Emotions run high for Trojans
TRAVERSE CITY (June 1) — The district soccer game was all about emotion.
Not only was the match between rivals Traverse City Central and West, but the Trojans were coping with the death of fellow soccer player and junior Tucker Byl the day before.
The emotion boiled over after the game as several Trojan players burst into tears after their 3-0 win sealed a district final berth.
Byl's older brother, soccer forward Jeff Byl, addressed the girls team after the game and thanked them for honoring his brother by wearing orange bands on their left arms with personalized messages to Tucker written on them. Trojan fans at the game also had the armbands on, and Central coach Jamie Smith said the team will wear them the rest of the season if the referees will allow it.
Liberty advance to final
TRAVERSE CITY (June 1) — Kelley Ritsema scored three goals as the Traverse City Liberty defeated Mason County Eastern 8-0 in a Division 4 district soccer semifinals game at the Keystone Road complex.
The Liberty, a co-op team made up of players from TC St. Francis and TC Christian, advance to the district title game, where they will take on Big Rapids Crossroads Academy.
In addition to Ritsema's goals, Helene Dryden scored twice and Jamie Bott, Jessi Heger and Carissa Heersema added one goal apiece. Chelsea English contributed two assists and Wisdom Wyant was also a standout.
Megan Ritsema was the winning goalie for Traverse City (11-7).
The game was halted three minutes into the second half due to the mercy rule.
Cheboygan celebrates first girls soccer title
CHEBOYGAN (June 2) — Cheboygan players were eager to apply a Gatorade shower to coach Mark Stormzand, but there was nothing doing.
Stormzand trotted away as several players lifted the jug in his direction.
But you can't blame the players for trying.
The Chiefs topped host Suttons Bay 2-1 — scoring two goals in the final 13:08 — to came back and win the school's first-ever girls soccer Division 3 district soccer title while snapping a string of five straight district crowns by the Norse.
"It's huge for us," Stormzand said. "We didn't used to have travel teams at the lower levels, but we've got three now and this win will be big for them."
Area teams out in state finals
KALAMAZOO (June 2) — Brian Franck and Mike Miller reached the third round in No. 2 doubles to lead St. Francis in the Division 4 state tennis finals at Kalamazoo College.
Heading into the semifinals, Ann Arbor Greenhills holds a two-point lead over Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, 21-19. Flint Powers is third (180).
St. Francis finished with five points, Harbor Springs four and Elk Rapids two.
All area players have been eliminated.
TC West moves up at state golf final
EAST LANSING (June 3) — There was no staying put for Traverse City West.
The Titans improved their position by one spot , placing fourth at the Division 1 state golf final at the Forest Akers West course in East Lansing.
First-day leader Lake Orion won the crown with a 679.
Grand Blanc was second with a 700 followed by Rochester (706), TC West (720) and Brighton (723).
Titans knock off co-champs
TRAVERSE CITY (June 3) — Trailing by a run with two outs in the seventh inning, it might have looked bleak for the Traverse City West baseball team.
But this Shipman hadn't sailed yet.
Sam Shipman picked up both pitching victories — recording the maximum 30 outs — as the Titans rallied for a 5-4 victory over Alpena in the final of the Division 1 district tournament at TC Central. West (21-13) topped the host Trojans 2-1 in game one.
"I couldn't be any happier for these guys," TC West coach Randy Weber said. "The two teams we beat today had a share of the league title and we didn't win anything. Today we got to go home with something for the first time this year."
West advances to the regional at Flushing, when Shipman's arm might be back to normal.
Duerksen wins two state titles
GRAND RAPIDS (June 4) — Mancelona's Adam Duerksen swept the 110-meter high hurdles and 300 intermediate hurdles in the Division 4 state track finals at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern.
Duerksen won the 110 hurdles in 15.21 and the 300 in 39.39. St. Francis' Dan Maxbauer was fifth and Bellaire's Graham Burry sixth in the high hurdles.
