GOLD DIVISION
FINAL STANDINGS 6-1 Grant (Coach: Tricia Schuitema) 6-1 Fremont (Coach: Kaitlyn VanBoven) 5-2 Big Rapids 5-2 Central Montcalm 3-4 Tri County 2-5 Newaygo 1-6 Reed City 0-7 Chippewa Hills ALL CONFERENCE: Kirstyn Throop (12) Grant Savannah Passage (12) Grant Megan Wegener (12) Grant Rhiannon Pafford (12) Fremont Carle Bruggema (9) Fremont Natalie Jamieson (12) Fremont Grace Fath (12) Big Rapids Megan Mackall (11) Big Rapids Morgan Train (11) Central Montcalm Jessica Tanner (12) Central Montcalm Ashley Bialek (11) Tri County Lily Ruehmeier (11) Newaygo Mackenzie Wein (12) Reed City Madison Wrisley (10) Chippewa Hills HONORABLE MENTION: Ashley Longcore (12) Grant Kaitlynn Bennett (10) Fremont Olivia Owens (11) Big Rapids Haley Baker (12) Central Montcalm Alicia Bowen (11) Tri County Lily Swinehart (10) Newaygo Alison Duddles (12) Reed City Morgan Perkins (12) Chippewa Hills SILVER DIVISION FINAL STANDINGS 10-0 Morley Stanwood (Coach: Robin Kozuch) 8-2 Hesperia 6-4 Kent City 4-6 White Cloud 2-8 Holton 0-10 Lakeview ALL CONFERENCE: Braelyn Berry (10) Morley Stanwood Brooke Brauher (11) Morley Stanwood Breanna Berry (12) Morley Stanwood Emily Bayle (11) Hesperia Rachel Romero (11) Hesperia Erica Bull (11) Kent City Jenna Harrison (11) Kent City Alexis Strait (11) White Cloud Paige Byrnes (12) Holton Avery Johnson (11) Lakeview HONORABLE MENTION: Landrie LaPreze (11) Morley Stanwood Kyra Sayer (11) Hesperia Jasmine Weeks (11) Kent City Olivia Bowman (12) White Cloud Kylie Gould (11) Holton Grace Hopkins (12) Lakeview
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Panthers claw past Tigers to capture District crown
Posting a third straight shutout Hesperia defended their title from last year as they blasted their way into the Regionals with a 27-25, 25-20, 25-17 victory over Shelby at the Hart District Tournament. Emily Bayle led the Panther attack with 10 kills Rachel Romero and Brooke Billings added 8 and 7 kills respectively. Kyra Sayer had 19 assists and Aria Thomas had 17 assists. Bayle had 3 aces at the service line and Allison Homfeld had 2 aces. Defensively, Isabelle Rumsey had the only block of the night. Romero had 13 digs, Bayle had 10 digs, and Thomas 7 digs on the night. The Panthers will host Regional play beginning on Tuesday when they will face the winner of Friday’s matchup between WM Christian and North Muskegon. The other bracket pits Morley Stanwood against the winner of Pewamo Westphalia and Saranac. Games are scheduled to begin at 5:30pm. D2 Coopersville defeated Grant in the Coopersville District 25-11, 25-18, 25-18. District Volleyball Round 1 Results
N3 Sports Team Photos of Newaygo v Tri County by Alexis Mercer D3 Districts At Hart Hesperia won (3-0) over Hart in the first round of district play tonight. Game scores were 25-19, 25-23, 25-17. The Panther attack was led by Emily Bayle with 12 kills, Rachel Romero with 9 kills, and Delaney Yates with 5 kills. Kyra Sayer had 18 assists and Aria Thomas had 9. Sayer led with 3 aces at the service line. Brooke Billings and Isabelle Rumsey each had 2 aces. Defensively, Romero and Bayle had 7 and 6 digs respectively. Bayle had 2 blocks on the night, Rumsey and Brooke Billings each had 1. The Panthers are now 37-11-1 going into the semi-final round of districts against the Mason County Central Spartans Wednesday at 7:00. Holton will face Shelby Wednesday at 5 with the winners squaring off Friday at 6 pm. At MorleyStanwood MS defeated Lakeview 3-0 and will face White Cloud Wednesday at 7:30 pm The survivor gets the winner of KC/Ravenna Friday at 7pm D2 Districts At Coopersville Fremont fell 3-0 to the hosts and Newaygo shut out Tri-County. When Newaygo visited Tri-County during regular season conference play, they lost to the Vikings in 4. A few weeks later at the Kent City Invitational, Newaygo was defeated once again by the Vikings in both sets of pool play. But the Lions were determined to change the story line and keep their season going on Monday night in Coopersville. In the first set, the Vikings and Lions each went on runs putting themselves ahead significantly only to have the other team surge and tie, then pull ahead themselves. Newaygo found themselves down more than up, however, and it looked like TC was going to pull out the first game. Until the Lions’ head coach Kristin Melvin called a time-out and lit a fire under the hitters. Newaygo came back swinging hard and often, and despite a solid final ditch effort by the Vikings to keep their lead, won 29-27. The close score at the end of the first set continued on to the second with neither team seeming to be able to break open the lead. Back and forth they went, point after point. But it was the strong offense, especially Rylee Maat’s outside hitting, that sparked the Lions who went on to win 25-20. The third set the Lions had control of from the beginning so they were able to sub in players to get some valuable tournament time experience, including for freshman setter Emma Mortensen and sophomore hitter Kayla Fisk. The final set score was 