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Records Report: Ashby Wins 6-0, 6-0 ...

May 10, 2013

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central's Meika Ashby is finishing up an incredible high school career and a senior season that's already included breaking an MHSAA record for most straight-set shutout wins.

That and an impressive winning streak that ended in the final match of 2012 put her among those entered into the MHSAA record books this week. Click on the sport headings below to view the entire record book for that respective sport.

Girls Tennis

  • Hackett’s Meika Ashby entered this spring on the cusp of an MHSAA record with 55 wins by scores of 6-0, 6-0 – one off the record. She’s since broken that and signed with Western Michigan University for next season. Ashby also won the first 69 matches of her high school career – the fourth-longest streak in MHSAA history – before falling in last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 No. 1 singles championship match. She won No. 1 singles as a sophomore and No. 2 as a freshman.

Baseball

  • Jack Ropp finished his Concord career last spring with the best base-stealing season in MHSAA history. Ropp stole 79 bases, seven more than Saginaw Nouvel’s Jeff Turner in 1995 and nine more than Ropp stole as a junior in 2011. Ropp’s career total of 166 steals ranks third, and he also was entered into the record book six times for games during which he had five or more steals. Ropp also was entered for his pitching shutouts last season and over his four-year varsity career, and Concord’s Dustin Bornefeld also now makes an appearance for his seven steals during a game in 2008.
  • Grand Ledge furthered its hold on the top spot for single-season ERA by posting a 0.97 in 2012, led by Blake Dahlstrom’s 0.99 – he made the individual MHSAA list. The Comets also now are listed with 91 doubles and a .356 average in finishing 30-7 last spring.

Boys Tennis

  • Kalamazoo Loy Norrix senior Jake Gumbleton will carry a two-season, 55-match winning streak into this fall. The streak is the fourth-longest in the MHSAA record book. He’ll also be seeking his first MHSAA Finals berth – Gumbleton has played No. 2 singles, but because his team hasn’t qualified as a whole he hasn’t advanced to the season’s final weekend.
  • Comstock Park had a number of strong performances in finishing runner-up at the Division 4 Lower Peninsula Final in the fall. Among them, twins Dylan and Tyler Fink advanced to the semifinals at No. 1 doubles and finishing this season with 27 wins and a career total of 70 – both good enough to make the records listings.

Boys Basketball

  • Ryan Marjerle cemented himself among the top free throw shooters in MHSAA history. His career percentage of .856 ranks third on that list among those who had at least 300 attempts. He also made the single-season list twice for 110 makes in 2009-10 and 136 in 2010-11.
  • The majority of the MHSAA single-game rebounds feats took place during the 1960s and 70s. But Isaac Bowles joined the list on Jan. 17 with 38 rebounds to help Detroit Cesar Chavez defeat Detroit University Prep Science & Math 64-58. That tied for the eighth-most rebounds in one game. He also had 12 blocks to make that single-game list and scored 16 points.
  • Carney-Nadeau’s 72-56 upset of No. 2 Pellston in a 2012 Class D Quarterfinal was one of the most memorable games of that season’s tournament, in part because of Wade Schetter and his sharp-shooting teammates. Schetter scored 30 points while making seven 3-pointers, and his team set an MHSAA Final Round (Qtr-Final) record with 14 3-pointers in the game. While Schetter’s 80 3-pointers that season just missed the MHSAA individual record list, his 117 steals are tied for seventh.

Girls Basketball

  • Kim Knuth finished a stellar career at St. Joseph in 1994 by winning the state’s Miss Basketball award. She also just made the MHSAA records for her career 97-7 record on varsity – 21-2 as a freshman, 26-2 as a sophomore, 25-2 as a junior and 25-1 her final season. St. Joseph finished Class B runner-up in 1992.

Football

  • Zeeland West became the first entry for most rushing yards in a game, with the 755 it gained last Sept. 28 against Holland Christian tied for fifth nationally. West ran 54 times in the 66-36 win over the Maroons, with three players gaining at least 100 yards apiece – Marcus Lambert with 254 on 15 carries, Jon Pung with 199 also on 15 carries and Braden Werley 135 on 11 carries. Eight others had carries for positive yards to contribute to the effort.