The Frankfort girls had several top finishes. The Panthers won the 400 relay in a Division 4 state record time of 51.15. They were second in the 800 relay (1:49.22) and fourth in the 1600 relay (4:09.93). In addition, Britt Frantz was second in the 200. She was edged by Ubly's Jade Kaufman 25.44-25.56. Both times broke the previous Division 4 state record time of 25.63.
Bums cut Hayes loose
TRAVERSE CITY (June 5) — Jon Cahill couldn't wait any longer.
So LaFringe Hayes, hampered by a leg injury since training camp, is gone without ever playing a game at Wuerfel Park.
Hayes who was projected as the starting center fielder and lead-off hitter for the Traverse City Beach Bums this season, was released by the Frontier League baseball team.
Former Western Michigan University outfielder R.C. Dickerson, who was released during camp, was re-signed.
"LaFringe is a great kid. It was a very tough cut," said Bums manager Cahill. "He did everything he could to get better. Unfortunately, we just couldn't wait anymore.
"If everyone was healthy it might be a different story. But we're pretty banged up. We can't afford to have extra guys on the bench. We need somebody who can contribute now."
Taylor hits the record books
TRAVERSE CITY (June 6) — Baseball is all about numbers and Kingsley's hit king — senior Dan Taylor — put up some crazy ones this season.
Consider that his batting average this season was a state record .688 — 33 points higher than Coleman's Cody Allen hit in 2005.
Third on the list: Taylor's .639 as a sophomore.
And Kingsley's starting shortstop is a non-discriminating hitter.
"He gets hits off everybody," Kingsley coach Bruce Graves said.
In addition, Taylor's been doing it for a while. He tops the state list with a .554 career batting average.
Graves said Taylor's success at the plate is due to one thing. He went 53 for 77 despite missing five games with an injury.
One thing Taylor wasn't doing this season was following his average, which topped out at around .720 this season.
"I didn't know it until the end of the season," said Taylor, who will play at Grand Rapids Community College next year. "I told (Graves) not to tell me. There's more important stuff in life."
Four from area fall in regionals
HOLTON (June 6) — Laura Karsten scored three goals as Muskegon West Michigan Christian beat the Traverse City Liberty 4-1 in a Division 4 regional soccer game.
West Michigan Christian (18-3-1) will play North Muskegon for the championship. North Muskegon blanked Harbor Springs 6-0 in the opener.
The Liberty, playing with just two subs on the bench, stayed with Christian for most of the game. It was 2-1 at half.
"They're a very disciplined team," Liberty coach Bill Auxier said. "But I thought we played well, too. We had opportunities. We just couldn't find the net."
Helene Dryden scored the lone Liberty goal.
Hillary Baker also tallied for Christian, which peppered Liberty goalie Megan Ritsema with 26 shots.
West meets East in regional
TRAVERSE CITY (June 8) — One inning, one out, one strike.
That's the only thing that sent some teams on to the regional baseball tournaments. Conversely, it ended other team's seasons.
Traverse City West (21-15), which heads to the Division 1 regional at Flushing, was one of the area teams to pull out a thrilling district victory.
The Titans were down 4-3 to Alpena with two outs when Sam Shipman was able to beat out a double play attempt. Chad Braun followed with a deep drive to the gap in right center field that turned into a RBI double and a tie game.
Sophomore Grant Durga followed with a bloop RBI single over the third baseman's head to send the Titans into a baseball regional for the second time in school history.
TC West plays the second regional semifinal against Lapeer East (28-7).
Unbeaten, growing Outlaws to be looted
TRAVERSE CITY (June 9) — In local sports lore, 1997 is known simply as "the split." Traverse City's massive single school district was divvied up into two public schools, and some sports have been playing catchup ever since.
The same thing is happening on a smaller scale with lacrosse in Traverse City.
The fledgling program is growing by leaps and bounds — enough that the team will be splitting into as many as three clubs for next season.