25-20. With the shutout, the Lions continue their season. Newaygo faces Grant at 7:00 pm Wednesday. Sparta plays Coopersville in the other semi-final game and the winners of each will face off on Friday night. For two halves and 2 overtime periods the two surviving D4 soccer schools in the state went head to head and toe to toe battling to gain an advantage that never came as Jameson Goorman and his Liggett counterpart Sam Sword each collected 9 saves while defense dominated the field of play. So once again it came down to a shootout. And once again the Warriors prevailed as Goorman yielded one Knight shot then slammed the door and kept the ball out of the net while Brendan Fies and Isaac VanHoeven provided the SO goals to give the Warriors the win and their 7th title. It was the 6th shutout during their tournament run with opponents managing only a single goal against the Warriors. Checkout Warrior Brevin Byrne's input to our previous piece with his take on the semi-final, his team, and his Grandfather https://www.nearnorthnow.com/sports1/this-season-has-been-a-blessing :
Fremont Harriers Taylor Mater, Nathan Walker, Conor Somers, Adam Ward and Ben Paige came home from Brooklyn with All-State honors Saturday. From Coach Somers: Girls race Taylor Mater (So) was representing the “Pack” as our sole qualifier in the girls race. Tayor missed all of last season with injury and the middle 1/3 of this season. Because of this she had not yet raced in a field as large and competitive as the state finals. (MSU, Portage) Despite lacking big meet experience she went out and raced like a champ. She had a decent start, running just outside the top 30 at the mile mark. The top 30 finishers are all-state. In the 2nd mile Taylor moved up through the crowd into 23rd by the 2 mile. She was showing signs of stress as she headed back to the infield for the last ¾ of a mile. From a distance I could see Taylor struggling as she faded to about 26th with 800 to go. Getting a little close to losing that all-state spot. But she never gave up, kept fighting and was able to recover with a strong finish over the last 400 to move up to 22nd at the finish to earn her all-state award. Taylor is our first girls all-stater since 2011. She did a great job of cross-training and believing she would recover during the time that she missed in the middle of the season. Boys race The boys came in to the race heavily favored and they delivered. This is still a young group and they handled the pressure well. They do a good job staying pretty loose until it is time to perform. The boys seized control of the race by the ¾ mile mark and never let go, finishing with 68 points to 2nd place (Otsego) 176. Nathan Walker (Jr), one of the individual favorites led the way going right to the lead pack. Conor Somers (So) was at the front of a small chase pack at the mile. At the mile Josh Zerfas (Jr), Ben Paige (Jr), and Adam Ward (Jr) were grouped up at the front of the main field. Mikko Vesma (Sr) and Colton Best (Jr) were well back in the field at the mile mark. In the second mile Nathan took the lead and pushed the pace to thin out the lead group of 5 while Conor and another athlete broke free of the chase pack. Josh, Ben were holding position while Adam was starting to move. Mikko started to improve his position a little over the 2nd mile while Colton was holding steady. Over the last mile the lead pack splintered as Evan Bishop of East Grand Rapids set a fantastic tempo. Nathan held on to 3rd until the last 50 meters where he was nipped at the line to finish 4th. Conor continued his one on one battle for 6th and 7th, until they were caught from behind with about 1000 to go making it a 3 way battle. He couldn’t quite hang on and finished a solid 8th. The last mile saw Adam continue to run strong and moving up and fighting off some strong finishers to finish 18th. Ben faded the first 400 of the last mile, recovered, started moving back up, lost a shoe with about 800 to go, and took off to have a great last 300 to finish 20th. Josh had a rough time the last mile, but fought all the way to finish 43rd. Mikko had a screaming last mile improving 30-40 places to finish 36th, missing all state honors by 6 places. Colton had a tough last mile also fighting home in 100th. Packers crush competition in Brooklyn
