Orchard View Sluggers Continue Climb
July 16, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A pair of Muskegon Orchard View softball standouts are climbing MHSAA record book career lists with one more season to play.
Halee Holman drove in 71 runs over 36 games this spring as a junior to raise her career RBI total to 227, which ranks eighth all-time. She also made the record book with 21 doubles this season and sits on career lists as well with 51 doubles and 24 home runs.
Junior teammate Cassidee White had made the career doubles list with 40 and career runs list with 195, with a single-season best 17 doubles this spring and her best run total coming as a freshman when she crossed the plate 70 times over 41 games.
See below for more recent softball record book additions – with more to be published later this week. Click the heading below to see the record book in full.
Softball
Frankfort’s Natalie Bigley finished her four-year varsity run this spring with 227 runs scored – 14th most all-time and one of 11 entries for her in the MHSAA record book. Six were added from a May 10 win over Bellaire where Bigley hit three straight home runs, including two in an inning and two grand slams and drove in six runs in that fourth frame and 10 for the game. She finished her career with 30 homers over 151 games. Junior teammate Haley Myers moved up career lists in runs (210), doubles (49) and home runs (29) with a season to play. Bigley will continue her career at Calvin University (formerly Calvin College).
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer’s MaKayla Thompson ranks 23rd with 1,141 career strikeouts after adding 266 in 150 innings pitched as a senior this spring. She threw 643 innings over her four-season varsity career and will continue at Kent State University.
Jada Bolhuis left a sizable impression on the record book during just her first season at Otsego this spring, finishing with the fourth-most hits in MHSAA history, 91, and 12th-most runs scored, 75, while also earning mention with a .674 batting average. Sophomore Kendra VanderLugt joined her teammate with six entries, including for 14 home runs and 88 RBI this year, with the latter ranking eighth all-time. Junior Skylar Anderson earned a line as well with 19 doubles. As a team, Otsego was added for 450 hits, a .423 batting average, 62 doubles, 29 homers and 290 RBI over 36 games.
Brooklyn Columbia Central freshman Kenadee Tompkins also got her high school career off to a quick start with 16 doubles to make the single-season list in that category.
Sydney Stapf also made a stellar debut. The West Bloomfield freshman made the single-season home runs list with 12.
Niles Brandywine’s Kennedy Byrd was added for driving in eight runs during an April 13 win over Saugatuck, and also for hitting 12 home runs with 53 RBI for the spring. She was a junior.
Mackenize Nagelhout’s noteworthy debut came in 2018, when as a freshman she hit 19 doubles for Howard City Tri County to make the single-season list in that category. This spring, Tri County junior Alayna Merlington was added for six RBI in a May 17 game against Morley Stanwood.
Lauren Kuffel struck out 22 batters – including four in one inning – as Mio held on for a 5-4 District Final win in 10 innings over Au Gres-Sims on May 31. Kuffel, a senior, tallied 14 of those strikeouts and didn’t give up a run over the final six innings.
Mara Sczecienski became the second player in North Farmington history to be listed in the records for softball, finishing her career this spring with 202 hits, 55 doubles and 23 home runs over 127 games and four seasons. She also made the single-season doubles list with 17 as a junior. She is continuing at University of Hartford in Connecticut.
PHOTO: Orchard View’s Cassidee White watches a pitch come her way during a doubleheader this spring against Muskegon Western Michigan Christian. (Photo courtesy of Local Sports Journal.)
Dunn Finishes Among Scoring Leaders
April 24, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Blake Dunn is one of the finest all-around athletes in Michigan, a four-sport star for Saugatuck who will go on to play baseball at Western Michigan University this fall.
But his most notable accomplishments may have come on the football field, and his name appears 19 times in the MHSAA record book for that sport.
Dunn, as quarterback this past fall, scored 323 points – third most in MHSAA history – to graduate with a four-season total of 827 points, which ranks second all-time for a career. He scored 42 total touchdowns as a senior to finish with 113, fourth on that career list, and his 101 career rushing touchdowns also rank fourth in that category. His 6,954 career rushing yards rank eighth all-time, and his streak of 26 straight 100-yard rushing games ranks third.
