Grace-fully Setting MHSAA Records
September 9, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Saginaw Swan Valley’s Alex Grace opened the 2014 football season two weeks ago with what has become a typical performance – 195 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
The Vikings’ senior running back already tops one MHSAA record book list, and could sit atop a few more when this fall is done.
Grace set the MHSAA single-season rushing record in 2013 with 2,962 yards on only 295 carries – an average of 10 yards per carry. Adding in his 2,163 yards rushing as a sophomore, Grace entered this fall with 5,125 total – good for 15th on the career list, and he’s already jumped to 10th with 324 yards he’s gained in two games this fall.
Grace also scored 36 rushing touchdowns in 2013 – 12th most for one season – and with his 27 as a sophomore has 63 total. He’s committed to sign with Western Michigan University for after graduation.
Those are just some recent additions to the MHSAA record listings; read on for more, and click each heading below for the complete records listing for that sport.
Football
- Logan Huff’s incredible Friday night (Sept. 5) – six touchdowns in Johannesburg-Lewiston’s 75-14 win over Pellston – included a pair of interception returns for scores to make him the latest of 15 players to accomplish that feat. He also scored on two rushes, a reception and a punt return, will all six TDs coming during the first half.
Baseball
- Zach Fish’s reputation as one of the top high school power hitters in MHSAA history got a boost with the addition of career numbers from his two seasons each at Kalamazoo Central (2008-09) and Richland Gull Lake (2010-11). Fish ranks second for most career home runs (47) and RBI (203) in MHSAA history, eighth for career runs scored (184) and fifth for hits (204). He also made the lists with three home runs and 10 RBI in a game against Portage Northern his senior season. Fish was named Big 12 Player of the Year this spring playing for Oklahoma State University, was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 11th round of the June Major League Baseball amateur draft, and just finished his first season as an outfielder with the franchise’s short-season rookie level team in Great Falls, Montana.
Boys Basketball
- Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran 6-foot-4 forward Jeffrey Hilliard finished his high school career averaging a double-double – 19.8 points and 15.7 rebounds per game – and grabbed 314 boards total to make the MHSAA records in that single-season category. He just missed the single-game category, grabbing 29 in an 85-45 win over Holland Black River. He’ll continue his career at Concordia University-Ann Arbor.
Girls Basketball
- Crystal Falls Forest Park’s Lexi Gussert finished her career in March with a Miss Basketball trophy and having carried the Trojans to the Class D Final at the Breslin Center. She also appears 14 times in the MHSAA girls hoops record book: most notably, she finished fourth in career scoring with 2,630 points, set the record as a senior for single-season 3-pointers (105) and finished second with 274 career 3-pointers, finished eighth as a senior on the single-season assist (193) list and is ninth on the career rebounds list with 1,108. She also tied for sixth with 104 varsity games played during her career, and will continue at Michigan State University.
Boys Lacrosse
- Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern’s run to the Division 2 Semifinals this spring included outstanding offensive performances from a pair of field players and strong play in net by a junior goalie. Bob Pelton tallied the third-most assists in one season, 64, and finished with the eighth-most points, 110. Teammate Luke Malec also made the single-season points list with 89, and both made a number of single-game lists. Goalie Grant Lardieri posted three of the top nine single-game saves totals, topped by 23 against Detroit Catholic Central on May 17, and also has posted three of the top eight season saves totals – his 232 this spring were the third-most. He has 657 career saves – 62 from tying the MHSAA record – with a season left in his high school career.
- Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard’s Matt Kolevar finished a solid career in 2010 with 57 goals and 38 assists – with his 95 points making that single-season list. He also made the career points list with 200, including 137 goals.
- Connor Flynn graduated from Rockford in 2012 with 715 career saves in goal, which now ranks second in MHSAA history. He had 24 in a 2012 games against South Lyon, with that total tying for third-most in a game. He’s now playing at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Girls Soccer
- Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Taylor Timko scored more than 30 goals twice and 124 during a four-year career that finished this spring. Her career goals rank 21st in MHSAA history, and her 176 total points (including 52 assists) rank 14th on that career list. Timko, who also was a track standout and the football team’s kicker and was crowned Homecoming queen last fall while in uniform, is starting for the University of Michigan women’s soccer team this fall.
