Alexa Rousseau capped her four-year varsity career in 2019 as a Miss Volleyball Award finalist, and her excellence is now included in the record book as well. Rousseau just missed the single-season assists list as a senior but made the career list with 3,673 over 458 games to rank 24th all-time. She twice made the single-season aces lists, with a high of 159 as a senior, and her 458 total rank fifth on the career list in that category. Rousseau is continuing her career at Northwestern.
Jamie Burke earned an entry with 13 aces during Johannesburg-Lewiston’s two-set win over Fairview on Aug. 26, 2019. Burke was a junior at the time.
Wrestling
Kyle Woodruff already had a records entry for his 59-0 season for Pinconning in 2005-06, but he’s been added twice more. Woodruff finished 58-5 the season before as a junior and a combined 203-37 over his four high school seasons.
PHOTO: Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse’s Brooke Nadolny crosses the plate during a game her senior season in 2019. (Photo courtesy of C&G Newspapers.)