Colts' relay team and Reading's Morris win titles at D-4 Track and Field championships

[caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The state champion 3200 relay team from Hillsdale Academy. Fron left to right, Joel Calvert, Ethan Smith, Ethan Gerhke and Tom Lundberg."][/caption]

By James Gensterblum / Hillsdale Daily News Correspondent

At the MHSAA Division 4 Track and Field State Finals, a meet where nothing is certain, the Potterville Vikings’ 3200 meter relay team had to be considered a sure bet to win.

The Vikings were bringing back all four runners from a dominant state title-winning team last season, including the top two 800 runners in the state, Larry Julson and Colin Ward. They had already gone seven seconds faster than their best time last season, and 11 seconds faster than any other team in Division 4 all season. The only question seemed to be whether or not they would break the state record during their inevitable victory.

However, in one of the biggest upsets in state meet history, Hillsdale Academy senior Tom Lundberg out-kicked Julson to the line to secure the Colts’ first title in school history and shock the seemingly invincible Vikings.

“It’s incredible to be a part of from a coach’s perspective,” said Hillsdale Academy coach Mike Roberts. “To have everything come together and have all four runners do exactly what they needed to do to pull off the victory is something that’s hard to achieve, and somehow this group did it. We’re all very proud of them.”

The team of Ethan Smith, Joel Calvert, Ethan Gerhke, and Lundberg finished in 8:03.94, two seconds off the state meet record of 8:01 but 15 seconds faster than their previous best.

“We’ve had so many second place finishes here, so we know how hard it is to get a victory at the state meet,” Roberts said. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment and to beat a team as good as Potterville to get it makes it even sweeter.”

The area’s other state champion, Trent Morris of Reading in the pole vault, seemed just as unlikely to be on the podium a couple of weeks ago.

After finishing fourth at the state meet a year ago, Morris had struggled the entire season, vaulting just 12-6 heading into last Tuesday’s Area Best meet. There, however, the Ranger vaulter finally put it together, clearing 14-0 for the first time in his career.

Morris carried that momentum over to the state meet, where he easily cleared the 14-foot bar on his first attempt to sew up a state title.

“This year was frustrating,” Morris said. “It seemed like no matter how much I worked at it, I couldn’t get any progress. But I’ve learned during my years here that if you just keep plugging away, it’ll come eventually. I’m so glad that it happened at the right time for me to do something here.”

With his victory, Morris became the third pole vault champion in four years from the area, joining Matt Magda of Jonesville and Greg Burns of Litchfield.

“I can’t think of the words to describe being in that group,” Morris said. “Honor isn’t right because it’s beyond that. They’re amazing vaulters and it’s just crazy to think that I’m a part of that legacy.”

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Ranger girls win MITCA state championship

[caption id="attachment_636" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="The Ranger girls celebrate the school's third MITCA track and field title."][/caption]

By James Gensterblum / Special to the Hillsdale Daily News

Despite an extremely successful season last year, the Reading Rangers’ Girls Track team still had some unfinished business heading into this season.

An agonizing one-point loss to Potterville in the 2008 MITCA Team State Meet proved a bitter pill for the Rangers to swallow. That loss, however, made the results of this year’s Team State Championship even sweeter for Reading.

This time, the Rangers outdistanced nine of the state’s best Division 4 track teams to claim the title by a 36-point margin.

“Last year was really a tough way to lose, being that close to a state title and falling just short,” said Reading coach Deb Price. “We brought a lot of our team back this year and I think that last year’s disappointment brought out the best in all of them. They all turned in stellar performances.”

The Rangers put up 967 points in the meet, which scores every finisher in every event rather than the top six or eight as in most meets, and put up several memorable performances.

Senior Brooke Schmucker won the shot put (37-1) and took second in the discus (102-9), while fellow thrower Jami Newell took third in the discus (102-1). Alex Mailahn (9-6) and Nicole Marsh (9-0) went one-two in the pole vault, and Jessica Fink took fourth in the long jump (15-1) in the field for the Rangers.

On the track the Rangers were just as impressive. Reading had three sprinters in the top 8 in the 100 dash, led by Kim Davis’ fourth (13.6). Marsh took second in the 100 hurdles (17.7) and third in the 300 hurdles (49.6), while Shawna Smith won the 300 (46.9).

