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Roeper Standouts Climb Scoring Charts

April 17, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Birmingham Roeper’s first MHSAA boys soccer championship run included an expected number of key performances – especially from its top two scorers.

Sophomore Simon Roennecke this fall tied an MHSAA Finals record with four goals in the Division 4 championship game, and also made the MHSAA record book listings with 40 goals and 36 assists (and 76 points) – his assists ranking eighth for one season and the points 11th.

Teammate Max Whipple was added for a number of season and career milestones – 39 goals in 2013 and 46 this fall, 102 career goals, 49 career assists, 67 points this season and 151 over his four on varsity. Roeper as a team ranked second all-time for one season with 104 assists in 2014 and also made the team goals list with 107.

Click the “Boys Soccer” heading below to see those record listings in full, and read on for more recent additions to records for other sports.

Boys Soccer

  • Cassopolis’ Dylan Armstrong became the latest of 20 who have had at least five assists in a game. He helped on five goals in his team’s 8-0 win over Watervliet Grace Christian on Sept. 25. Armstrong also scored in the victory.

Girls Basketball

  • Here’s the highest-scoring individual performance we know of at this point from this winter; Kentwood Grand River Prep’s Mariah McCully scored 51 points in her team’s 79-52 win over Fruitport Calvary Christian on Dec. 8. She had three 3-pointers and only four free throws (making all four attempts); the rest of her points were scored on 19 two-point field goals. She scored 17 points in the first quarter.

  • Edwardsburg sophomore Savannah Dixon placed herself among the top shooters in girls hoops history with two seasons to play, making 69 3-pointers this winter. She had a high of seven in a 56-45 victory over South Haven on Jan. 30.

  • East Jackson fell in a Dec. 12 game to Grass Lake, 68-55, but Kassidy Blough had a headlining performance. She made 18 of 20 free-throw attempts to make the list for most successes from the stripe in a game. She scored 24 points total.

Boys Basketball

  • East Jordan junior Jordan Weber is on his way to finishing as one of the top perimeter shooters in MHSAA history. Weber made 91 3-pointers (13th most) in 262 attempts this season – when he also went over 1,000 points for his career – and has 205 3-pointers after three varsity seasons to rank 21st on the career list. He averaged 26.7 points per game this winter as East Jordan finished 17-6.

  • Troy Athens’ John Van Hoef was added to the career rebounding list with a four-season total of 822 and despite grabbing only 42 as a freshman. The 6-foot-5 post player averaged 12.8 rebounds per game this season and 11.8 per game as a junior. He also scored 15.2 points per game this winter.

Football

  • Longtime Battle Creek Harper Creek coach Ed Greenman retired from the sideline after the fall and leading his team to a sixth straight playoff appearance. He finished with a 203-108 record over 30 seasons and despite starting 0-18 over his first two. He took nine teams to at least 10 wins, with his 2011 squad finishing 12-1.

  • Holt’s Trent Stone achieved record-list numbers in back-to-back games this fall. On Sept. 12 he ran for seven touchdowns in his team’s 69-28 win over Lansing Eastern (total he carried the ball 21 times for 301 yards). The next week, Sept. 19, Stone ran 47 times – this time for 180 yards, in a 42-41 overtime loss to Lansing Everett. The seven touchdowns and 47 carries both made record book lists, the seven scores tying for second most rushing in one game. 

Softball

  • Pinconning finished last season as one of the top power-hitting teams in MHSAA history on the way to a 27-10-1 record. The Spartans hit 37 home runs – fourth-most for one season – and despite no player hitting more than eight (Gabby Yanoski and Katlyn Blake tied for the team lead with that total). Pinconning also made the records list with 64 doubles, including 15 by Millie Talaga. 

PHOTO: Birmingham Roeper's Simon Roennecke looks for space during his record-setting performance in this season's MHSAA Division 4 Final. 

Russell Rates Among Top MHSAA Passers

May 8, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Grand Rapids West Catholic went a combined 34-8 over the last three seasons with back-to-back MHSAA Division 5 championships and a runner-up finish – and quarterback Travis Russell had two of the largest hands in that success. 

He threw for at least 2,400 yards and 22 touchdowns all three of those seasons; his career passing yardage of 7,634 ranks fifth in MHSAA history, with his 435 attempts in 2012 second on that single-season list, his 987 career attempts also ranking second, his 224 completions in 2012 ranking seventh and his 546 career completions third on that list. 

