Kennedy Completes Record Power Surge
September 11, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Michigan has a new softball career home run leader.
Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard’s Julia Kennedy hit 22 this spring – tied for third most in a season – to finish her four-year career with 55 homers over 125 games. That’s one more home run than Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse’s Brooke Nadolny, who will enter her senior season in 2019 with 54.
Kennedy also was added for 18 doubles this season, and freshman teammate Savannah Wing made that list with 22. Kennedy will continue her career at Miami University of Ohio.
See below for more recent record book entries in softball and football, and click the headings to see those record books in full.
Football
A handful of teams made the move from 11 to 8-player football for the 2009 season, making Nick Zaleski’s performance of Oct. 10 of that season one the earliest to grab headlines in the new format. Zaleski scored 11 touchdowns – nine rushing and two on kickoff returns – to lead Owendale-Gagetown to a 90-52 win over Posen. He also gained 431 yards rushing on 21 carries.
Grant Dittmer grabbed four interceptions in an Oct. 23, 2015, win over Mesick to help Bay City All Saints clinch its first playoff berth at the time since 2010. Those interceptions are tied for fourth most in one game (three players grabbed five in a game).
Auburn Hills Avondale enjoyed three highlight-reel returns that made the MHSAA records in 2017. Derrick Hinton Jr. produced two of them – a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown against Troy on Aug. 24 and a 97-yard punt return touchdown against Macomb Lutheran North on Oct. 20. Zeke Ringstaff also added to the scoring in that Week 9 win over Lutheran North that put Avondale into the playoffs – he brought back a fumble 100 yards for a score. Hinton’s kickoff return and Ringstaff’s return tied MHSAA records. Both are seniors this fall.
Softball
Anna Dixon closed her Farmington Hills Mercy career this spring on career lists with 177 runs, 226 hits and 42 doubles. She also made the hitting streak list with at least one in 33 straight games from May 12, 2017, through May 5 of this spring. Dixon will continue her career at Hillsdale College.
Pinckney’s Elizabeth Kramer hit her way nearly to the top of one of the longest category lists for any sport in the MHSAA record book, knocking 28 doubles as a sophomore in 2017. That total ranks third all-time for one season. Kramer is a senior this fall.
Brownstown Woodhaven’s Alyssa Harris capped her four-year varsity career this spring with 46 doubles, 27 homers and 150 RBI over 137 games. She’s continuing her career at University of Findlay.
Tessa Nuss’ junior season for Lake Orion was one of the most impressive in MHSAA history. She hit .654 this spring with 89 hits and 79 runs scored – the hits were the fourth most all-time and the runs tied for sixth most in one season. Nuss will sign with Binghamton University in New York.
Faith Howe capped her four-year Beaverton career this spring on the strikeouts list with 1,037, which included a career-high 397 in 2017 when she went 34-4. Teammate Ann-Marie Hicks was added for 42 career doubles over her four-year run with the Beavers, and senior Amaya Ware was added for six RBI in a game this April against Breckenridge. Howe also was added for three homers – including two consecutive – against Pinconning in May. Beaverton made team record lists going 38-4 in 2017 with 68 doubles, 250 RBI and 432 pitching strikeouts. Howe is continuing her career at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, and Hicks will continue at St. Clair County Community College.
Averi Munro completed an incredible four-year career in 2016 among the MHSAA’s best all-time in a number of categories. The Morrice standout earned 25 record book entries. Her 81 runs scored in 2015 rank fourth, her 266 career runs are third, her 271 career hits are tied for fifth, her 67 career doubles rank eighth, her 93 RBI in 2016 came in fourth, while her 287 career RBI are second most and her .630 career batting average ranks fourth as well. She continuing her career at Alma College.
PHOTO: Gabriel Richard’s Julia Kennedy powers through a pitch this spring. (Photo courtesy of the Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard softball program.)
Livonia Standout Scores Pair of Records
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 10, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It’s hard to imagine a better first season of high school lacrosse for Livonia United’s Madalyn Champagne than what she accomplished this spring for the first-year program.
Champagne, now a senior at Livonia Stevenson, set a pair of MHSAA girls lacrosse records. Her 15 goals against Royal Oak on April 12 set both the single-game goals and points records, and her 149 goals total over 21 games tied for second for goals in one season.
She also had 11 assists for a total of 160 points, which ranked sixth on the season list in that category. Total, Champagne had 18 entries added to the record book. She has signed to continue after high school at Grand Valley State University.
Click to see the girls lacrosse record book in full, and continue below for more recent records additions in girls and boys basketball, football, girls soccer, softball and volleyball.
Girls Basketball
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Sarah Stuart capped off her high school career last winter with 70 3-pointers over 25 games, making the single-season list for made long-distance shots. She also finished runner-up at the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan “Top Shooters Challenge” 3-point contest played during Finals weekend in March.
Boys Basketball
It’s never too late to submit a record, and White Cloud’s Randy Mast was added for his .885 free-throw percentage during the 1966-67 season. That shooting success ranks 15th on the list and was accomplished during his senior season, when he averaged 20.8 points per game in leading the team to a 16-3 record.
Football
Coldwater got a running start on the 2019 season, in record proportions. The Cardinals made the record book on opening night with 667 total yards including 615 rushing on 59 carries. The total yardage ranks third by one team all-time for a single game, and the rushing yardage also is third on that respective list. Damon Beckhusen led the attack with 26 carries for 322 yards and three touchdowns, and Matt Gipple had 214 yards and four scores on the ground in a 47-30 win over Haslett.
Allendale’s Owen Burk just missed the single-season rushing list as a junior in 2018 with 2,069 yards over 10 games, but he was added three times for scoring. Burk had 218 points total and made the total touchdown list with 36 and the rushing touchdown list with 30. He will continue playing at Air Force.
Reggie Allen scored on a 98-yard kickoff return for Monroe on Oct. 22, 2010, against Dearborn Fordson that at the time would have been the second-longest recorded kickoff return score in MHSAA history. It currently ranks 10th on that list.
Girls Soccer
Twins Jordan Noble and Taylor Noble have helped put Boyne City soccer on the map the last two years, and big sophomore seasons in the spring landed both of them in the MHSAA record book. Jordan had 43 goals and 23 assists – including six assists in a game against Kalkaska – for 66 points, while Taylor had 35 goals and 22 assists for 57 points.
Softball
A number of Goodrich accomplishments were added from this spring’s season, including 383 hits, 42 home runs, 71 doubles and 259 RBI for the team over 38 games. Then-senior Sydney Hill and then-sophomores Savannah Stratton and Alissa Gauthier all were added for hitting back-to-back home runs (Gauthier’s during the same inning May 14 against Corunna), and then-junior Danielle Dumoulin was added for her 10 homers on the year. Additionally, the 2001 team was added for winning 35 games.
Hudson as a program earned its first team record book entries this spring in making the Division 4 Quarterfinals, with 392 hits including 77 doubles, and 295 RBI over 43 games. Then-senior Anna Stein and now-senior Flesia Borck also were added to individual lists, Stein with 16 doubles and Borck for scoring 71 runs.
Volleyball
Leland setter Ella Siddall helped her team to a Class D championship, Division 4 runner-up finish and a third trip to the Semifinals during her varsity career from 2015-18, and also graduated this past spring with the fifth-most assists during the rally scoring era that began in 2004-05 – 4,559 over her four varsity seasons. She also made the career aces list with 362, with a high of 119 as a junior in 2017. She’s continuing at DePaul University.
PHOTO: Livonia United's Maddy Champagne controls possession against Hartland. (Photo courtesy of Observer & Eccentric newspapers.)