Junior Tessa Pridgeon gave the Rangers a fourth champion on the day in the 400 (1:01) and also took fourth in the 200 (28.1). Reading’s relays were also a strong point, taking second in the 400 (52.4) and third in the 800 (1:52.1).

Reading capped the meet by decisively winning the 1600 relay and clinching their victory. The team of Brittany Couch, Fink, Davis, and Pridgeon ran a 4:17 and won by two seconds.

Although Reading’s stars shone, it was their depth that secured the championship. The Rangers showed few weaknesses on the track as unheralded freshmen and sophomores scored crucial points in nearly every event.

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Top-notch talent: The 2009 Jennifer Beach Memorial Scholarship winners

One way to honor a lost loved one is to continue their legacy through other people and that’s exactly what Gary and Mary Beach continue to do.

The Hillsdale County couple lost their daughter Jennifer in a car accident when she was a high school student at North Adams-Jerome. Jennifer had a passion for life, especially athletics and in her honor the Beach family presents a pair of college scholarships each year to two of the county’s finest student-athletes.

All applicants were required to have lettered in at least two varsity sports, carried at least a 3.5 GPA and were asked to submit an essay about their life goals.

A panel of community members who are part of the county’s high school athletic scene select the winners, and the recipients will be given plaques from the HDN at tonight’s Area Best Track Meet at Hillsdale College.

This year’s winners are Connaught Blood of Hillsdale Academy and Steven Smith of Reading.

Here is look at what makes each of these individuals so special.

Connaught Blood
In five short years Blood moved from Alaska to Hillsdale with her family, took on the challenge of embracing a new school and community, and ultimately became a stepping stone for the Hillsdale Academy girl’s sports program.

Connaught and her father Charles helped transform the Academy girls golf program, as they reached their first-ever state finals as a team, Blood became the first Colts basketball player to score 1,000-plus points in her career and she was also a member of the 2006 state championship track team as a freshman.

[caption id="attachment_630" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hillsdale Academy senior Connaught Blood was successful at anything she touched in high school, in part because of her sheer determination. "][/caption]

That’s not all though.

Blood is one of the most intense competitors you will ever see at the high school level, but not in a cut-throat sort of way, rather in a 110 percent is still not enough effort kind of way.

She’s like that in the classroom and other facets of life as well, whether it be when she’s helping out at her church, cleaning up lawns in the heart of Appalachia, or even just talking about why she loves the NBA so much.

Those reasons, combined with a 3.74 GPA and score of 33 on the ACT made her a natural choice as one of the Jennifer Beach Memorial Scholarship winners — even though she admits she was stunned when she heard the news.

“To me this is crazy, it’s such an honor....I’m just really honored and thankful they gave it to me,” she said. “But it’s been like the last four years of (Hillsdale Academy athletic director Mike) Roberts and my parents and my teams — it didn’t just all happen this year. My parents, friends, teammates and coaches have pushed me here my entire life and I think this award is a testament to them.”

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'Cats, Colts keep league title streaks alive

[caption id="attachment_613" align="alignleft" width="450" caption="The Hillsdale Academy girls track and field team capped off a perfect SCAA duel season with a winning performance at the league championship meet Tuesday."][/caption]

On an evening filled with youngsters turning heads and a high level of camaraderie among local kids, a pair of impressive championship streaks remained in tact.

The Hillsdale Academy girls track and field team won its fifth consecutive SCAA championship meet thanks in part to what head coach Mike Roberts calls “youthful enthusiasm” and Mike Burger’s Pittsford boy’s team won the SCAA championship meet for the sixth straight season, after finishing third in the SCAA D I in the duel meet season.

The Colts finished a stellar regular season with a 145.5-point effort, 37 points better than runner-up Battle Creek St. Phil and 46.5 points more than third-place Colon.

On the boys side, the Wildcats dominated the field events per usual and used quality depth to score 131 points. Runner-up Bellevue tallied 112 points and Hillsdale Academy came in third with 103.

For Robert’s girls, a league championship signifies their ability to overcome the loss of six key seniors form a year ago. Clara Leutheuser, Caitlyn Hubbard, Tera Woods and the Somerville sisters among others, were Colts of the past when the 2009 track season rolled around, and Roberts is pleased how well several different groups of girls gelled together.