Softball
- Gladwin sophomore Lauren Mose achieved a top-10 spot in the MHSAA softball record listings, scoring 71 runs this spring – good to tie for eighth-most in one season. She also hit .496 in 137 at bats. Sophomore teammate Dayna Fennell made the MHSAA single-season doubles list with 16 and hit a team-best .514 in a team-high 138 at bats.
PHOTO: Saginaw Swan Valley's Alex Grace (9) carries the ball during this season's opener against Saginaw Nouvel. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Century of School Sports: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 25, 2024
Notable achievements cover only one chapter of 100 years of MHSAA history we are celebrating during the 2024-25 school year.
But few states tell this part of their story in as much detail as the MHSAA does through one of the nation’s most robust record books.
The first layers of the MHSAA record book go back to the Association’s early years. Track & Field Finals records from the first quarter-century of championship meets were listed in the appendix of Lewis L. Forsythe’s book “Athletics in Michigan High Schools – The First Hundred Years” published in 1950.
Of course, those were just the start.
The MHSAA record book today, housed on the “Records” pages for each sport of MHSAA.com, is rooted in the work of longtime historian Dick Kishbaugh, who served in that voluntary role until 1994 and after a half-century of compiling data. He was succeeded by current historian Ron Pesch, whose work over the last 40 years has brought significant structure to the record book at it has continued to expand, and whose research continues to fill in otherwise long-lost accomplishments.
All 28 sports for which the MHSAA sponsors postseason play have at least one section of a record book – with plans for adding several more sections as time allows. The amount of data can be mind-boggling. Our softball individual record book alone has more than 3,000 listings. We have team records listings as well for most sports, and several of our head-to-head sports have pages tracking our winningest coaches, and we update those every season. Nearly all of our sports have pages dedicated specifically to records from our Finals events as well – and in fact, some of our sports’ record books are completely derived from championship performances, where we know playing conditions are similar for all (like in track & field, where wind-aided times are not allowed).
As the MHSAA record book continued to evolve, it began to be patterned against the record book produced by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). That book was printed annually beginning with its 1978-79 edition and through 2010 before the NFHS lists went completely online at NFHS.org. The first NFHS printed record book touted having more than 50,000 listings, and several were from Michigan – including the first two photos, of Central Lake baseball player Doug Smith sliding into third base in 1977 and then the 1962 Grand Haven baseball team. While the MHSAA has added categories from time to time, generally what’s collected in Michigan reflected what’s collected nationally.
The MHSAA has played a significant role in the policy-making for the NFHS record book, primarily through the leadership of longtime communications director John Johnson during his multiple terms on the national record book committee. The criteria for adding records nationally – and by relation, to the MHSAA book – remains the same today.
Every potential record book listing is scrutinized. Almost always, candidates for the record book are submitted by an MHSAA member school. Most fill out an NFHS application linked on every record book page of this website, signed by a school administrator and the athlete involved. All applications must include documentation of the achievement – perhaps a box score for a single-game listing in softball, or the team’s season stats for a single-season accomplishment, or season stats for every season that athlete played for a career record.
Over the last decade, we’ve also received more video clips – often for something like a 99-yard football run – and a few full soccer games have been watched to make sure goalkeeper saves have been counted correctly.
We also will add record book listings based on media reports, which is especially helpful for achievements we hear about from decades ago. Yes, the MHSAA record books are living documents, and we frequently add accomplishments that take several years to get to us.
We are always eager to add to our collection of history. But it’s important to keep in mind that this is not an immediate process.
Submissions stack up quickly. We currently have 108 under consideration, and another 127 requiring additional documentation.
Additions generally are made during offseasons as we are most focused on our sports currently being played during the busiest months of the school year – and on the athletes making history for us to include as our record books continue to grow.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS Clockwise from top left: (1) The lead-in to Track & Field Finals records listed in “Athletics in Michigan High Schools – The First Hundred Years” shows a few of the elite performances from our earliest meets. (2) Leland volleyball star Alisha Glass celebrates with her teammates; she still holds four MHSAA records in that sport. (3) Every day this school year, the MHSAA is posting a record on its Instagram and X social media channels, and the great majority took place on that specific day. (4) Brimley’s John Payment still holds the all-Finals record for high jump, 7-foot-1, from 1989. (Glass and Payment photos from MHSAA archives.)