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Mort Assists Corunna in Record Run

January 10, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Special for Second Half

Senior setter Lexi Mort and junior hitter Elizabeth Norris led Corunna’s varsity volleyball team to its first MHSAA Semifinals this fall with record book-caliber contributions.

Mort had 1,529 assists (10th all-time) to go with 1,429 as a junior and to finish her career with 4,322, which ranks sixth all-time. She also made the single-match assist list with 54 against Mount Morris, when Norris had 33 kills.

Norris had 879 kills this season, 13th-most on that list. Freshman Ellie Toney was added for 11 aces in a match against Burton Genesee Christian. The Cavaliers finished the fall 50-7-5, with District and Regional titles in Division 2. Mort will run collegiate track at Saginaw Valley State University.

See below for more recent record book additions in volleyball, football and boys soccer, and click on the headings to see those sports’ record books in full.

Football

Clinton Township Chippewa Valley’s Division 1 championship season this fall included a number of record-setting performances. David Ellis returned four kickoffs for touchdowns, good for second most all-time. Niko Kepi made the season extra point list with 73 and the career list with 104 in 109 attempts over the last three seasons. Quarterback Tommy Schuster threw 26 touchdown passes for the second straight season and made career lists with 4,960 passing yards, 509 attempts, 330 completions and 67 scores through the air over the last three seasons. As a team, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley made lists with 546 points and 76 touchdowns over 14 games. Ellis will continue his career at Indiana University. Also, Jeff Deliz was added for a 93-yard punt return in 2003 and Chris Lomasney for six rushing touchdowns in a game in 2000. Deliz went on to play at Navy and Lomasney at Michigan Tech.

Sanford Meridian’s Kyle Stockford found his way to the end zone in multiple record-setting ways over the last two seasons. This fall, he made the record book for two kickoff return touchdowns in one game, against Lake City, scoring from 87 and 85 yards out. He also made the season kickoff return touchdown list with four despite playing only six games. The senior also returned two interceptions for touchdowns in a game this fall against Houghton Lake – after accomplishing the same feat as a junior against Farwell.

Among highlights of Hudsonville Unity Christian’s Division 5 championship run this season was a 57-20 win over Hamilton on Oct. 5, when Unity totaled 637 yards – which sits fifth all-time. Its 629 rushing yards, on 39 carries, is one of two totals on the list for most rushing yards in one game.

Quanelle Pritchett had a solid senior season receiving for Warren Fitzgerald in the fall – augmented by a record book-worthy accomplishment against Sterling Heights on Sept. 14. Pritchett caught seven passes for 239 yards in the 52-13 win to make the single-game receiving yardage list.

Boys Soccer

Jack Vezmar had 17 shutouts this fall in leading Marshall to a 23-1-1 record and Division 2 District title. Those shutouts tied for 11th-most in one season and helped him make the career shutout list with 28 over the last two seasons.

For the second straight fall, Midland Dow made the team record lists for total shutouts and consecutive shutouts, this time with 18 overall in 24 games and nine straight from Aug. 18-Sept. 12. Dow also tied for ninth all-time by giving up only eight goals on the way to finishing 20-1-3 on the season.

Volleyball

Longtime southwest Michigan coach Tony Hooley has reached the 500-win plateau, actually doing so in 2017 at Marcellus and adding to his total this fall leading Dowagiac to a 25-15-2 finish. Hooley has coached at Centreville and White Pigeon as well plus two seasons at Glen Oaks Community College, and his high school record stands at 538-311-92 over 18 seasons.

After two seasons of varsity volleyball, Vermontville Maple Valley sophomore Keilyn Carpenter has four record book entries. She’s been added three times for kills in a match – twice reaching 32 – and for this fall totaling 623 kills over 126 games.

Bronson’s fourth straight MHSAA championship – this one in Division 3 in the fall – included, predictably, a number of outstanding individual performances. Sophomore Meagan Lasky had 1,775 assists this past season to rank third on that list, while senior sister Kiera Lasky added to her career aces total to finish with 454 – fifth most all-time. Senior Ashton Wronikowski made the season aces list with 137, and junior Keona Salesman did as well with 122 to go with her entry for 766 kills. She’s also on the career kills list with 1,679 over three seasons and with one to play. Kiera Lasky will continue her career at Davenport University, and Wronikowski will continue at West Liberty University in West Virginia.