"We had some youthful enthusiasm from the young group and just a lot of team depth and hard workers. We could spread our kids out pretty well this year,” he said. "We also had a blend of some experience that was around some of that success. There were some kids on (last year's) team with the great senior talent that got a taste of it and they were able to carry that part over, and they were our leaders."

For the Pittsford boys, the victory Tuesday was especially sweet because of how they faltered on several occasions during the duel meet season (3-2), only to come out on top when it mattered most.

[caption id="attachment_614" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Pittsford boys track and field team won its sixth straight SCAA league championship meet Tuesday."][/caption]

"I don't know if this team is as gifted on the track as some of the others I've had, but this team certainly sticks together well, they work hard everyday in practice and it's been amazing,” Burger said. “We were so focused tonight because we wanted it bad; sure a division title in the regular season would've been the frosting on the cake, but we think this meet is a true representative of our league and it was a goal and it was the biggest one."

Burger said it was a great feeling to be part of another championship squad, but without his predecessors such success might not even be possible.

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Nothing new: Rangers rock, roll to another regional crown

Winning is not just some worthless mantra for the Reading girls track team, it is a walk they walk and under Deb Price’s watch something that is becoming an expectation they continue to meet.


At Hillsdale College on Saturday the Ranger girls won their 11th regional title with Price in charge, by a 56-point margin over runner-up Hillsdale Academy, with great relay results and five individual regional champions leading the way.


The Rangers and Colts both qualified for the MITCA team state championships at Gobles High School next weekend, as did the Reading boys who finished second on Saturday — but it was Price's squad that stole the spotlight from beginning to end.


"Somebody asked me, 'How do you keep getting these girls?' and I really don't know, I just get talented girls and we've just been lucky to have a successful program here for the last 10 or 15 years. I don't know where they're all coming from — we joke and say it must be in the water here in Reading," Price said. "It's a lot fun. It's nice to have so many girls; I have a lot of sprinters who are not just average, but better than average so it's nice with those three sprint relays not to have to run the same girls in everything."

The relays were just one of the Rangers strong points, as they won the 400 meter and 800 meter relays, while taking third in the 1600.


From an individual standpoint, junior Tessa Pridegeon may have been the star of the meet, winning the 400 dash by shaving several seconds off her previous PR, and also taking home the title in the 200. She was also a member of the winning 800 relay team.


Brooke Schmucker stockpiled points for Reading in field events, winning the shot put and taking third in the discus and teammate AlexMailahn cleared 9-6 in the pole vault to win the event and qualify for the state meet, where Price said "she has a shot at doing some things."

Jamie Newell was the runner- up in the discus throw and Nicole Marsh was right behind Mailahn in the pole vault as the Rangers jumped out to a sizable lead from the get-go.

The final individual champion for the Rangers was Shawna Smith, who won the 300 hurdles, to go with a runner- up finish in the 100 dash. While the upperclassmen carried the team, Price said it was a talented group of youngsters that put her girls over the top.


"I knew we had a chance of doing well this year because we just had so much depth and we have the field events and a lot of others covered. We did lose Whitney (Thorpe) from last year which was huge, but I don't know — we've had some (underclassmen) come in, with Kelsey Duryea doing a nice job in the distance, and little Brittany Couch who has done an awesome job for us," she said. "I think the big thing is we have the depth, so in some events we were able to take two or three places which scores a lot of points."

The Hillsdale Academy girls beat out third place Athens by 9.5 points, despite having just one individual winner.


That winner was sophomore Heather Lantis in the discus.


The Colts were also strong in relays, as Mike Robert's girls won the 1600 and 3200 relays, while taking second in the 400.


Elyse Lisznyai took third in both the one and two mile runs for the Academy.

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Spartans survive an instant classic with Colts, march on to district finals

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on March 5, 2009

The Hillsdale Academy Colts stole away the SCAA East title from Waldron several weeks ago, but on Wednesday the Spartans put a dagger in their foes' season in euphoric fashion — but only after one last fateful bounce was overcome by the school that hasn't won a girl's basketball district crown since 1973.

Both teams turned the ball over 23 times and the Colts (15-6 overall) had a slight 45-42 edge on the boards, but a timely 3-pointer by a Waldron senior not known for her outside shot propelled the Spartans to a 59-57 overtime win in the district semifinals at Litchfield.

