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.)
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.)