Page 14 — Thursday, March 7, 2024 — The Hastings Banner
Vikes pull away from Saxons in fourth
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A 9-0 run to start the second half put Hast-
ings in front 25-23 in its MHSAA Division 2
District opener against Lakewood at Portland
High School Monday.
Those nine points came during a stretch of
about four and a half minutes to start the sec-
ond half. Senior Addie Nickels drained a
three-pointer and then hit two free throws
after being fouled firing up another three to
tie the ballgame at 23-23. Sophomore Made-
lynn Peake put together a confidence attack
and put up a jumper that gave the Saxons
their first lead of the game there.
Stretches of offense like that haven’t come
often enough for the Saxons this winter, and
they kept it going for a little bit, but not long
enough to extend the season Monday.
Lakewood earned a spot in Wednesday’sMHSAA Division 2 District Semifinal against
Capital Area Activities Conference White
Division foe Lansing Catholic with a 48-
win over the Saxons.
Senior center Cadence Poll buried a free
throw to cut the Saxon lead to 25-24 there in
the third quarter, and then senior guard
Audrey Hillard followed up by banking in a
three-pointer to put her team back in front.
Peake banked in a three of her own at the
other end to momentarily give the Saxons the
lead back. Then it was Hillard’s turn again.
She nailed another three.
Lakewood had a 29-28 lead at the end of
that three-point back and forth, and that sec-
ond triple from Hillard was the start of a 9-
Lakewood run to close the third quarter. They
led 35-28 at that point.
“Our team motto has always been ‘never
quit’ and I think these last two games, including
our TK game [a win last Thursday], we finally
have played together and just enjoyed the game
of basketball, and I think that is allowing us to
take the next step forward as a team,” Hillard
said. “I think that us pushing each other to be
our best allows us to keep pushing forward
through games, and now we’re playing all four
quarters instead of two or three.
“I think it was just kind of a moment that
clicked for the seniors, like ‘oh this is really it.We have to go now.’ We all kicked it into over-
drive and we came to practice ready to go and
we’re playing like we should have been playing
all season. We’re finally putting it together.”
Saxon sophomore forward Rachael Hewitt,
her team’s leading scorer for the season, put in
a bucket to start the fourth that cut the Lake-
wood lead to 35-30, but that was as close as
Hastings would get the rest of the way.
Hewitt picked up her fourth foul with 6:
to go after the Vikings put together a flurry of
offensive rebounds. She only lasted another
18 seconds as she was charged with a fifth
foul. That left the Saxons really without their
top two scoring threats. Sophomore Olivia
Friddle was out for the rest of the season after
injuring a knee in one of the final ballgames
of the regular season.
“At that point we are trying to get open looks
and get some threes to fall, because we don’t
have a player left that can score inside,” Hast-
ings head coach Chase Youngs said. “We are
hoping that some of the shots that are in and out
stat to fall. They didn’t, and their’s did.”
Lakewood already had the edge in the
paint with the size of senior posts Cadence
Poll and Alivia Everitt, but Poll stepped out-
side and knocked down just her second
three-pointer of the season in the win too.
It wasn’t long after Hewitt fouled out thatshe was joined on the bench by seniors Myah
Vincent and Kimber Fenstemaker who were
also whistled for their fifth fouls of the ball-
game. A technical foul on Youngs didn’t help
the Saxons’ situation.
Lakewood pushed its lead to 43-30 with
about three minutes to go.
Hastings had a nearly five-minute scoring
drought before junior Victoria Tack knocked
down a three that cut the Lakewood lead to
43-33 with 2:39 to play.
Despite missing most of the fourth quarter,
Hewitt led the Saxons with 11 points. Nickels
finished with eight points and Peake had five.
“We turned them over well enough, we just
didn’t make enough shots, which has kind of
been the story of the year,” coach Youngs
said. “We got open looks, but we have to
make them.”
He thought his girls played hard.
Poll and Hillard had 17 points apiece for
Lakewood. Poll had a double-double with 14
rebounds. Hillard just missed that mark, fin-
ishing with nine boards. Senior Alivia Ever-
itt added five points and seven rebounds for
the Vikings.
Hastings ends the season with a 3-
record. Nickels, Vincent, Fenstemaker and
Aubree Rowse were the four Saxon seniors
who played their final ballgame Monday.
“I thought they kept their heads up. It has
been a frustrating season. You win three
games, it is not always roses. They ended it
playing hard. They ended it doing what we
did all year – playing defense.”
