Page 14 — Thursday, September 22, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
Trojans fourth on home course as Gold season winds down
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Grand Rapids Catholic Central edged
South Christian by two strokes to take the
victory at the OK Gold Conference varsity
girls’ golf jamboree hosted by Thornapple
Kellogg on the White nine at Yankee Springs
Golf Course Thursday.
The Trojans were once again in fourth place
for the day behind the conference’s two private
schools and the ForestHills Eastern Hawks.
Catholic Central outscored the Sailors 167-- FHE was third with a score of 196 ahead
of TK 197, Kenowa Hills 219, Cedar Springs
232 and Wayland 236.
TK’s Ailana Leos was third on the day with
a score of 41 to lead her team. Only Catholic
Central sophomore Ava Wisinski and South
Christian junior Ashley Thomasma were bet-
ter on the day. Wisinski shot a 39 and Thom-
asma a 40.
Catholic Central and South Christian both
had four girls among the top ten scorers.
Catholic Central’s Morgan Armock shot a
42 and the Cougars also 43’s from Kelsey
Preston and Katie Cook. South Christian got
43’s from Natalie Northouse, Lucy DeHaan
and Emerald Hoekwater.
Rae Borrink and Kendra Coe each shot a
50 for the TK team and Joselyn DeBoer
added a 56.
The league was together again for the
jamboree hosted by Kenowa Hills at Grace-
wil Golf Course Monday.
The Trojans leapt up to third place as the
standings mixed themselves up a bit. South
Christian bested Catholic Central 163-
at the top of the standings. TK scored a 193
to finish ahead of Forest Hills Eastern’s 201,
Kenowa Hills 212, Cedar Springs 216, Way-
land 228 and Ottawa Hills 250.
Leos led TK with a 40 and EmmaSchut shot a 49. Right behind were Bor-
rink with a 50 and Sydney Robertson
with a 54.
South Christian was led by a 40 from
Thomasma and a 40 from DeHaan. Claire
Vanelderen scored a 41 and Maya Wierenga
a 42.
Catholic Central had the day’s top scorer.
Wisinski shot a 38 and her teammate
Armock tied for second with a 40.
The conference got started at Quail Ridge
for the jamboree hosted by Catholic Central
Tuesday before severe weather moved
through the area.
The conference championship is slated
for Sept. 28 at the Mines Golf Club.
TK will be back on course at Yankee
Springs Sept. 26 hosting a Pre-Regional
tournament in preparation for the MHSAA
Division 2 Regional it will host Oct. 4 back
at Yankee Springs.Vikings officially join exodus from GLAC, return to CAAC
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
It didn’t take Lakewood long to find a new
home as the Greater Lansing Activities Con-
ference, which it was a founding member of
for the 2014-15 school year, dissolves.
Lakewood received its official acceptance
letter into the Capital Area Activities Confer-
ence Wednesday, Sept. 21, and will return to
the CAAC White Division which it called
home before leaving for the newly created
GLAC.
The Maple Valley School Board voted
Sept. 12 to approve a conference shift to the
Big 8 Conference beginning with the 2023-
school year. Leslie had already announced it
was leaving the GLAC for the Cascades Con-
ference.
Olivet will join Lakewood in the CAAC-
White forming an eight-school division with
the likes of Portland, Ionia, Lansing Sexton,
Lansing Catholic, Charlotte and Eaton Rap-
ids.
Lakewood left the CAAC at the end of the
2012-13 school year for the newly created
GLAC with Maple Valley joining the GLACfrom the Kalamazoo Valley Association.
Maple Valley made the move from the
GLAC in hopes of being more competitive
and increasing participation numbers in ath-
letics. Maple Valley had the smallest enroll-
ment of any GLAC school other than Lansing
Christian. Maple Valley won GLAC titles in
baseball and boys’ golf in the spring of 2015
during the GLAC’s inaugural 2014-15 season
and has not won a team conference champi-
onship since.
Lakewood High School athletic director
Mike Quinn said efforts were made to keep
the conference together with six teams once
Leslie announced it was leaving the GLAC,
but Maple Valley’s departure really forced the
remaining five schools to start scattering.
While nothing is official yet, Perry and Lan-
sing Christian may make the move to the
Central Michigan Athletic Conference
(CMAC) and Stockbridge may wind up as an
independent for the time being.
The CAAC is a good option for the Vikings,
according to Quinn, but it was also about the
only option. Lakewood and Olivet were
deemed a bit to large to fit in the CMAC andother conference options like the Southwest-
ern Athletic Conference, the Interstate-8 Ath-
letic Conference and Ottawa-Kent Confer-
ence were just not possible at this time for
one reason or another.