The resulting teams — TC Central, TC West and possibly a TC St. Francis unified squad — will join Petoskey and up to three new teams in northern Michigan to give the region some improved competition.
TC West makes a little history
FLUSHING (June 10) — Traverse City West accomplished something that hasn't been done for 40 years.
The Titans won a Division 1 regional game, something a Traverse City team hasn't done since the 1960s, whether you call it Division 1 or Class A.
West slipped by Lapeer East 2-1 on the strength of Sam Shipman's eighth victory of the season before falling 4-1 to regional host Flushing in the championship game.
"This has been a great season," Titans coach Randy Weber said. "For the last two weeks, we picked it up a notch."
West finishes the season 22-14.
The Titans didn't commit a single error in two regional games.
East Jordan falls in regional final
KALKASKA (June 10) — East Jordan pulled off one big upset.
A second one on the same day proved a bit too tall a task.
The Red Devils (19-13) edged eighth-ranked Elk Rapids (26-5) in extra innings in the Division 3 regional baseball opener at Kalkaska. Junior Scott Hansen's sharp two-out single through the middle chased home freshman Billy Kraemer with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth, enabling East Jordan to post a 6-5 victory over the Elks and earn a berth in the regional championship game against Standish-Sterling.
In the finals, the Red Devils couldn't repeat the feat against a Panther team with one of the best 1-2 pitching combinations among Division 3 schools in the state. Standish-Sterling (21-10) prevailed 4-0 to advance to the quarterfinals at Cadillac.
More get the chance to hunt elk
GAYLORD (June 12) — State officials want to reduce the size of Michigan's wild elk herd, partly to prevent so many vehicle collisions with the large animals on Interstate Highway 75.
For the second straight year state officials will set up elk hunting quotas to allow more hunters to stalk high-density areas, including near I-75 in Otsego County and areas around Johannesburg and north of Hillman where car-elk collisions are a problem.
"It's designed to reduce the elk in those areas," said Brian Mastenbrook, wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Officials estimate there are between 900 and 1,200 elk in and outside the prime territory of the Pigeon River Country State Forest. Last year 181 elk were killed by hunters after 208 licenses were issued, and a January season was added this winter.
Mastenbrook said the coming season's proposed quota is 168 licenses without another January hunt, unless too few elk are taken. The Michigan Natural Resources Commission will decide next month.
Cairns, Ruthkowski lead
ACME (June 12) — It all came down to experience in the opening round of the 90th Michigan Open golf tournament.
Andy Ruthkowski is slowly but surely gaining some. Brian Cairns already has plenty.
Both sat atop the leaderboard after shooting 5-under-par 66s on The Wolverine course at Grand Traverse Resort.
Ruthkowski, a 24-year-old Muskegon native and ex-Michigan State golfer, has been competing on the Hooter's Tour since March. He has played in seven tournaments, making the cut three times.
The 43-year-old Cairns, from Highland Golf Center, won the Michigan PGA Championship in 2000. It was his last victory.
Petoskey's Garber makes history
ACME (June 14) — The Kid has suffered through some growing pains, but he's turning plenty of heads at the Michigan Open golf tournament for the maturing level of his game.
Petoskey amateur Joe Garber, who at 15 is believed to be the youngest participant in the Open since it began in 1916, shot a 5-over-par 77 on The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort and is tied for 42nd place entering the final round.
Garber is sitting at 6-over 221 for the tournament. He shot a first-round 75 on The Bear and a second-round 69 on The Wolverine.
Garber said he spent five months in Florida working on his game while keeping up with his school work at Petoskey High School, where he just completed his freshman year. He said he is at the point now, however, where he will have to make "some big sacrifices" in order to move closer to his goal of playing golf for a living.
"I'm about to give up basketball and soccer," he said. "That's tough. Hopefully, it will work out."
A first for Ruthkoski
ACME (June 15) — Ignorance was bliss for Andrew Ruthkoski.
The 24-year-old Muskegon golfer, who didn't realize he was in the lead until he reached the 18th green, two-putted for par on the final hole to edge Scott Hayes by one stroke and win the 90th Michigan Open on The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort.
