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.

Powell Sets, Reitsma Hits Lowell Into Back-to-Back Finals

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

May 18, 2021

Lowell’s runs to back-to-back Division 1 runner-up finishes the last two seasons were anchored in part by a hitter and a setter who both finished among the all-time stat leaders at their respective positions on the court.

Jenna Reitsma earned 18 record book entries for kills, with a high of 41 in a Division 1 Semifinal against Novi on Jan. 15. Her 897 kills total this season rank 11th on the single-season list, her 873 as a junior are 15th, and her career kills total of 2,316 over 446 games and four seasons ranks 13th all-time.

Setter Sophie Powell earned nine record book entries, including for 52 assists in a 2019 match against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, 1,571 over 146 games as a junior in 2019 (ranking 10th) and 2,902 assists over 287 games and four seasons (but most over the last two). Additionally, senior Emma Hall made the single-match aces list with 15 against Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills in 2019, and Emily Stump made that list with 11 against Ottawa Hills in 2018.

Reitsma will continue her career at Marquette University.

See below for more recent record book additions in volleyball, 11-player football and boys tennis.

11-player Football

Braden Mussat capped a three-year career quarterbacking Madison Heights Bishop Foley with a sensational 2019 season that helped him secure entries all over the record book. He finished with senior-season entries for 171 past completions, 293 attempts, 2,792 yards and 30 touchdowns through the air, helping him also make lists with 312 completions, 550 attempts, 4,992 yards and 53 touchdowns over his 25-game career. He also was added for 28 completions, 56 attempts and 430 passing yards in an Oct. 4, 2019 game against Detroit Edison, and for throwing five touchdown passes in a half the following week against Marine City Cardinal Mooney. Mussat is playing baseball at Kalamazoo College.

Three quarters of a century later, the 1945 Greenville football team can celebrate an eternal place in the MHSAA record book as one of 21 teams to not give up a point. Greenville went 7-0-1 that season, outscoring its opponents by a combined 155-0.

Boys Tennis

Griffin Beers finished his four-season varsity tennis career in 2018 on the record book list for most double wins. He finished 71-27 for Rochester Hills Stoney Creek playing with four partners over those four seasons, just missing the single-season list with 26 wins as a junior with teammate Jack Beglin.

Volleyball

Unionville-Sebewaing reached at least the Quarterfinals five times last decade, with a trio of stars contributing heavily to that effort. Rylee Zimmer was added five times to the records including for 808 kills as a junior, 828 as a senior, and 2,332 over her four-year, 532-game career. Those career kills rank 11th all-time. She was the top hitter on the 2018 team that finished Division 3 runner-up and was set by also-senior Nichole Schember, who tied for second for single-match assists with 70 during a four-game win over Cass City, ranks sixth with 1,702 assists for that season and also made the career list with 2,543 assists despite playing only two varsity seasons. Erica Treiber also made the record book five times, with 754 kills as a senior in 2014, 1,759 kills over her 533-game, four-season career; 258 blocks as a senior and 238 as a junior, and 684 blocks for her career. Her senior-year and career blocks both rank second on those respective lists. Treiber went on to earn All-America honors at Tennessee, and Zimmer plays at Saginaw Valley State.

Portage Central senior Jordan MacDonald earned a record book entry with a big hitting performance in a 3-2 win over DeWitt this fall. She had 31 kills in the victory Nov. 12, and her entry is the first for her school in this sport. She will continue next season at Long Island University in New York.

Birch Run’s Emma McIlhargie capped a three-season varsity career this fall among the most accomplished hitters in MHSAA history, making the record book for single-match kills with 32, single-season kills with 593 as a junior and 654 in the fall and career kills with 1,752. Teammate Kalliann Cook, a sophomore this school year, was added for 121 aces during the 2019 season, and senior setter Sydney Pagel was added for 53 assists in a match this season against Essexville Garber – the same match during which McIlhargie earned her kills record entry.

White Cloud four-year varsity senior Alexis Strait finished this fall on the career aces list. She totaled 311 over 393 games, and also finished with more than 2,000 assists during her high school career.

Hopkins’ Brianna Miller closed her high school career by moving up the career lists in kills and aces, finishing her four-season varsity run with 1,916 and 352, respectively, over 502 games. Miller is listed six times total including for a match-high 35 kills this past Oct. 6 and 675 kills over 142 games as a junior, and also 11 aces in a match that season. Then-senior teammate Ashley Bultema also was added for 11 aces in a match in 2019, and additionally, coach Terrie Wisser was added to the winningest coaches list with a 682-471-101 record since taking over at the start of the 1992-93 season.

Keilyn Carpenter finished her career this fall with 10 entries in the volleyball record book from her four varsity seasons and 439 games for Vermontville Maple Valley. She made the career kills list with 2,200, and her 344 career aces rank sixth on that list. Carpenter has signed with Wayne State.

PHOTO: Lowell’s Jenna Reitsma readies to serve during the 2019 Division 1 Final against Farmington Hills Mercy at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.