PHOTO: Kalamazoo Hackett's Meika Ashby claimed her second MHSAA championship at the LP Division 4 Final in 2011.

Kraatz Passes Turner on Assist List

April 22, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Arguably the biggest individual headline this boys basketball season was made by Allen Park Inter-City Baptist senior Evan Kraatz.

Also one of the all-time assist leaders in MHSAA boys soccer history, Kraatz broke the boys basketball career assists record that had stood since Eric Turner graduated from Flint Central in 1981.

Kraatz finished his career with 803 assists – including 218 this winter – to move to the top of a career list where his father Mark Kraatz (Inter-City Baptist 1982-85) sits fourth. Evan also finished this season with 115 steals – ninth most for one season – to end second on that career list with 358. His dad ranks right behind again, fourth for career steals.

See below for a number of additional recent entries to the MHSAA boys basketball record listings – including a pair from schools no longer in existence – plus a few more for boys soccer and wrestling. Click on the headers to see all entries for those respective sports.

Boys Basketball

  • Ottawa Lake Whiteford senior Colin Lake also finished his career this season among the leaders in steals, just behind Evan Kraatz with 348 to place third on that career list. Lake also finished with 488 free throws over his four seasons – seventh most on the career list in that category – with a fifth-longest streak ever of 42, and he also made the career 3-pointers list with 191. Total, Lake scored 1,925 points during his career and averaged 31.7 per game as a senior. 

  • Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest’s Andy Lewis had a triple-double in a 1989 win over Plymouth Christian, tallying 27 points, 12 rebounds and 20 assists as his team won 95-77. His 20 assists tie for fourth-most in one game, and his 197 assists that season tied for 14th on that list. 

  • Another high assist mark was submitted by a former coach now living in South Carolina for a player who made his mark more than 30 years ago at a high school that no longer exists. Rodney Savage had 19 assists in a 90-79 win for Muskegon West Shore Christian Academy against Covert on Dec. 11, 1982. In fact, the newspaper report from the game compared Savage’s performance to something reminiscent of Eric Turner, mentioned above.

  • Grand Rapids Covenant Christian tied for 15th all-time with 193 3-pointers this season, on 527 attempts. Covenant Christian made a game high of 14 and connected on 13 on Feb. 21 against Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian – which with NorthPointe’s nine 3-pointers contributed to a total of 22 that made the list for the most by two teams together.

  • Britton-Macon statistics from the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons showed Phil Benedict with 532 and 483 rebounds, respectively, those winters – with the 532 third-most on the MHSAA list. Britton-Macon, now part of Britton-Deerfield, won Class D championships both seasons with the 6-8 Benedict at center. His 1,015 career rebounds grabbed during just those two seasons rank ninth on the career list for that stat. He earned a basketball scholarship from Duke University and later transferred to Bowling Green State University.

  • Temperance Bedford’s Jeremiah Harris also made the single-season rebounding list this winter with 341.

Boys Soccer

  • Three years after his final high school assist, Dansville’s Jay Witchell has been recognized as the MHSAA career leader in that category. His 38 assists in 2009 and 32 in 2008 rank fifth and tied for 11th, respectively, on the single-season list, and his 106 from 2007-10 are the career record, by one.  His 146 career points rank 19th and are just eight fewer than the total by his brother Josh, who graduated from Dansville in 2005. Jay Witchell went on to play at Division III Aurora University in Illinois.

Wrestling

  • Josh Wendling and Taylor Krupp finished their high school careers this winter by helping New Lothrop to an MHSAA team championship. They also finished with a few marks in the record book: Krupp made the single-season wins list after going 59-0 this season, and Wendling set the single-season technical falls record with 29. Both finished with more than 200 wins for their careers – Krupp at 218-21 and Wendling at 202-24.

  • Fife Lake Forest Area 130-pounder Matthew Elliott finished his high school career this winter with a school-record 160 wins. His 113 career pins also are a school record and made the MHSAA listings in that category.

PHOTOS: (Left) Allen Park Inter-City Baptist’s Evan Kraatz drives past a defender during this winter’s game against Southfield Christian. (Right) Flint Central’s Eric Turner (25) led his team to the Class A championship in 1981. (Kraatz photo courtesy of Inter-City Baptist.)