Ruthkoski shot a 3-under 69 in the final round to finish at 12-under 275. He received a $10,000 check for the victory, his first as a professional.
"I always play to win, so to actually do it and get it done is a relief," said Ruthkoski, who played collegiately at Michigan State.
One stroke decides Haig at Elmbrook
TRAVERSE CITY (June 17) — Christy Jonkhoff has been eyeing The Haig trophy for the past four years, coming within a stroke of winning each time.
That changed when the former MSU varsity golfer, along with fellow team members Lindsey Jonkhoff, Christian Vozza and Bill Rankin posted a 17-under par score of 55 to claim first place at the fifth annual Haig classic hickory stick golf tournament. All are current or former collegiate players. Lindsey Jonkhoff plays for Bowling Green University, Bill Rankin plays for University of Michigan and Christian Vozza is a former University of Michigan golfer and Michigan Amateur champion.
A benefit for the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, The Haig was held at Elmbrook Golf Course. Unique among local tournaments, The Haig requires competitors to use classic hickory stick golf clubs and to dress in vintage attire. It is dedicated to the memory of golfing legend and Traverse City resident Walter Hagen.
Matuszak third time on all-state team
TRAVERSE CITY (June 22) — Three down, one to go.
Traverse City Central junior Natalie Matuszak found her name on the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association all-state team once again.
Matuszak, honorable mention as a freshman, was named Division 1 first-team all-state for the second straight season.
Matuszak averaged an 84.6 for the season. She capped the season in style, placing ninth at the Division 1 state championship after rounds of 80 and 81 at the Forest Akers West course on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Another area junior, TC West's Jordan Newhouse, was honorable mention all-state in Division 1.
Smaller fish a big concern for charters
ONEKAMA (June 23) — Capt. Denny Blue mulls the question a moment and does the math: six charter boats dock at Portage Lake in the Lake Michigan harbor town of Onekama.
Two hundred or more boats based on Portage Lake are rigged to catch sport fish, their owners bearing the hefty expense mainly to pursue chinook, also known as king salmon.
"You multiply what I've said about Onekama, and multiply starting all the way down at the south end of Lake Michigan, every one of those towns would be impacted significantly if the salmon fishing went belly-up," said Blue, a charter boat captain since 1984.
Charter captains like Blue pay a lot of attention to Lake Michigan and news about invasive species because they understand just how devastating a salmon collapse — like one that happened in recent years in Lake Huron — could be for the region's economy.
From Manistee to Petoskey, 86 charter boat operations are listed with the Michigan Charter Boat Association, according to the group's Web site.
The decline in chinook population in Lake Huron prompted an estimated 75 percent drop in fishing activity and cost 10 ports on that lake around $19 million per year in lost economic activity since 2004, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
TC Central tennis hands out awards
TRAVERSE CITY (June 23) — Doug Burke, Jack Milliken and Ben Watts were named team MVPs at the Traverse City Central tennis banquet.
Burke (27 wins) was the top singles player and Milliken and Watts (34 wins) the top doubles team for the co-Big North Conference Champions.
Other awards given were:
Scholar-Athlete: David Noble; Trojan: Jamie Olson; Most Improved: Milliken/Watts; Senior Leadership: Jeff Byl; Rookie of the Year: Harry Malone; Coaches Award: Burke.
Olson was honored for being on the varsity team for three years.
West, Frankfort share School of the Year
TRAVERSE CITY (June 24) — They both had impressive 2006-07 sports seasons.
One school won two state championships; the other won one state title and finished second in the state to a nationally-ranked team.
Both had a player named No. 1 in the state.
Both schools found success in nearly every sport.
In other words, it was a close call.
So after plenty of deliberation, the Traverse City Record-Eagle sports staff decided there's nothing wrong with sharing. For the first time, two schools — Division 1 Traverse City West and Division 4 Frankfort — are co-winners of the Record-Eagle's annual School of the Year award.