In the final game of her decorated career Colts senior guard Connaught Blood hit an off-balance 3-pointer with no time remaining on the clock in regulation to send the game to overtime, but Spartans senior star Ashley Jagielski buried the Academy with a long-range bomb of her own with 22 seconds left in overtime.

It may have been an unexpected finish to an unforgettable classic, but Jagielski's range was something Waldron head coach Jeff Knowlan knew might come in handy down the stretch this season.

"She wasn't shooting 3-pointers until a few weeks ago and I told her she needed to shoot some jump-shots because (defenders are) sagging one you and don't want you drive," he said. "So I've been really harping on her in practice to shoot them and she would tell me, 'I can't make them' and I'd tell her you can't make them if you don't shoot them and I'm glad she shot that one."

That shot erased Jagielski's nine turnovers and countless lay-ups that she and her teammates missed throughout the evening as they failed to put the Colts away. As Knowlan said, his girl's panicked with the lead several times, but he assured them they could pull it out with relentless defense and good shot selection.

"It feels great. Did you see the girl's faces?" he said. "I've been telling them in practice all week that it's just effort, I know we had some injuries and were hurt and my daughter had to come out (tonight) and have her ankled taped over here  in the middle of the third quarter...it was just effort and hustle and making good shots."

The Spartans (18-4) hit a host of clutch free-throws down the stretch and Abbe Wines finished with 21 points and 19 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end. Jagielski put in 13 points to go with seven assists, 12 boards and four steals and MacKenzie Price added eight points.

The Colts had to rely more than ever on Blood, when sophomore forward Heather Lantis went out for several minutes in the second quarter and had to play the rest of the game with a taped up hand, but Blood and her youthful teammates gave it everything they had.

"We fought valiantly. When you lose your second best player and she's immobile and hanging tough and yet we were on the edge and just couldn't make it happen....I'm very proud and I'm sad this season is ending because I've enjoyed them so much and for what this young has accomplished, it's been amazing," Colts head coach Jeff Hubbard said.

Blood finished with a game-high 31 points, including the game-tying 3-pointer which ricocheted off the far side of the rim and in with triple-zeros showing. Along side her were two freshmen and three sophomores playing major minutes, something Knowlan said factored into the end result because they struggled to hit shots in the second half.

Blood finishes her career as the Colts all-time leading scorer and with her guidance Academy teams have gone 76-14 over the past four years.

Hubbard said he doesn't even want to think about life after Blood — at least not right now.

"A few weeks ago, I always go in before the game and write the starters on the board and I wrote her name down and I realized it was one of the last times I would get to do that — and I panicked," he said. "She's helped turn our program around and make us a recognizable program in the area and the state. I won't even know what to do at the start of practice next year without her, but she's got a bright future ahead of her."

Although Lantis scored just one more basket after being injured, she tallied 17 rebounds to go with her four points and Meg Ryan scored nine points, all on 3-pointers. Emily Pewe pitched in three points and 10 rebounds.

Hubbard said the future is brighter than ever with this group of girls and he's already excited to start next season and see where the 2009 SCAA East champions can go.

As for Knowlan, he's concerned about Friday's district finals bout with Camden-Frontier, a team they split with in the regular season. One thing he's certain of, thanks to what he saw Wednesday, is his team's ability to handle pressure.

Knowlan said his girls easily could have froze up after Blood's tying 3-pointer, but his leaders took charge.

"We could've folded, but the girls came over here and I heard Ashley, Kelsey and Abbe, our three captains tell the team we could do these, even before I said a word and I was so happy they all hung together," he said.

"That's huge, because we're 18-4 now and we haven't won a district game in I don't know how many years and I'm proud of what they've done."

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Pittsford Wildcats: SCAA East Champs

[caption id="attachment_204" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Garet Lee was good for 20 points and nine boards as Pittsford wrapped up an SCAA East Division championship with a win over Hillsdale Academy Tuesday. Photo by Nick Sarles."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 25

Thanks to an immovable object inside, plenty of shooting stars on the outside and a head coach who truly understands the game the Pittsford Wildcats are SCAA East Division champs.

