The Sun and News, Saturday, March 9, 2024/ Page 13First season of Gars’ swim ends with two all-league guys
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thornapple Kellogg juniors
Hunter Tietz and Nolan Send
swam their way to all-confer-
ence honors competing for the
Grand Rapids Gars at the 2024
OK Rainbow Tier II
Conference Championship
Feb. 23-24 at Byron Center
High School.
Tietz took the conference
championship in the 100-
yard backstroke swimming a
personal best time of 58.
seconds Saturday, Feb. 24.
That was about two seconds
faster than his runner-up time
in the prelim’s the day before.
Tietz was also the fifth-
place medalist in the confer-
ence in the 200-yard individu-
al medley, combining his
backstroke with the breast-
stroke, butterfly and freestyle
he swam to a time of 2 min-
utes 15.36 seconds.
Send placed fourth in that100-yard backstroke race with
a time of 1:02.80 and also was
fourth in the 500-yard free-
style with a time of 5:41.64.
The Gar foursome of Send,
Tietz, Ethan Magnuson and
Caden Bliek placed fifth in the
200-yard freestyle relay as
well with a time of 1:42.41.
The Gars, the co-op with
TK, Hopkins, Unity Christian
and West Catholic, finished
fifth in the day’s five-team
standings. Ottawa Hills took
the conference championship
on the day with an overall
score of 449 points ahead of
Wayland 413, Grand Rapids
Union 402, Grand Rapids
Catholic Central 348 and the
Grand Rapids Gars 158.
The Gars also had TJ Myers
place seventh in the weekend’s
diving competition and
Magnuson place tenth.
Catholic Central senior
Will Schwallier won the con-
ference championship in the
diving with an overall sore of
530.35 points, finishing more
than 200 points ahead of
Union sophomore Major
Vance who was the run-
ner-up.
Ottawa Hills finished off its
championship meet victory by
beating out the Union four-
some in the 400-yard freestyle
relay for first with a time of
3:25.04. The Bengal team of
Ryan Yon, Wyatt Jacques,
Matias Rizkalla and Juan
Huner got that win.Send and everyone else
were chasing a pair of Bengals
in the 500-yard freestyle.
Bengal freshman Jacques won
the race in 5:13.15 and junior
teammate Elias Morgan was
the runner-up in 5:31.14. Their
senior teammate Dominik
Lamberts won the 100-yard
breaststroke in 1:09.16.
Wayland won the meets
other two relay titles, the 200-
yard medley relay and the
200-yard freestyle relay.
Union senior Caileb Austin
won the 200-yard individual
medley in 2:06.66 and the 100-
yard butterfly championship in54.75. His senior teammate
Wyatt Dixon won the 50-yard
freestyle title in the conference
with a time of 22.14.
Wayland senior Henry
Oudbier outdid Dixon in the
100-yard freestyle with a
time of 48.76. Dixon fin-ished that race in 50.51 in the
runner-up spot.
The Gars’ team also got
scoring performances at the
conference championship in
‘B’ Final races from Haiden
Bruggink, Bliek and Ben
Wohlford.(^) GAINES CHARTER TOWNSHIP
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
The Gaines Charter Township Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to
consider the following request:
Summary of Request: Special Use Permit to allow for operation of a landscape business
in the Agricultural/Rural Residential (A-R) zoning district.
Property Address: 8808 Eastern Avenue SE, Byron Center, MI 49315
Parcel Number: 41-22-20-300-
Applicant: Matthew VanNoord
Date and Time of Hearing: March 28th, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Location of Hearing: Gaines Charter Township Offices, Board Room
8555 Kalamazoo Avenue SE, Caledonia, MI 49316
Any interested party may appear and be heard on said proposal. Information related to this
request may be inspected, by appt., during regular business hours at the Planning Department
window located in the Gaines Charter Township Offices. For information related to this
request, contact Dan Wells at (616) 980-6188 or [email protected]. To be
entered into the public record, signed written comments must be received by 5:00 PM on
March 28th, 2024.
Persons with disabilities needing special accommodations should contact Kim Triplett at (616)
698-6640 one week prior to the meeting to request mobility, visual or any other assistance.
213327
Village of Middleville
COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
The minutes of the February 13, 2024 Regular Council
Meeting, which were approved on February 28, 2024, are
posted at the Village Hall at 100 E Main Street and on the
website at http://www.villageofmiddleville.org.