Area runners distinguished themselves in the individual competition during Saturday’s Cross Country State Finals in Brooklyn. Then, of course we have the Fremont Boys team who merely grabbed the State Title for the 9th time in school history, the last being in 2015. The team score wasn’t even close as the Stripes were led by Nathan Walker who finished 4th at 15:23.9. All 7 runners finished in the top 100 and 4 were in the top 20 as Conor Somers fired off an 8th place run of 16:01.5 Adam Ward’s16:23.0 placed 18th and Ben Paige came in less then a second later to capture 20th at 16:23.9. Mikko Vesma ran a 16:40.3 (36th), Joshua Zerfas posted 16:47.0 (43rd) and Colton Best finished at 17:18.7 (100th). And with the exception of senior Vesma all of the Packer runners who competed Saturday look to be returning to competition next season. And hopefully returning to the podium once again in Brooklyn. In the D2 Girls Division Packer Taylor Mater-Gerth ran a 18:57.2 to place 22nd among the 247 runner field. The sophomore’s appearance at State capped off a successful season that included first place finishes at Hill and Bale, the Ludington Invitational, and the Grant Jamboree. In D4 Girls as expected WMC premier runner Abby VanderKooi blew the field away coming in at 18:11.0 to finish by over a minute ten in front of her closest competition. Red Devil Lily Crowell sped to a 22:18.1 time (108th) and White Cloud’s Naomi Thompson came in at 23:25.4.(166th). 238 runners competed in the D4 girls division In the D4 Boys Division Reginald Richmond of White Cloud fired off a 17:03.3 to capture 15th place while Holton’s Graham Resterhouse clocked 18:38.5 (130th). 252 runners participated. Season ends for Lions Tigers; ‘Hawks, ‘Yotes, Hornets eliminated while Eagles live on to play #11
Montague 55 Newaygo 7 Oakridge 28 Grant 7 Kent City 14 Northpointe Christian 8 Hemlock 34 Morley Stanwood 20 Portland 35 Central Montcalm 0 Kingsley 49 Reed City 36 Fowler 46 Oakland Christian 6 The Panthers dropped a tough match Wednesday night against the visiting league champion Mohawks, ending their season 8-2 in the CSAA, and a 2nd place finish. The scores were 12-25, 18-25, 15-25. The Panther offense was led by Rachel Romero with 8 kills, Emily Bayle with 5 kills, Brooke Billings and Isabelle Rumsey each had 3 kills. Kyra Sayer had 15 assists. Rumsey and Bayle served 3 and 2 aces respectively. Sierra Cechura led with 8 digs defensively, Bayle and Romero each had 7 digs, and Delaney Yates had 5. While disappointed with not earning a share of the CSAA title the Panthers now set their sights are set on repeating as District Champions at Hart next Monday. The ladies get their final district preparation when they travel to Central Montcalm on Saturday. WMC plays Saturday for state title
The magical run by the WMC Warriors has delivered the team to the State Finals for the first time since 2011 and given them a shot at their 6th outright state title (shared title in 1988). “These boys have really come together to do something we haven’t been able to accomplish in a long time,” said Coach David Hulings. “I could not be prouder of this team.” The team will face second ranked University Liggett out of Grosse Pointe Woods Saturday in Novi, a 3pm matchup between two of the top ranked teams in D4. On their way to the coveted title game the #4 Warriors have defeated 3 out of the top 5 teams as #1 Calvin Christian, #3 North Muskegon and #5 Dansville each were eliminated by the surging Warrior squad. Saturday their eyes will be on adding #2 to that list. We asked senior Brevin Byrne of Fremont if he could give us some insight into the semifinal win and maybe riff a bit about his final season and playing on this title- contending squad. It was a great game against Dansville, despite the poor weather. They came out strong in the first half and we were able to weather the storm and keep it 0-0 until half time. Coming out of halftime we really controlled the game with a possession style of play building up through the middle of the field. Players such as Nick Moser, Charlie Alfree, and Isaac VanHoeven had excellent combination play to break down their back line. Finally around 20 minutes left Ashton Leffring won a ball off a throw in and slotted it back from the end line to me about 12 yards out in front of the goal and I finished it with my right foot off the post and in. A few minutes later Micharl Masumpa finished the game off with our second goal of the night. This season has really been a blessing for all of our team. We are probably not the most talented team to come through WMC in recent years but we simply enjoy it. Everyday we love to go to practice and hangout with our friends. We struggled a little early in the season but a team bonding trip to a Hope College men’s soccer game really brought us together and we decided we really didn’t want our season to end early. I think a big thing for us was that we celebrated like crazy after every game truly appreciating every win because you never know when it’s going to be your last. For me this season has been extra special as my grandfather, Bill Byrne passed away this September after a long battle with heart issues. He was at every single game we had, cheering and giving high fives to any player that would give him one. I just am glad we can do this to honor him. This season we played Lenawee Christian and I scored two goals and had the assist for us to win 3-2 against a top ranked team and he was so proud and that was one of the last games he was able to see. I just think it’s special that I’ve been able to get 2 goals in the last two games. I love every kid on the team and wouldn’t change anything for the world.” Thanks Brevin. Go Warriors! |
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