Winning the first 16 games of a 20-game season will lead to those types of achievements and a strong third-quarter carried the Wildcats past league foe Hillsdale Academy 65-43 Tuesday, their 12th win in as many tries against opposing SCAA East squads.

Wildcat head coach Mike Burger said it is a title that every single one of his players deserves fully.

"They buy in to what we do and what we want to do, they work hard everyday. Those kids come to practice and just give a lot of great effort and great heart and it really is about the kids," he said. "I've had success coaching before and it's not about me, it has nothing to do with me. This is the first league title of hopefully many more but you never know and you treasure the experience and the relationship with the kids and for me that's what it's all about."

Tuesday they were able to overcome an aggressive offensive effort out of Colts senior forward Thomas Lundberg, who netted 18 points, and the return of the Academy's leading scorer, sophomore Peter Sullivan, who had been out for more than a month with a serious injury to his right knee.

Getting the job done offensively for Pittsford was junior Garet Lee who put in 20 points to go along with nine boards and six other Wildcats scored at least six points.

According to Colts head coach Max Miller, the sheer number of different weapons is what made Pittsford so difficult to hang with.

"They've got a lot of shooters and they move well. Garet Lee is tough to stop one-on-one and if you help out they have guys who can make a shot," Miller said. (Wes Smith) came in and hit a couple of threes and I didn't even know he could shoot."

Zach Vanlerberg scored nine points, including two triples and Seth Weber knocked down two 3-pointers en rout to eight points. Cody Krasny also scored eight, Brandon Williams poured in seven, to go with three blocks, and Corey Gamble and Smith both scored six.

Burger said he's always preaching about how guys don't have to score a ton of points to be a big time contributors and Tuesday night was a fine example.

"We have a lot of good guys who can shoot and if you're not on you can pass and there are other ways to contribute," Burger said. "It's not always scoring points — it's about making that pass, getting that rebound, making that stop."

And making the necessary stops they did indeed, especially in the third quarter.

A pair of Lundberg 3-pointers to go with a triple from Patrick Sullivan had the Colts down just five at the half, but the feel-good effort didn't last long.

The Wildcats forced a few timely turnovers with its full-court pressure, Smith came into knock down a pair from beyond the arc, and less than six minutes later it was a 47-33 Pittsford lead.

Miller said he was proud of how hard his boys fought in the first half and hopes that a healthy Peter Sullivan can help them put it all together by the time district play rolls around.

Sullivan scored eight points in his first game back, Zach Lefere pitched in with seven and Patrick Sullivan scored five.

During Pittsford's second-half surge the Wildcats imposed their physical nature, while the Colts seemed to shy away from contact at times. Burger said it's all part of his gameplan every time out.
"We really try to emphasize physical play obviously and we lift weights in basketball and we try to help out all our sports here in Pittsford. I think it helps for all of our programs to do weight lifting and get after it," Burger said.

In his team's quest for a 20-0 regular season Pittsford plays at Tekonsha Friday before finishing up with three games next week.

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Friday night Hillsdale County hoops roundup: Colts girls coast, Comet boys hold off Union City

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 21, 2009

Colts girls take down Terriers, prepare for pivotal battle with Waldron

The Hillsdale Academy girl’s basketball team didn’t get caught looking ahead as they took down Litchfield 57-39 Friday night.

Now tonight, less than 24 hours later the Colts who are 9-1 in the SCAA host Waldron, the only team who is unblemished in league play.

But first the Colts jumped out to a 33-18 halftime lead on the Terriers to take care of business.

Connaught Blood scored a game-high 24 points, including 12 in the first four minutes of the second half. Shena Albaugh added 11 points and Emily Pewe scored four and added 14 boards.

Laura Thomas led Litchfield with 12 points.

At 7:30 p.m. tonight the Spartans will invade the Academy.

The last time the two teams met Waldron prevailed 40-39 with the Colts failing to get up a last second shot.

Academy coach Jeff Hubbard said he’s telling his girls they are underdogs Saturday, but have a great shot.

“Waldron always seems to find ways to win and we’re kind of underdogs and we’re just going in knowing we have a chance, he said. “It’s hard to tell the girls not to over-emphasize this one though, because we’ve been working on stuff all week.”

Waldron is trying to wrap up its first league title since 1973 and the Academy is clinging to hopes of its first SCAA title ever.
Comet boys now within one game of .500

With three games remaining in the regular season the Jonesville Comets still have a shot at posting a winning record.