“I think from a standpoint of stability, if the
league does nothing else for us, we’re going
to have sub-varsity with pretty much every-
body except Sexton,” Quinn said. “From that
standpoint, filling out schedules with good
competition and real good competitive bal-
ance in the league it is going to be there. The
idea that the league will revolve around Lake-
wood and Olivet, those days are gone, but I
think that at the end of the day we’re going to
have a real good opportunity to compete in
every sport.”
The addition of Lakewood and Olivet to
the Lansing area CAAC bumps the confer-
ence up to 21 total teams in three divisions.
Quinn expects the challenging conference
season to have Lakewood varsity teams bat-
tle-tested come state playoff time. He said the
CAAC has been in contact with him since the
moment he took over the athletic director
position at Lakewood about a possible return.Hastings spikers
have week full of very
competitive volleyball
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
Playing with a limited squad, the Saxons traveled to Charlotte on
Saturday for a quad against Delton, Potterville and Charlotte. The Sax-
ons defeated local rival, the Delton Kellogg Panthers in three sets 25-21,
15-25 and 15-11, but lost in three sets to both Potterville and Charlotte.
The Saxons are now 10-10 on the season and have surpassed the
total wins of the last two varsity seasons under the leadership of the
new Head Coach, Erin Slaughter.
Bailey Cook had a team high 20 kills for the Saxons and added
seven blocks. Rachael Hewitt added another 10 kills and five blocks
at the net. Cook and libero Cailin Redman also led the team in passing,
while Abby Beemer added 39 assists for the day.
The Hastings’ volleyball team had a tough week at home, prior to
Saturday. The Saxon’s lost a close Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
matchup against Coldwater at home on Wednesday night, Sept. 14. The
Saxon’s went five sets with the Cardinals after losing 18-25 and 22-
in the first two sets. The Saxons came back and picked up a 25-20 and
25-19 win in sets three and four before dropping the final set 15-11.
Coach Slaughter noted that in total points it was very close with a
total difference of 104-101 points scored in the five sets.
Redman served up four aces for the Saxons and Cook added anoth-
er two. Redman and Audrey Vertalka also led the team in passing. At
the net, sophomores Isabel Gee and Hewitt, stepped up to add 6 and
five kills, respectively. Vertalka added four blocks.
On Thursday night, Sept. 15, the Saxons’ hosted a tri with Saranac
and Ionia. The Saxons defeated Saranac in three, losing the first set
25-21, then coming back to win sets two and three 25-12 and 15-10.
In the second match of the night, the Saxons lost to Ionia in another
close match, dropping sets 25-23, 25-21.
Cook and Hewitt both had seven kills for the night, while Vertalka
added six blocks at the net.Top Saxon players
getting better on their
feet as fall progresses
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Saxons aren’t ready yet to challenge
the top teams in the Interstate-8 Athletic Con-
ference, but there is certainly progress hap-
pening on the courts at Hastings High School.
Hastings fell to 0-5 in conference duals as
they were bested 8-0 by visiting Jackson
Parma Western Monday afternoon.
Heath Hays at second singles picked up the
lone game for the Saxons in the loss to the
conference powerhouse. He was bested in the
end by the Panthers’ Nick Keeler 6-1, 6-0.
Hays, Joe Goggins and Keegan Lindsey
have been sharing the top singles spots
throughout the fall for Hastings and head
coach Krista Schueller said they’re all pretty
comparable skill-wise, trading wins in chal-
lenge matches throughout the season so far
and taking turns in the top singles and top
doubles flights.
Goggins was bested by Parma Western’s
Seth Keana at first singles Monday and
Lindsey was downed by Noah McCollum in
the third singles match. Hastings forfeited at
fourth singles as well as third and fourth
doubles.
“They have been playing really well actu-
ally,” Schueller said of her singles trio after
Monday’s loss. “We hang in rallies, even
here, we hang in rallies four or five more
shots than we typically have. We just don’t
always have the final shot. It is fantastic for
them how well they are learning to move
around the court. We are faster and we have
some stronger forehands going. We can move
the ball and get inside the opponents’ head.
It’s good.”
Some of that speed is from their athleti-
cism, and some of it is just the anticipation
that comes with experience on the court.
“Those three in particular, they have
learned you can’t get better until you move
your feet,” Schueller said.
