Achievements New and Old Uncovered
December 11, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sometimes it takes a year or two for records and appropriate documentation to find their way to the MHSAA office in East Lansing.
Sometimes it takes a little bit longer – or in the case of former Ionia receiver Adam Kerr, more than two decades and only after a chance uncovering in a school yearbook.
Kerr’s MHSAA record for receptions in one game set in 1992 is part of an impressive group of football achievements that have been added over the last week. You’ll also find the names Tyree Jackson, Drake Harris, Joel Schipper and Alex VanDeVusse much more prevalent, plus recent additions for boys tennis, baseball, girls basketball, softball and boys soccer. (Click the headings below to see the record books for those sports in full. More record book submissions will be added in weeks to come.)
Baseball
A pair of Homer standouts finished their careers over the last two seasons with a number of entries. Alex White, a senior in 2014, finished with 178 runs, 187 hits and 118 stolen bases. Nate Sitkiewicz, a graduate this spring, finished with 181 hits, 49 doubles, 160 RBI, 37 times hit by pitches, a .479 career batting average and four career grand slams; he also made the single-season list with 17 hits by pitches as a junior. Teammates Brock Ridgeway (29 HBP from 2013-15) and Dylan Thomas (1.61 ERA from 2011-14) also were added, as was the team for its 37 wins, 307 RBI, .387 average, 45 hits by pitches and 1.52 ERA in 2014 and its 55 hits by pitches this spring. Sitkiewicz now plays at Spring Arbor University, and White plays football at Kalamazoo College. Thomas plays at Jackson College, and Ridgeway is a senior this school year.
Girls Basketball
Taylor Richards played five seasons of varsity basketball for Fruitport Calvary Christian – allowable because of the school’s small enrollment. But even though those eighth-grade statistics don’t count for these purposes, her totals from her final four seasons placed her all over the MHSAA record book. She qualified with 2,043 career points (22.7 per game) from 2012-15, 468 free throws (ranking eighth) and 1,261 rebounds (ranking seventh). She also made the single-season rebound list three times, with a high of 363 as a junior, and the single-game list with 26 in a win over North Muskegon on Feb. 2. Richards also was part of two of the highest-scoring games in MHSAA history, an 89-72 win over Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian on Jan. 20 and an 89-71 loss to Holton a week later. The 6-foot-1 forward is a freshman on Cornerstone University’s team.
Football
The heroes of Grand Rapids Christian’s 2012 Division 3 title run have their places in the MHSAA record book. Receiver Drake Harris, a junior that fall who ended up not playing a down as a senior because of an injury, set the single-season record of 2,015 receiving yards and also is listed for 243 yards in a game, 3,133 career receiving yards (fourth), 91 receptions in 2012 (fifth for one season), 148 career receptions, 25 touchdown catches in 2012 (second for one season) and 37 career touchdown catches (tied for sixth-most). Quarterback Alex VanDeVusse also is listed seven times: for 413 yards passing in one game, a Semifinal win in 2012 over Zeeland West; for 3,837 yards that season (third-most for one year), 5,043 career passing yards, 359 pass attempts and 205 completions in 2012, 41 touchdown passes that season (tied for fifth) and 56 for his career. Kicker Joel Schipper set records with 173 career extra points, over three seasons, and including a record 145 consecutive. He also is listed for 14 field goals in 2012, tied for seventh-most in a season, 19 over his career, and 72 extra points in 2012. Harris now plays receiver at Michigan, Schipper plays both football and baseball at Grand Valley State and VanDeVusse plays baseball at Davenport.
Muskegon Mona Shores quarterback Tyree Jackson graduated this spring as one of the most accomplished passers in MHSAA history after taking the Sailors to the Division 2 Final in his final season. Jackson made the MHSAA records for 2,338 yards passing in fall 2014, but his career numbers stick out most – his 8,028 yards in 42 games over four seasons rank fourth, his 845 attempts are fifth, his 475 completions sixth and his 85 touchdown passes rank third on that career list. Jackson now is a freshman quarterback at the University of Buffalo.