The Comets allowed Union City to score 17 points in the second quarter Friday, but only 16 the entire rest of the game in a 39-33 Big Eight home win.

Logan Jenkins put up six points, nine rebounds and five blocks and Mitch Miller tallied 12 points and four assists for the Comets.

Jonesville is now 8-9 overall and 5-6 in Big Eight play.

AcMoody led Union City with 11 points and Mitchell Inman scored eight.

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Three predictions to count on regarding Hillsdale County sports

[caption id="attachment_177" align="alignright" width="213" caption="I will go all in and tell you right now that the Charger men will finally win a GLIAC Tournament game this season. Photo courtesy of Hillsdale College."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

A column that was published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 19, 2009

I sometimes like to pretend I know more than I really do.

I don't think I'm alone in this and in fact I think it is somewhat a requirement of this profession.

Remember just last year when Sports Illustrated anointed the Detroit Tigers World Series champs, only to see them finish dead-last in the Central behind even The Boys in Blue from Kansas City?

Sports are so polarizing because you can analyze numbers and splits until you are indigo in the face, a shade past blue, and sit right behind a team's bench all season long and still be left feeling like a complete idiot when all of your so-called "expertise" turns in what I like to I call "expertless".

That said, sometimes I can still count on certain energies and trends to help me make a reasonable prediction of how something might play out and right now there are three things regarding local sports that I'd bet tomorrow's lunch on, but probably not my Gordie Howe autographed puck.

I've talked to area coaches enough to know their collective opinions and seen enough with my own eyes to tell you this is exactly how several athletic scenarios are going to play out in the next few weeks. And I'll even take you out to lunch if I'm wrong — but only if you can prove that you have never been wrong with an educated prediction in your entire life.

Without further adieu:

The Waldron Spartans girls basketball team will win the SCAA East
The Spartans hold a one-game edge on Hillsdale Academy and the Colts host Waldron in a make-or-break contest Saturday. I know Waldron still has to go to Camden-Frontier and the Colts have only Litchfield and Burr Oak left, but two things give me confidence in the pick — experience and depth. I can't deny that Colts' senior Connaught Blood has a competitive drive and will to win that compares with anyone in the county, but sometimes it is easy to put too much pressure on yourself whenever you have youthful teammates who are fragile at times. Waldron has seniors like Abbe Wines, Ashley Jagielski and Courtney Whitehead among others to rely on and even when their shots aren't falling they know how to keep their heads up and make the necessary plays in other ways. As far as depth goes, the Spartans can go 10 deep no problem, with little to no fall off, while the Colts bench is mainly freshmen and sophomores, who are impressive in their own right, but not quite at the level of some of the Academy starters. It also doesn't help that Laura Wonders is still hobbled by a foot injury and is day-to-day and key players Heather Lantis and Emily Pewe have been battling sicknesses down the stretch of the season. Even if the Spartans falter at Camden-Frontier I feel they have the necessary components to bounce back and bring home their first league title since 1974.

The Pittsford Wildcats boys basketball team will finish the regular season a perfect 20-0
Just take a look at what they've done so far and what they've got left and I think most of you will agree with this statement. They passed a major road test last week at Jackson Christian and have already taken down Waldron twice this year. Four of their final six games are at home and Tekonsha and Battle Creek St. Phil are road games that should be competitive, but close wins if the Wildcats continue to play how they have all season. The only thing that could possibly get in their way is the fact they have three games the final week of the season, with back-to-back home contests against North Adams-Jerome and Hudson to close out the year. They need to build a sizable lead against the Rams on March 5 so they can rest their top players for their battle with the Tigers, who aren't the strongest team this year, but can be dangerous when they get on one of their runs and build confidence.

The Hillsdale College men's basketball team will win at least one game in the GLIAC tournament
The Charger program turned a corner with its win over Grand Valley State a few weeks ago and Tony Gugino is finishing out his senior year strong. The team could easily lose a game when they travel to the U.P. this weekend for bouts with Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech, but I'd be surprised if Hillsdale didn't win three of its final four contests. If that holds true it should put them in position to host a first-round conference tourney game, probably against Ferris State. They beat the Bulldogs twice this season and although the two teams are extremely similar, I think Hillsdale has improved more over the last month than Ferris has from talking to league insiders. It would be exciting to see the men's program take the next step and I'm betting on it coming true.