“They have been doing really well with
that from their serve to their forehand to their
backhand, how to use their lower body,” she
added. “That is fantastic to see, and some of
our younger ones are leaps and bounds from
where they were last year in middle school.”
She is looking forward to the rest of the
varsity roster figuring out their footwork as
the fall progresses, which would allow for big
strides forward in all of their skills. Caleb
Borton and Hayden Long filled the first dou-
bles spot for the Saxons Monday and Even
Porter and Anderson Forrel took on Parma
Western’s number two team.
Hastings also fell 7-0 in a conference dual
with Marshall last Wednesday. Goggins
teamed with Long at first doubles and took
the opening set against the Red Hawks’ Ryan
Murphy and Landon Fazekas 6-4. Fazekas
and Murphy rallied for a 6-2 win in set two
and then clinched the match with a 10-7 win
in a super tiebreaker.
Goggins and Long also pushed Coldwa-
ter’s top doubles team to a super tiebreaker
earlier this season.
Coach Schueller is hoping the experience
of playing in a couple tiebreakers will help in
the future, because there is no real good way
in practice to simulate the pressure of that
winner-take-all format.
Lindsey and Hays in the top two singles
spots won a few games for the Saxons in the
dual with Marshall as well.
The Saxons were scheduled to travel to
Jackson Northwest for another tough confer-
ence dual today, Sept. 21, and will be back in
action at home this afternoon (Sept. 22) tak-
ing on Greenville and Kelloggsville in a
non-conference tri. Hastings goes to the Way-
land Invitational Saturday.
The Interstate-8 Athletic Conference sea-
son continues when the Saxons host Penn-
field Monday.TK tennis team tops Knights for
its second conference victory
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thornapple Kellogg’s varsity boys’ ten-
nis team improved to 2-2-1 in the OK Gold
Conference with a 5-3 win over visiting
Kenowa Hills Wednesday.
Trojan first singles player Kameron
Nichols pulled out his second consecutive
three-set win in conference action by
knocking off Kenowa Hills’ top player
Logan TenBrink 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in their
match.
TK had two singles victories on the day.
Jacob Draaisma won the third singles
match 6-1, 6-2 over the Knights’ Gavin
Pohl.
The Trojan team took three doubles wins
to secure the overall team victory. The Tk
team of Aaron Michalk and Ben Cuison
scored a 6-0, 6-1 win over the Kenowa
Hills team of Sam Chapman and Tyler Her-
polsheimer.
TK also took the third and fourth dou-
bles points. Dylan Bailey and Andrew
Beckering captured a 6-0, 6-4 win for the
Trojans at number three over Tyler Reu and
Landon Breen. Daniel Beckering and
Anson Verlinde at fourth doubles for TK
bested Aydan Kieldser and Ayden Larabel6-1, 6-0.
The Trojans weren’t far from being able
to secure a doubles sweep. Kenowa Hills’
Carter Link and Jack Labtoz took a tough
7-6(6), 6-4 win over the TK duo of Landon
Conroy and Kyan Haywood at number
two.
The couple singles points the Knights
took were in close matches as well. Tybee
Bickford bested Aidan Dudik 6-3, 6-1 at
second singles and Max Hun edged Frank-
lin Wilkinson 6-4, 7-5 at number four.
The TK team returned to action with a
non-conference win at Plainwell Thursday
by a score of 7-1.
The Trojans from TK swept the four sin-
gles matches against the Trojans from Plain-
well. Nichols bested Calvin Strader 6-4, 6-
at number one. At number two, Aidan
Dudik knocked off Anthony Kolhoff 6-1,
6-0. In the third singles match, Draaisma
bested Kevin Vicenzi 6-0, 6-2. Franklin
Wilkinson scored a 6-1, 6-2 win over Austin
Susang at fourth singles.
Michalk and Cuison earned a 6-4, 6-
win for TK at first doubles. Bailey and
Andrew Beckering won 6-2, 6-1 at third
doubles. Daniel Beckering and Verlinde
scored a 6-2, 6-0 win at fourth doubles.Hastings second singles player Heath
Hays hits a forehand return back at his
opponent from Parma Western during
their I-8 dual in Hastings Monday after-
noon. (Photo by Brett Bremer)The Saxons' Kimber Fenstemaker goes up for a block as Coldwater puts the ball over the net during their I-8 dual at Hastings
High School Sept. 14. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)Hastings libero Cailin Redman digs up a shot in front of her
bench against Coldwater during the Saxons' I-8 match with the
Cardinals at Hastings High School Wednesday, Sept. 14.
(Photo by Valerie Slaughter)