Research for the school’s Hall of Fame unearthed an MHSAA record for receiver Adam Kerr set in 1992. Kerr had an MHSAA-best 18 receptions for 307 yards (fifth-most for one game) in a 43-37 win over Belding on Oct. 23 of that year. The Bulldogs finished 4-5 that fall.
Muskegon’s Miguel Flores drilled 42 and 53-yard field goals in a 2014 Semifinal win over Zeeland West; the 53-yarder made the MHSAA records. Click to see both via hudl.com. Flores went on to play soccer this fall at Muskegon Community College.
Boys Soccer
Hunter Edwards became the latest of a number of players tied for third-most assists in one game when he had five for Grand Ledge in a 9-0 win over Lansing Waverly on Aug. 26. Edwards, a senior defender, earned all-league honors in the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue this fall.
Softball
Romeo blasted past the single-season team record for home runs this spring, bashing 59 in 35 games to break the previous record by eight. Romeo’s Madison Jones made a huge impact as only a sophomore, tying the MHSAA single-season record for home runs with 18 in helping her team to a fifth straight District title. Now-senior Morgan Gardner made the records with 12 home runs including three in a May 26 game against Croswell-Lexington. She’s signed with Central Michigan.
Boys Tennis
Otsego’s Luke Ford capped a four-year career at No. 1 singles this fall that saw him rise from 20 wins as a freshman to a 37-1 record and MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship as a senior. Ford also finished his career with 38 wins by scores of 6-0, 6-0, third most in MHSAA history.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central’s back-to-back LP Division 2 championships the last two years (this fall shared with Portage Central) were driven by a number of players who made the MHSAA records for wins in a season. Freshman Jacob Wiltjer won the No. 4 singles championship this fall and made the singles list with a 36-2 record. Tim Spurlin and Jack Ziegler (29-7) won No. 3 doubles and Justin James and Aidan Rynbrandt (29-8) won No. 2 doubles, and both made the records for doubles wins, while No. 4 champion Peyton Herbert and Mike Battiste made it with a 35-1 record. Forest Hills Central won three of four doubles flights at the 2014 Final, and all four doubles pairs made the wins list: No. 1 champion Nico Finelli and Joey McClure at 28-9, No. 2 Andrew Fox and Carson Schmidt at 33-3, No. 3 Humzah Azeem and Ryan Conner also at 33-3 and No. 4 Joey Preston and Reed Aleck at 31-4.
PHOTO: Muskegon Mona Shores’ quarterback Tyree Jackson celebrates a touchdown with teammates during the 2014 Division 2 Final at Ford Field.
Ubly Offense, Kicker Pile Up Record Book Listings During Championship Run
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 12, 2024
Ubly finished a combined 27-1 over the last two seasons, following up a Division 8 runner-up run in 2022 with its first MHSAA Finals championship this past November. And the Bearcats stacked plenty of record book performances along the way.
Individually, senior Brett Mueller made the single-season extra point list again this past season with 76 in 81 tries, and he set the MHSAA career record with 220 extra points over 232 attempts, 40 games and three seasons. He has signed with Saginaw Valley State.
As a team, Ubly was added to the record book 13 times for achievements over the last two years, most notably in the rushing game. The Bearcats topped 5,200 total yards both seasons, and also made the rush yardage list twice including with a sixth-best 5,148 in 2022. Their 90 touchdowns in 2022 rank seventh all-time, and their 85 this past fall tied for 13th, and they tied the record with 10 rushing touchdowns in a 2022 win over Reese and set another record with 84 rushing touchdowns total that season.
See below for more recent record book additions in 11-player football, and click the heading to see the record book in full:
11-Player Football
Dundee’s Ben Miller has a pair of basketball record book entries, and he’s also been added in football for scoring seven touchdowns in his team’s 72-36 win over Erie Mason on Oct. 20, 2017. A senior that season, he ran for five scores and caught two touchdowns passes.