He liked the way his girls’ press worked at
times.
Lakewood evened its record at 11-11 with
the win.PRAIRIEVILLE TOWNSHIP, BARRY COUNTY
NOTICE OF BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING
The Prairieville Township Board will hold a Public Hearing on the
proposed township budget for the fiscal year 2024-20245 on
March 20, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at the Prairieville Township Hall,
10115 S. Norris Road, Delton, Michigan.THE PROPERTY TAX MILLAGE RATE PROPOSED TO BE
LEVIED TO SUPPORT THE PROPOSED BUDGET WILL BE A
SUBJECT OF THIS HEARING.A copy of the proposed budget is available for public inspection at
the Prairieville Township Hall.
Prairieville Township will provide reasonable auxiliary aids and
services, such as signers for the hearing impaired and audio
tapes of printed materials being considered at the meeting, to indi-
viduals with disabilities at the meeting upon seven days notice to
the Prairieville Township Board.Contact the following: Rod Goebel, Clerk
Prairieville Township Hall
10115 S. Norris Road
Delton, MI 49046213172212984
RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIPNOTICE OF BOARD OF REVIEW
The Board of Review will meet on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 10:00 am in
the office of the Assessor at Rutland Charter Township Hall, 2461 Heath Rd,
Hastings, Michigan 49058 to organize and review the Assessment Roll.NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING to hear Assessment APPEALS will be held at the
RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIP HALL, 2461 Heath Rd, Hastings, Michigan on:MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2024 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm & 6:00 pm to 9:00 pmWEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2024 9:00 am to NOON & 1:00 pm to 4:00 pmAlso, any other days deemed necessary to equalize the Assessment Roll.PROPERTY ASSESSMENT RATIOS & FACTORS FOR 2023CLASS RATIO MULTIPLIER
Agriculture 48.23 1.
Commercial 47.21 1.
Industrial 46.95 1.
Residential 45.15 1.
Developmental 50.00 1.
Personal 50.00 1.The above ratios and multipliers do not mean that every parcel will receive the same.
If you have purchased property, it will be assessed at 50% of market value. If you
have improved your property such as additions, new buildings, driveways, etc., this will
also reflect in the value of your property.Upon request of any person who is assessed on said roll, or his agent, and upon
sufficient cause being shown, the Board of Review will correct the assessment of such
property and will, in their judgment, make the valuation thereof relatively just and equal.Dennis McKelvey, Assessor
RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIP
2461 Heath Rd
Hastings, MI 49058
269-948-Individuals with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services should contact the
Rutland Charter Township Clerk by writing or calling the Township.This notice is posted in compliance with PA 267 of 1976 as amended (Open
Meetings Act) MCLA41.72a (2)(3) and the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA).Krebs a runner-up in
first finals appearance
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Finally close to full strength, Jonathan
Krebs finally got to have the postseason he
had been working for all these years.
The Lakewood senior held on for a 6-
win over Chippewa Hills’ Tyler Geer in
their semifinal match Friday evening at the
MHSAA Individual State Finals at Ford
Field in downtown Detroit to earn a spot in
Saturday’s Division 3 144-pound champi-
onship match.
Krebs, one of three Lakewood state med-
alists this season, finished as the state run-
ner-up as he was bested by Dundee’s Blake
Cosby 7-0. Cosby improved to 44-1 with
the victory. Krebs ends his senior season
with a 39-3 mark.
Lakewood junior Joel Simon and fresh-
man Vincent Stamm both closed the season
on the state medal stand too. Simon, now a
two-time state medalist, placed fourth in the
215-pound weight class. Stamm placed sev-
enth in the 120-pound weight class.
Lakewood had five individual state
qualifiers in all this season as they were
also joined at the finals by 138-pounder
Bryson Boucher and 126-pounder Kade
Boucher.
Krebs snapped a 4-4 tie with a take down
midway through the third period of his
semifinal match with Chippewa hills’ Tyler
Geer Friday evening. That victory came on
the heels of a pair of significant decisions to
open the tournament. He beat Hart’s
JoseLuis Andaverde 8-1 in the opening
round and then took a 9-0 major decision in
the quarterfinals against LakeVille Memori-
al’s Jon Huggler.
Cosby, a sophomore, was the 144-pound
state runner-up last year as a freshman.
Simon placed third a year ago as a soph-
omore. He had his sights set on joining
Krebs in the finals Saturday afternoon, but
fell 4-1 to Elzin Rouse from Kingsford in
their semifinal bout Friday afternoon.