Dunn also made lists for kicking extra points, passing touchdowns, kickoff return touchdowns (four this past season tied for second-most) and for a 100-yard interception return.
As might be expected, Saugatuck as a team scored more than 500 points each of the last two seasons, finishing both 10-1. Its 53.5 ppg average this past fall ranks eighth all-time.
Click to see the football record book in full and read on for more of the latest additions for girls and boys basketball, hockey, softball, volleyball and wrestling.
Girls Basketball
Alma’s Maddy Seeley capped her high school career in 2014 with a record-setting performance in a 68-62 Regional loss to Freeland. Seeley made all 21 free throws she attempted, breaking the previous girls basketball record by one for consecutive free throws in one game. Those 21 free throws also are tied for third most in a game, as she scored 39 points total. Seeley currently plays at Northwood University.
New Lothrop teammates Monica Confer and Amber Sammons graduated in 2010 among the winningest players in MHSAA girls hoops history. The two four-season standouts finished with a career record of 97-11 and Class D titles in 2008 and 2009. Confer went on to play at Davenport and then Northwood University, while Sammons played at Schoolcraft and then Rochester College.
Boys Basketball
Trenton needed a big fourth quarter to come back against Wyandotte Roosevelt on Jan. 17 – and got one of the biggest in Michigan high school history. Trenton scored 42 points – tied for fifth most in a quarter – to edge Roosevelt 73-72 after trailing 50-31 heading into the final period. Joel Childers scored 13 points with four 3-pointers to lead the barrage.
Hockey
New Baltimore Anchor Bay senior Joey DeMarte played himself into the MHSAA records for scoring prowess twice within four days this winter. On Jan. 21, DeMarte score three goals within 37 seconds – at 8:06, 7:54 and 7:21 of the second period – in an 8-0 win over Utica to move into second place for fastest three goals by one player in one game. On Jan. 24, he had five goals during the second period of a 14-0 win over Port Huron to also rank second for most goals in a period.
Girls Soccer
Middleville Thornapple Kellogg keeper Aly Miller capped her career last spring on the MHSAA career shutouts list despite missing all of the 2014 season with an injury. She graduated with 39 shutouts over 60 games in 2013, 2015 and 2016, and was added for single-season shutouts for a second time with 13 a year ago. Middleville Thornapple Kellogg as a team made the list for fewest goals given up with seven in going 16-2-2 in 2016. Miller plays now at Webster University in Missouri.
Softball
Manistee then-junior Sydney Arendt joined the single-season doubles list last spring, knocking 18 in 36 games. She batted .537 overall last season.
Volleyball
Rockford setter Hailey Delacher upped her number of entries in the MHSAA record book to 12 in leading her team to a Class A runner-up finish in the fall. Delacher, who already had the record for most assists in one match (67 in 2015), added four more entries to the category as a junior while coming on especially strong during the playoffs – her season-high 54 came in the Semifinal, with 49 in a Quarterfinal, 46 in a Regional Final and 53 during the regular season. Her 1,635 assists this past season rank fourth since the start of rally scoring in 2004-05, and she moved into 10th on the career list with 3,802 assists and a season still to play.
Wyoming Godwin Heights enjoyed a strong senior season to end a record-book career for senior middle Mya Jordan in the fall. Jordan made the single-season kills list with a career-high 622, and with those also made the career kills list with 1,569 over four seasons. Senior teammate Tony Henry also made the record book with 128 aces for the season, including 11 in a three-set match against Wyoming Lee. Godwin Heights won its first league title in the fall in 17 years.
Wrestling
Grand Rapids Christian junior Desean Bryant became the first in MHSAA history to achieve a pin in six or fewer seconds at 112 pounds when he did so in a match during the Traverse City West Invitational on Dec. 28. That win was Bryant’s ninth straight to start the season.
PHOTO: Saugatuck’s Blake Dunn rushes toward an opening upfield during a game his junior season. (Photo courtesy of the Saugatuck athletic department.)