Top 10 Sports Stories of 2023: No. 1 -- 9 local teams win state championships

Dec. 31—TRAVERSE CITY — State champions, all around.

Northern Michigan boasted at least two state champions in each 2023 season.

First, it started with the winter season, with Glen Lake capturing the girls basketball state crown for the first time in 45 years.

Ruby Hogan scored 19 points and Maddie Bradford 28 to lead Glen Lake to a 60-43 win over Baraga in the Division 4 girls basketball state championship game at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University.

"It feels like not even real right now that we get to make that history," Lakers senior guard Gemma Lerchen said. "It's amazing. We're going to have our names up in that gym forever. That means a lot."

The Lakers bring home the school's first team state championship since winning the 2004 Class B-C-D boys skiing crown and the first girls team state title since skiing won in 1998 and 1999.

Hogan and Bradford each earned first-team all-state for their efforts, with Hogan named the Associated Press' Player of the Year in Division 4. Glen Lake fell in the semifinals the previous season.

"It still hasn't really hit me that we just won the state championship," Glen Lake senior Olivia Mikowski said. "Last year, it was heartbreaking to lose in that game. We wanted that really bad. So to be able to come back and do it this year is just so cool. It's amazing."

Earlier in the winter, northern Michigan did what it usually does — win skiing state championships.

Traverse City West won dual state championships for the first time, eking out victories in both boys and girls by slim margins over Traverse City Central in Monday's Division 1 state Alpine skiing championships at Schuss Mountain in Bellaire.

TC West becomes just the sixth school to win boys and girls skiing state titles in the same year, joining TC Central, Petoskey, Cadillac, Harbor Springs and Marquette. Only Central, West and Marquette did that at the Division 1 (or Class A, previously) level.

Four trophies were handed out at the D1 finals — two champions and two runners-up. All went back to Traverse City, with TC Central taking second in each.

"It's exciting just for Traverse City, in general, to see first and second place from both sides," said West head coach Ed Johnson, who now has six state championships, three each for boys and girls. "Obviously, we love to win, but it's really cool to see how many trophies we took home to Traverse City today. It speaks highly of the programs that are going on there right now and the junior programs and the up-and-comers."

Petoskey's boys won the program's fourth consecutive Division 2 crown.

"I've been working toward this for my entire life," senior Nolan Walkerdine said on being a state champion. He also won the slalom title.

When spring came around, three more area teams won state titles — Gaylord softball, Buckley girls track and Benzie Central boys track.

Gaylord (39-2) beat Vicksburg 8-3 to give the school its first state championship in any sport since 2007.

The Blue Devils also set a new state record by combining for 72 home runs over the course of the season.

"After regionals, I was 100 percent confident that we were going to win this," said junior Jayden Jones, a Virginia Tech signee who missed the postseason with a broken wrist. "I don't know what it was, but I just had a really good feeling that this was our year."

Junior center fielder Braleigh Miller, a Ferris State commit along with Kozlowski and sisters Addison and Kennedy Wangler, was 4-for-4 in the game with two stolen bases and two runs scored from the leadoff spot.

"Braleigh really is a spark plug for the whole team," Blue Devils first-year head coach Tony Vaden said. "When she gets on, everybody feeds off that energy. Just a real kinetic kid. Great game for her today."

Eight of those Blue Devils played for the Gaylord U10 Little League team that won a 2016 state title.

Buckley junior Aiden Harrand not only attained personal glory by winning three individual championships at the Division 4 state finals at Baldwin Middle School, but she helped anchor the Bears to win the program's first-ever team state championship as well.

"It means the world to me," Harrand said. "It was absolutely amazing. It is something our school has never done before, out of any sport. No team has won a state title before, and to say that I got to contribute to that with my girls was just incredible. I loved it. I loved every second of it."

The Bears collected 52 points to get by runner-up Portland St. Patrick, which scored 49. Inland Lakes was third with 38.

Harrand took first in the 800m at 2:17.08, the 1600m at 4:56.54 and the 3200m at 11:19.9, capping off an incredible season that saw her win 34 championships across individual and relay races. In individual competition, Harrand finished first in all 25 races she entered.

Benzie Central's boys track team was jockeying between first and third place throughout most of the finals before getting to the 3200m and a spot where they could secure the championship.

Benzie head coach Asa Kelly said sophomore Pol Molins was "whipped" coming off the 800m and not sure if he could compete in the 3200m. Kelly did the math and knew two things — that senior Hunter Jones was going to win the 3200 and that Molins needed to score for the Huskies to have a shot at the title.

"It's stressful, man. It is a stressful day," Kelly said. "When the heat starts hitting 90 and you're relying on distance kids for the most part to score the points, it was a meat grinder out there for those kids to keep coming back to the track."

Molins was in ninth place with about 500 meters to go and then got into eighth before passing three other runners in the final lap to take fifth place as Jones took first to help lock down the Huskies' state crown.

"I'm just so proud of him today," Jones said of Molins, his teammate and running mate. "He did not want to run that 2-mile, and I felt the same way my sophomore year. You don't get a lot of rest after that 800. I told him the first mile is going to be hard, but you just have to push through that last lap and you'll be all right. I was so proud of him. Really, really proud."

Benzie ended up winning its title with 51 points, besting second-place finisher Pewamo-Westphalia's 44 and third-place Hart's 38.

In the fall, the titles kept coming.

Traverse City St. Francis claimed the boys cross country crown, winning its first state championship by a relatively wide margin, scoring 113 points to runner-up St. Louis' 175.

"I'm excited that we won," St. Francis senior Tucker Krumm said. "It's a great way to go out. Four years of racing here, it was always the goal to get a trophy."

Junior Leo Swager was the top Gladiator finisher, running a 16:03.3 to finish 12th and earn all-state honors.

Because of their close finishes to one another, the St. Francis crew was referred to as the #GladPack on social media after the state championship win.

"They were like a moving machine together," TCSF coach Julie Duffing said. "When they came through the mile-and-a-half mark, we knew. They were all where they needed to be, and they were all moving forward. They were doing their thing."

Then coup de grace came in November, with Kingsley closing out a terrific with a 38-24 Division 6 victory over Almont at Ford Field in Detroit.

Stags senior running Eli Graves back ran 33 times for 210 yards (29th in state finals history) and four touchdowns (tied for second).

"He's a good player downhill," Almont senior linebacker Ayden Ferqueron said of Graves. "Not much more to say than that. He's hard to stop."

By halftime, the Stags' backup running tandem of Skylar Workman and Kolsen Orton produced more rush yards (72) than Almont had total offense (63). The pair ended with 123 rush yards, just short of Almont's 174 total yards.

"Offensively, we usually move the ball pretty well," Almont head coach James Leusby said. "They stopped those few plays. We had to punt, and they didn't have to. That's really what it came down to."

Kingsley produced sustained scoring drives of 10, 13 and 11 plays on its first three possessions.

"Our O-linemen did a great job getting off the ball," said Workman, who ran for 68 yards on 12 carries.

Kingsley didn't have a run play produce less than 3 yards the entire first half, outside of Gavyn Merchant's kneel to end the half.

Isaiah Cosgrove recovered an Almont fumble forced by Orton on Almont's kick return with 2:13 remaining that allowed the Stags to run out the clock.

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