Rouse was bested by Belding’s Jack Ward
in the 215-pound championship match.
Simon took a 7-4 win over Lincoln’s
Jarail McKinstry to open the tournament
and then pulled out a 2-1 win over Hills-
dale’s John Petersen in a tie-breaker round
in the quarterfinals. He capped off that
quarterfinal win by riding out Petersen for
30 seconds in their final period.
Stamm pulled out a 4-2 win over Glad-
win’s Cruz Balcirak in the blood round, the
second round of consolation, Friday to
clinch his state medal. Back on the mats
Saturday he fell 5-3 to Durand’s Cameron
Bacchus and then pinned Napoleon’s Logan
Harman in the match for seventh place.
The Viking freshman, Stamm, opened his
tournament with an 11-4 win over Eaton
Rapids’ Drew Blom and then was pinned by
Dundee’s Braden Broderick in the quarter-
final round.
The Dundee team, which beat the Lake-
wood Vikings in the state quarterfinals and
then went on to win the team state champi-
onship in Division 3, had 12 wrestlers at the
individual finals and all 12 placed in the top
four in their weight class. Broderick was
one of six Dundee guys who won individu-
al state champions, joined by 126-pounder
Kade Kluce, 106-pounder Mason Katschor,
157-pounder Kole Katschor, 150-pounder
Trey Parker and 132-pounder Cameron
Chinavare.
Lakewood’s Kade Boucher had one win
in the 126-pound weight class Friday. He
fell to Kluce in the opening round, then
bounced back to beat Jackson Ziegler from
Ogemaw Heights 10-4. In the blood round,
Algonac’s Chris Campbell outscored Kade
11-2 to end his weekend on the mats.Lakewood freshman Vincent Stamm holds Eaton Rapids' Drew Blom on his back
during their opening round match in Division 3's 120-pound weight class at the
MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals hosted by Ford Field in Detroit Friday, March 1.
Stamm finished the weekend as one of there Lakewood state medalists. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Lakewood senior Jonathan Krebs lifts
Hart's Jose Luis Andaverde off the mat
during his opening round win in Division
3's 144-pound weight class at the MHSAA
Individual Wrestling Finals hosted by
Ford Field in Detroit Friday, March 1.
Krebs went on to finish as the state run-
ner-up at their weight class. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Saxon seniors Addie Nickels and Myah
Vincent (2) share a hug on the bench
during the fourth quarter of their district
loss to Lakewood at Portland High School
Monday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Holland Christian
stretches second
half lead in Hastings
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Grit, and hustle, and intensity, and a
couple extra shots falling was enough for
the Saxons to get a come-from-behind
district win over Hopkins last Monday.
They needed more than that against
Holland Christian back in the MHSAA
Division 2 District Semifinals at Hastings
High School Wednesday.
The Maroons stretched a 25-15 half-
time lead to 16 points in a hurry in the
second half and then controlled the play
the rest of the way in what turned into a
71-44 win over the Saxons.
Hastings didn’t really have an answer
for the Maroons’ 6-foot-8 senior center
Luke Michmerhuizen who finished with
17 points despite missing time in the sec-
ond half with an injured ankle. Holland
Christian also got 22 points from senior
Caleb Karsten.Senior guard Owen Carroll led the Sax-
ons with 15 points. Junior Jett Barnum
finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
Landon Steward, a senior forward, had
six points to go with six rebounds and two
assists.
Holland Christian led just 10-8 after
one quarter, but started the second quarter
on a 13-2 run.
Hastings ends its season, the first under
head coach Jess Webb, with a 9-14 record.
Hamilton won a wild one against Way-
land, 95-72, in the first semifinal of the
night in Hastings Wednesday. Holland
Christian knocked off the Hamilton boys
53-50 in the district final back in Hast-
ings Friday night, March 1.
The Maroons finish their season at
15-10. They were toppled 76-49 by
Grand Rapids Christian in their regional
semifinal ballgame in Wayland Tuesday
night.Hastings senior forward Landon
Steward collides with Holland
Christian's Grant VanderZee as he
tries to get a shot up in the paint
during the second half of their district
semifinal ballgame at Hastings High
School Wednesday, Feb. 28. (Photo
by Brett Bremer)Hastings senior point guard Owen
Carroll is greeted by a hug from head
coach Jess Webb as he exits their
MHSAA Division 2 District Semifinal
loss to Holland Christian for the last
time Wednesday at Hastings High
School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)