Russell’s 80 touchdown passes in 43 games tie for third on that career list, and he also ran for 2,269 yards and 32 scores during three full seasons plus four games as a freshman. He has signed with Ferris State University.

Click the football heading below to see the record book in full and read on for more of this week's additions in five sports.

Football

  • Russell's three-season teammate at West Catholic, Bryce Witham, was added for his 16 touchdown catches this fall and 22 for his career, and running back Andy Corey made the single-season carries list with 336 (for 1,682 yards) in 2012. Witham signed with the University of Minnesota, and Corey plays at Saginaw Valley State University.

  • The four-year career of Coleman quarterback Adam Stremlow coincided with the most successful four-season run for the Comets in two decades. Coleman finished 26-14 and made the playoffs three times from 2011-14, with Stremlow playing in 30 games including all 10 this fall as the team finished 7-3. He finished with 18 entries in the MHSAA football records, including for 2,438 passing yards and 274 attempts in his final season. His 6,780 passing yards rank 10th on that career list, and his 735 career attempts are 17th.  He also threw for five touchdowns in a half this fall and for six in two games, with his 78 career scoring passes are fifth all-time on that list. Teammate Mitch Franklin was added for a 99-yard touchdown run against Charlevoix on Sept. 13 and for 1,119 receiving yards this fall. 

  • Record-listing performances recent and old were added for Lansing Catholic and two now-closed Catholic schools in the city. Junior quarterback Tony Poljan led the Cougars to the Division 5 Final in the fall throwing 263 times, completing 171, for 2,802 yards and 35 touchdowns. His career yardage total, 4,373, also makes that list with a season to play. Zac Baker had 13 interceptions as Lansing Catholic made the team list in that category with 30 total, and kicker Jon Foy made lists with 58 extra points and nine in a game. Mario Villarreal (1987), Paul Rashid (1977) and Marty Castellon (1989) all were added for carrying at least 40 times in a game, and Don Blair of Lansing St. Mary Cathedral was added for his two 1958 interception return touchdowns against Bath and three total that season. Lansing O’Rafferty was added for three straight and four ties total in 1958, when it finished 2-2-4. Also, longtime Ithaca and current Lansing Catholic coach Jim Ahern was added for his 249-128-7 career record, including a 13-1 finish with the Cougars in 2014.

  • Erik Pohlmann added to Menominee’s strong recent kicking tradition, making 82 of 85 extra points in the fall to rank fourth for most made in one season. That run included a streak of 41 straight and 10 in a game against Milwaukee Morse-Marshall.

  • New Lothrop’s Logan VanSumeren joined a list of only 13 with kick return touchdowns listed when he ran 95 yards for a score in his team’s 60-26 loss to Detroit Loyola in a Division 7 Regional Final in the fall. He has signed with Stetson University in Florida.

  • Macomb Lutheran North graduate J.J. McGrath already had three listings in the MHSAA records for longest field goals (his 57-yarder in 2012 is third), but was added for his 22 career field goals (tied for 11th-most) and 85 extra points from 2009-12. McGrath is on the Grand Valley State University football roster after previous stops at Mississippi State University and the University of Michigan.

Baseball

  • Grand Ledge had another fine season in 2014, finishing 30-8, and ranked as a team with 305 strikeouts. Pitchers Tyler Waldrop (0.69) and Nick Kamrada (0.81) also were added for single-season ERA. Keefer Johnson was added for getting hit by a pitch 13 times in 2013.

Girls Basketball

  • Imlay City’s Ashton Combs made two record book lists after making 17 straight free throws Dec. 6, 2013, in a 53-50 win over North Branch. Her 17 were among the most made in one game, and she made 17 in a row to make another listing, missing only her final free-throw attempt of the night. Combs ended with 33 points total, including 17 during the second quarter. She was a freshman at the time and currently is a junior.

Boys Soccer

  • St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic’s Danny McEachen capped his career in the fall with six listings in the MHSAA boys soccer records after scoring 41 goals and tallying 54 points in his final season. Both of those numbers made respective single-season lists, with his 144 goals over four seasons ranking ninth on for a career and his 197 career points ranking eighth.  

Softball

  • This spring, Marlette sophomore Hannah Kady became the latest of six players to knock in at least nine runs in one game, tallying nine RBI against Memphis on April 14. She had a three-run home run, plus three doubles – and each double brought home two runs in the 15-5, five-inning victory.

PHOTO: Travis Russell celebrates a Grand Rapids West Catholic touchdown during last season’s Division 5 Final win over Lansing Catholic.