Nearly four decades later, Howard City Tri County’s Mike Wagoner has reached the record book for his work on defense in 1985. A junior that season, Wagoner returned three interceptions for touchdowns – 65, 55 and 35 yards – which would have been second on the list at the time and remains tied for third-most for one season.
Jaxon Lippert tops the list of 21 who have returned kickoffs 99 yards. Lippert, now a senior at Walled Lake Western, joined the list against Davison during his junior season.
A handful of records from Warren De La Salle Collegiate’s recent run of Ford Field teams and also one from decades ago were added. Jake Badalamenti was added three times for kickoff returns between 96-99 yards, one as a junior in 2016 and two as a senior the following fall, and Marty Wyzlic was added for his 95-yarder in 1976. Mason Muragin is the new leader for tackles for loss in a career with 71 over three seasons, and he also was added to the single-season list with 31 as a junior in 2021, as was Will Beasley for 38 as a junior in 2020. Wayne Wright was added for his 16 sacks over nine games as a senior in 1984, and Josh Cox was added for his 100-yard interception return as a senior in 2012. Muragin plays at Illinois, Beesley plays at Princeton, Cox played at Central Michigan, and Badalamenti played baseball at Wayne State.
Pinckney junior Nolan Carruthers caught 16 passes during a 13-7 loss to Jackson on Sept. 15, good to tie for ninth-most in one game and breaking the Livingston County record of 14 by Hartland’s Greg Matthyssen in 2007 – a listing that also was added.
Ethan Wissner did some major lifting, or rather carrying, during Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker’s 28-14 District Final win over Montrose in 2022. The then-senior ran 42 times to make the record book, for 289 yards and three touchdowns. He’s continuing at Siena Heights.
Senior quarterback Andrew Schuster and junior receiver DeShaun Lanier formed a game-changing pass-catch combo this past season for Clinton Township Chippewa Valley, with Schuster finishing his career with nine record book listings and Lanier totaling six with a season to play. Schuster most notably was added for 212 completions on 301 attempts for 2,766 yards and 28 touchdowns this season, and 321 completions and 4,199 career yards over two years and 22 games. Lanier was added in part for 73 receptions for 1,132 yards and 15 TDs this fall. Junior kicker Juliano Haddad also earned impressive mentions with 10 field goals and 50 extra points – and he’ll carry a streak of 35 straight extra points into next fall. Schuster has committed to Grand Valley State.
Fulton’s Evan Barton has been added to the single-game touchdowns list after catching four scoring passes Sept. 8, 2017, against Potterville. He was a senior that season.
Saginaw Heritage’s Braylon Isom completed his career this past fall as arguably the most accomplished receiver in MHSAA history. His name is listed in the record book eight times, with career records of 3,837 receiving yards and 52 touchdowns over 34 games and four seasons, and with a single-season record 26 touchdowns this past fall over 12 games. His 91 career receptions rank fifth, and he’s also listed for 82 catches and 1,617 yards (seventh-most) as a senior and 1,428 yards and 18 touchdowns as a junior. He will continue at Miami (Ohio).
Evart’s 24-8 run over the last three seasons has been its most successful of the MHSAA playoff era, and senior quarterback Preston Wallace has played an enormous part. He finished his 33-game career in the fall – he came up for one game as a freshman – on record book lists twice for single-season passing yards and touchdowns and on career lists for 662 attempts, 421 completions, 6,955 yards and 88 passing touchdowns over those 32 games and three seasons. The yardage ranks 15th all-time, and the touchdowns are tied for sixth-most for one career.
The 2005 Midland Bullock Creek team was added for scoring 547 points over 12 games. The Lancers finished 11-1, their only loss in a Division 5 Regional Final.
PHOTO Ubly's Seth Maurer (30) carries the ball during the Division 8 championship win over Ottawa Lake Whiteford in November.