Juniors Nolan Send (left) and Hunter Tietz (right)
are joined by their Grand Rapids Gars head coach DJ
Cochrane as they celebrate their all-conference per-
formances at the OK Rainbow Tier II Conference
Meet at Byron Center High School Saturday, Feb. 24.
District host Lowell knocks TK from tournament
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Lowell watched Caledonia
rally out of a 17-3 hole in the
first quarter to make a game of
it in the end against East Grand
Rapids in the first MHSAA
Division 1 District Semifinal
contest at the home of the Red
Arrows Wednesday.
The Red Arrows didn’t let
that happen when they took
their turn against the
Thornapple Kellogg varsity
girls’ basketball team. The
Red Arrows put the
Thornapple Kellogg girls in
an early hole, but never
relented in a 55-20 win.
Lowell built a 17-3 lead in
the first quarter and then upped
its lead to 26-6 by the end of
that first eight minutes.
“That is a really good
team,” Thornapple Kellogg
head coach Brandi James said.
“That is the team that I see us
being in the future. That was
four girls out of their five start-
ers have been on varsity since
they were freshmen, they’re
all going to go play collegiate
basketball next year. They’re a
really, really good team. We
knew that. I had a page and a
half of notes, but there is only
so much you can do. They’re
really good. We’re really
young. That was a rough way
to end, but it was a really great
season.”
Braxcynn Baker powered
the Red Arrows putting in 25
points. She was 8-of-8 at the
free throw line. The Arrows
also got 15 points from Piper
Risdon.
Baker proved nearly impos-
sible to contain in the half-
court, but the Red Arrows did a
lot of scoring in transition too.
“Slow Braxcynn down,”
was the game plan according
to James. “She is averaging
24.6 points per game. We
wanted to keep her 15 or
below. She got 25. The little
mental lapses. We knew that
she wanted to pound it twice,
do her spin move and go to the
middle. We saw that coming,
but its hard to stop, and hard to
mimic when we don’t have
that in practice.”
The plan was to keep the
Red Arrows from hitting too
many threes too, but the Lowell
girls were able to penetrate well
enough and get to the basket
that they didn’t need to attempt
too many deep shots.
TK did most of its scoring
from behind the three-point
line. Openings on the offen-
sive end were few and far
between inside against the big-
ger and more experienced Red
Arrows. The Trojans’ first 12
points of the game came on
threes, three by junior guard
Emma Geukes and one from
Lydia Schilthroat.
While certainly not any
easier in the long run than a
close loss, the Trojans’ senior
moments at the end were a
little more celebratory with
the sideline rooting for guard
Katie Comeau to put the ball
in the basket at every oppor-
tunity as she worked in the
fourth quarter to close out the
game with classmates Eva
Corson and Brittney
Roodvotes. A handful of TK
youngsters got some late var-
sity action too.
“Even though they didn’t
get much time, they have very
high basketball I.Q.,” James
said of her seniors. “Brittney
dissected film on Lowell and
was directing them during
practice yesterday. She knew
what this team was going to
do. She really contributed as
much as she could, even from
the bench. Katie, the same
thing, high basketball I.Q., and
positive all the time.
“Eva played really hard all
the time, and she didn’t really
complain when her playing
time started to diminish in the
end. They led with positivity
and with good leadership.
They did what good leaders
do, which is sacrifice their
own wants for what the team
needed.”
Geukes finished with 12
points for TK. No one else for
the Trojans made more than
one basket.
TK ends the season with an
11-13 record.
The 15-8 East Grand
Rapids Pioneers and 16-
Red Arrows were scheduled
to tip-off their MHSAA
Division 1 District Final back
at Lowell High School Friday
night, March 8.
The winner advances to the
regional tournament being
hosted by Hudsonville next
week. East Grand Rapids took
a 60-49 win in Lowell the first
time the two teams met this
season in OK White play, and
the Red Arrows answered with
a 53-30 win at East Grand
Rapids High School two
weeks ago. Lowell was sec-
ond and East Grand Rapids
third in the conference this
winter behind the Byron
Center Bulldogs.
TK senior guard Katie Comeau attacks the basket
during the second half of the Trojans’ district semifi-
nal ballgame at Lowell Wednesday. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)
Ellie Harmon goes up with a shot during the fourth
quarter of the Trojans’ loss to host Lowell in the
MHSAA Division 1 District Semifinals Wednesday
evening. (Photo by Brett Bremer)