PHOTO: Lexi Mort cheers on her Corunna teammates during their Division 2 Semifinal against Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in November.

Rosman Earns Spot Among Top Hitters

January 23, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Kayla Rosman finished her four-year varsity volleyball career this fall having helped Morley-Stanwood to four league and three District titles and the Class C championship as a freshman in 2011.

She also capped a marvelous run as a Miss Volleyball Award finalist and among top hitters listed in the MHSAA record book.

Rosman had 606 kills this season – good to make the single-season list – and her 1,896 career kills rank 15th since the start of the rally scoring era in 2004-05. She previously tied an MHSAA Finals record with eight blocks in that 2011 Class C Final against Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.

Rosman – who has signed with Ferris State University – just missed the single-match list with 28 kills in a 3-1 Regional Final loss to Ravenna this season. But teammate Lindsey Veersma made the single-match assists list with 48 over those four sets.

Click to see the MHSAA volleyball record book in full and read on for more recent additions to record listings (click the sport heading for each to see that record book).

Baseball

  • Blissfield’s Josh Knorr played a big part in that perennial power continuing its winning tradition during his four-year career from 2009-12. His 179 career runs are tied for ninth in MHSAA history, while his 215 hits are fourth on that list and his 103 walks tie for 11th. He also had 110 stolen bases and was hit by 23 pitches during his four-year varsity career, during which he played nearly every position on the field although primarily catcher as a senior. Blissfield finished Division 3 runner-up his freshman season. Knorr played at Jackson Community College and is now playing at Adrian College.  

 

Girls Basketball

  • Halle Wangler finished her high school career in 2011 among Royal Oak Shrine’s career leaders in scoring (1,311 points) and rebounding (631) and its record holder for free-throw shooting (72 percent). She made the MHSAA listings with her free-throw shooting as a senior after making 113 of 132 attempts (85.6 percent). She started her collegiate career at Oakland University and has since transferred to the University of Michigan, where she is a redshirt junior.

  • Jessica Marvin scored a game-high 19 points in Byron’s 54-40 win over Dryden on Jan. 16, 2014, and in the process became the latest to make at least 15 free throws in a game. She connected on 15 of 18, including 10 during the second half.

  • Howell junior Erin Honkala capped the first week of this season with an incredible all-around performance – and one of the best rebounding totals in MHSAA history. Honkala pulled down 28 rebounds – tied for 13th most for one game – to go with 19 points and eight blocked shots in the Highlanders’ 47-30 win Dec. 5 over Ann Arbor Skyline.

Football

  • Detroit Cass Tech running back Mike Weber finished a three-year run in the fall as one of the top running backs in Michigan, with perhaps his most memorable highlight this season a 404-yard rushing performance in his team’s Division 1 Regional win over Clinton Township Chippewa Valley on Nov. 15. Weber ran 32 times and scored five touchdowns. 

  • East Lansing's Efe Scott-Emuakpor kicked off his varsity career in 2009 with 64 catches as a sophomore and finished in 2011 with 134 total to make that career list, with his 1,624 yards just missing the career list in that category. He’ll head into his junior season at Ball State University this fall.

  • St. Charles’ Devin Ballien was one of the busiest running backs in MHSAA history Sept. 5, when he ran the ball 41 times, making the record listings in that category. He finished with 289 yards on the ground in his team’s 42-36 win over Saginaw Valley Lutheran and scored five touchdowns including the game winner with 28 seconds to play.

  • Macomb L’Anse Creuse North quarterback Sean Koski capped his career in 2013 with a record-setting season before heading to Siena Heights University, where he just finished his first collegiate season. Koski made the MHSAA record book 15 times; he owns two of 10 500-yard passing performances with his 511 on Sept. 6, 2013, against Grosse Pointe South ranking sixth all-time. His 3,833 yards passing as a senior are third-most for one season; his 355 attempts that fall are 11th, his 211 completions rank 10th for a single fall and his 41 touchdowns fifth – despite playing only 10 games.

Boys Soccer


  • Isiah Handspike ranks 11th in career shutouts with 34 – with one more season to play. The DeWitt junior also made the single-season shutouts list with 13 as a sophomore, and needs 16 more as a senior to tie with three others for the MHSAA career record. 

PHOTO: Morley-Stanwood's Kayla Rosman helped her team to the Class C championship in 2011, first with this victory over Charlevoix in the MHSAA Semifinals.