Weber drafted in 2nd
GAYLORD (June 24) — It isn't quite to No. 1 overall pick, but Will Weber will gladly take it.
The Gaylord High School defenseman was selected by the NHL draft's host team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the 53rd pick.
The NHL couldn't display his name on the giant draft board because no one thought he would be selected.
"It was a complete surprise," Weber said, shaking his head. "It's amazing."
Weber went from not even being on NHL Central Scouting's midseason list to being the No. 53 pick in just two months.
The left-handed shooting Weber had 18 goals and 38 points with a plus-22 rating this season, earning a spot on the Michigan Dream Team, the Record-Eagle Dream Team and a recent selection to Team Michigan.
Hebert 13th, Ziska 39th in tourney
SUNRIVER, Ore. (June 25) — Scott Hebert, head pro at Grand Traverse Resort, shot a 2-over 74 and finished in a tie for 13th place in the PGA National Professional Championship golf tournament at Sunriver Resort.
Hebert, a six-time Michigan Open champion, finished with a four-round 2-over 289 to finish eight strokes behind winner Chip Sullivan.
Ian Ziska of Manistee National also shot a 2-over 74 in the final round and finished in a tie for 39th at 7-over 294.
West Bloomfield's Bob Ackerman tied for 31st at 5-over 292.
Bums shake up roster, cut 3
TRAVERSE CITY (June 26) — The Traverse City Beach Bums have released popular pitcher Steve Shippey, a Frontier League all-star selection last summer, along with pitchers Buddy Klovstad and Dan Hawkins and catcher/third baseman Takeshi Yamamoto.
"They are classy, high-character guys who have been true professionals," said Jason Wuerfel, vice president/director of baseball operations. "Unfortunately, the results just weren't there.
"They gave it all they had, but this is a business. We had to make some moves."
The Bums were the first team in Frontier League history to bring back their entire starting rotation from the season before, but the staff hasn't performed as well as it did in 2006.
TC Central team qualifies for Series
TRAVERSE CITY (June 26) — Traverse City Central's 16-under baseball team qualified for the Baseball Players Association (BPA) World Series by winning the Hardball Classic.
Team Trojan, made up of select players from TC Central, beat the Livingston Storm 11-1 in the championship game as Jeff Styke tossed a complete game, striking out 10.
Team Trojan beat the Novi Heat 11-10 in the opening round and followed that up with a 5-2 triumph over the Livingston Storm.
Both early games were come-from-behind victories.
The BPA World Series will be held later this summer.
TC man sails to the top
TRAVERSE CITY (June 27) — To put it in layman's terms for those unfamiliar with sailing, Terry Hutchinson is in his version of the Super Bowl.
The former Traverse City resident is a big component in this year's America's Cup, the granddaddy of sailing competitions.
"He's ascended in the world of sailing to the top," said Ed Reynolds, president and co-owner of Quantum Sails, where Hutchinson worked for several years after college. "This is his life-long dream. The guy has been on a relentless pursuit for 25 years and has achieved it.
"The local sailing community is proud. He was out sailing with us on Wednesday and now he's Peyton Manning trying to win the Super Bowl."
Manning won his Super Bowl this year, and the 37-year-old Hutchinson is chasing sailing's version of the holy grail.
Campaign to focus on Thirlby
TRAVERSE CITY (June 29) — A new citizens group is rallying behind efforts to refurbish Thirlby Field and make it a more attractive, year-round venue.
Fourth and Goal for Thirlby Field wants to raise $1.2 million for upgrades like restrooms, lockerrooms and other amenities at the stadium that Traverse City Area Public Schools and Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools use for athletic contests.
The campaign will pick up where Between the Fences — the last push to upgrade Thirlby Field — left off, said Tim Brick, vice president of the Fourth and Goal executive board.
"It's a wonderful place," Brick said about the facility located off 13th Street. "But it's like having a tuxedo without having a cumberbund. It needs to be completed."
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