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Spartan girls soaring to new heights

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignright" width="174" caption="Abbe Wines tallied six points and 12 rebounds in the Spartans one-point win Thursday. Photo by Nick Sarles, Daily News."][/caption]

By RJ Walters / Daily News Sports Editor

As published in the Hillsdale Daily News on Feb. 13, 2009

The championship charge is now in full force in Waldron, while Hillsdale Academy faces an uphill battle in their quest for an SCAA East title.

The Spartans (14-1 overall, 9-0 SCAA) took a big step toward its first league championship in girl’s hoops since 1974, as they hung on for a 40-39 home victory over a young, battered Colts (10-5, 8-1) team who has now lost three straight games.

It was an ugly contest at times, with 55 turnovers in all, but both team’s desire to win and competitive fire burned deep for 32 minutes, leaving both coaches exhausted, but one a bit more excited than the other.

“I have pointed over at the banner on the wall a few times this season because this group knows we can do some special things and tonight was a good win for us,” Waldron head coach Jeff Knowlan said. “We’ve been working all week on things and had a great week of practice and I knew they’d be ready to play tonight and they played really well.”

Offensively Ashley Jagielski put in a game-high 13 points for the Spartans, but it was forward Courtney Whitehead who used her strength to score 11, which was the biggest surprise, and defensively the mission was to slow down Colts’ star Connaught Blood and they nearly stopped her altogether.

In the first half it was Jagielski, who finished with eight boards, six steals and four assists, coming up with timely steals and driving the ball to the basket that kept the Spartans ahead and in the second half it was Whitehead’s time. She came up with several clutch offensive rebounds and hit several off-balance shots inside to keep the Colts at bay.

Both coaches were equally impressed.

“Courtney played great. I’ve been stressing things to her and harping on her all year about how physical she can be inside and she really played well tonight and I was happy with her,” Knowlan said.

Hubbard said he expected good outings from the likes of Jagielski and Wines, but was surprised with Whitehead’s performance.

“Hats off to Waldron. I thought Courtney Whitehead had a tremendous ballgame tonight and that was one thing that we just hadn’t counted on from her or seen from her,” he said. “She made some great moves that even left me shaking my head asking where that came from.”

Meanwhile Jagielski, Mackenzie Price and Kelsey Knowlan, among others, continually trapped Blood, forcing her to give up the ball and work extremely hard for open looks.

It didn’t help that she picked up two fouls within the first nine minutes of the contest and despite several nice drives toward the basket in the second half she was held to just seven points.

“I think Connaught...we’re getting into those crunch games and I think she’s putting too much pressure on herself lately and that hurt us,” Hubbard said. “But what’s good is the younger kids, when Connaught gets in foul trouble, have kept us in the games when she’s not on the court.”

Youngsters like sophomore Shena Albaugh who scored nine points and freshmen Meg Ryan and Emily Pewe who put in six and five points respectively.

It was forward Heather Lantis, who looked at far less than 100 percent who was most impressive for the Academy, scoring nine points and pulling down 22 rebounds.

“It’s not an excuse, but we’re a banged up squad...you don’t know how many injuries and how sick Heather Lantis was...she was just amazing, because she probably shouldn’t even have been on the court tonight,” Hubbard said. “We’ve had so many big games in a row for a young team and it’s started to take its toll. But I am proud of the way we came back.”

The Colts fought back from a 7-point deficit in the final quarter and made a 38-32 margin 40-39 on a Lantis putback off a missed free-throw with 11.4 seconds left.

Following a Waldron timeout, the Colts put on their full-court press, but couldn’t come up with a steal and failed on at least three occasions to foul a Spartan player and time expired with Knowlan exhaling.

“I told the girls this is something you can learn from. When you’re up by 10 points with however much time left we had that’s when you have to take care of the basketball, get fouls and go make free throws,” he said. “If we learned from this maybe we won’t have one-point games like tonight.”

The Colts will have a chance to avenge this loss in just nine days when the two teams butt heads on their home court. A win could mean a possible tie atop the division, while a loss would more than likely pave the way for a league crown for the Spartans.

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