THE HASTINGS
Thursday, March 7, 2024Delton boys win first district title in 40 years
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The difference was 30 points at the end of
the Trailblazers’ victory over the visiting
Delton Kellogg varsity boys’ basketball team
Jan. 11 in Saugatuck when the home team
buried seven threes over the Panthers’ zone
defense.
The difference was 14 points when the
Delton Kellogg boys missed 14 free throws in
their Southwestern Athletic Conference Cen-
tral Division loss in the rematch with the Trail-
blazers in Delton two weeks ago [Feb. 16].
The difference was two points when Delton
Kellogg freshman guard Grady Matteson
decided to attack the basket from the top of
the key with his Panthers down 36-34 in the
MHSAA Division 3 District Final at
Bloomingdale High School Friday night.
This time was different.
A Matteson fake took the first Saugatuck
defender to the ground, and then he looked to
spilt two guys at the free throw line to get to
the hoop. He stumbled and went up with a
shot as he was fouled. Matteson’s off-balance
shot hit its mark to tie the ballgame.
DK sophomore guard Keegan Hill could
hardly stop hugging Matteson long enough
for him to go swish a free throw through the
hoop that put the Panthers in front 37-36 with
4.4 seconds to play – the game winning point
in the Panthers’ first district championship in
40 years.
After a couple timeouts, the Trailblazers
were inbounding the basketball on the offen-
sive end. Their star Russell Vandepoel
received the ball behind a couple of screens,
got by Hill in the right corner, did a little up
and under move around DK’s Victor Gonza-
lez along the baseline and put a floater up that
glanced just hard enough off the inside of the
rim to bounce out.
The Trailblazers hands went to their heads
in disbelief as a mob scene of maroon and
white played out in celebration above the
massive Bloomingdale Cardinal logo at cen-
ter court.
Saugatuck finished the 2023-24 SAC Cen-
tral season tied atop the conference standings
at 9-1 with Galesburg-Augusta, and the Trail-
blazers end the season at 18-6. Delton Kel-
logg saw its season end in the MHSAA Divi-
sion 3 Regional Semifinals at Pewamo-West-
phalia Tuesday evening against Covenant
Christian.
The Panthers close the year at 12-
overall.
Senior forward Chad Stopher led Delton
Kellogg with 13 points in the win, matching
Vanderpoel’s total for the night. Matteson
finished with 11 points.
Matteson just joined the regular varsity
roster in early February – in part because of
his own skill and in part to help a beat up
varsity squad missing the likes of Torren
Mapes, Blake Lillibridge and Grant McAr-
thur, which is also now without starting soph-Last one, best one for
TK at Cheer Finals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Trojans took their one last chance to
make their mark on the 2023-24 varsity com-
petitive cheer season and made it count.
Senior Kenady Smith said the Thornapple
Kellogg varsity competitive cheer team is a
superstitious bunch. The Trojans take to sing-
ing a bit of ‘Now or Never’ before the start of
round three each competition.
“The line is, ‘history will know who we
are,’” Smith said. “We always just belt that
out. It is always so big. We are singing, danc-
ing, high energy, like we want to be here. And
we’re here.”
“Here” was McGuirk Arena on the campus
of Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleas-
ant for the MHSAA Division 2 Competitive
Cheer Finals Saturday afternoon, and the TK
ladies left their mark by putting up their high-
est score of the 2023-24 season, 769.
points, which put them in sixth place overall
at the finals.
They were almost seven points better than
they were at the 2022-23 finals when they
placed fifth, and they were just eight hun-
dredths of a point behind their co-champions
in the OK Gold Conference from Cedar
Springs who managed a final tally of 769.
to finish fifth.
“We always peak at districts or at region-
als and then we come and swallowed up in
this big arena and get swallowed up by these
big huge teams and whatever. They didn’t
do that,” TK head coach Madelynn Lula
said. “They went out there and they peaked
at the state finals. They went out there and
did exactly what I asked them to do. They
did exactly what I asked them to do. They
went out there and got the highest scores of
the season.”
The Trojans tallied their top round one
and round two scores and their top overall
score too. Round three was less than half a
point off their best score of the year, and
coach Lula was thrilled to see scores of 9.
and 10 from judges for their overall impres-
sion in that final round. Their final round
three score was 315.40.
“Unbelievable,” Lula said.
In round three, the Trojans outscored the
team from Carleton Airport that won the state
runner-up trophy. They outscored the defend-
ing state champions from Gibraltar-Carlson.They outscored all three of the competitors
from their west side regional – Cedar Springs,
Reeths-Puffer and Plainwell. Only the state
champions from Allen Park and the Dearborn
Divine Child girls that placed third overall
were better than TK in round three.
“That is exciting to me. Little wins,” Lula
said. “We knew we weren’t coming to win
the mitten. Of course, we would love to, but
we knew where we stood. We had to go out
there and perform, and have our best day, and
our best rounds, and our best feeling, and we
did all of that.”
Gibraltar Carlson and Allen Park have won
the past 17 MHSAA Division 2 Competitive
Cheer championships, with one school or the
other finishing second nine times during that
stretch. Gibraltar Carlson has won the title 11
times in those 17 seasons and Allen Park girls
made it six championships in that span of
dominance since 2008.
Allen Park won with an overall score of
793.34. Carleton Airport took the runner-up
spot with 779.92 points ahead of Dearborn
Divine Child 779.84, Gibraltar Carlson
778.10, Cedar Springs 769.08, TK 769.00,
Plainwell 762.06 and Reeths-Puffer 745.02.“It is crazy, and I am so happy that we
peaked and got our highest at state,” Smith
said.
The TK ladies didn’t just close strong.
They started strong and had a great middle
portion too.
Coach Lula was looking for performance,
punch and passion in round one, and she got
it from her girls who earned a score of
230.90.
“They looked like they loved what they
were doing and that was the difference,” Lula
said. “In round two, I made it a point to say,
‘listen you have to go out there and stick your
skills. If you do that you will be undeniably
above 220, you will.’ They did that. They
went out there and they drilled their feet into
the ground and they spread those toes to
make sure they didn’t move, and they did
their job. That is all I can ask for as a coach.
Today was exceptional. I am so proud of my
athletes.”
The TK ladies had a score of 222.70 in
round two.
Smith said she felt like she was much more
present mentally at this year’s finals. The
excitement and adrenaline left her barelyremembering what had happened at the end
of the 2023 finals.
There were two stunning scores, aside
from TK’s performance, that played a big part
in the day’s final standings. Gibraltar Carlson
was in second place,.54 behind Allen Park
heading into round three, but a stunt group
came crashing down during their round three
routine forcing an eight-point deduction that
really hurt Carlson’s chances of keeping pace
with Allen Park.
The other biggie was the round two score
for the Cedar Springs girls – 228.68. The TK
ladies were pretty happy to boost their round
two score from regionals by a little over two
points. The Red Hawks upped their game to
improve on their round two score from
regionals by more than six points.
Trojan senior Mali Holland got up out of
the circle of her teammates as the Red
Hawks’ final tally was read with all the
teams gathered on the mat and then plopped
down laying on her back as the numbers
sank in. Finishing.08 behind the RedThe Delton Kellogg varsity boys' basketball team celebrates its first district championship in 40 years after a 37-36 win over
Saugatuck in the MHSAA Division 3 District Final at Bloomingdale High School Friday. Team members are (front from left) Victor
Gonzalez, Keegan Hill, Grady Matteson, Tyler Howland, (back) assistant coach Jason Howland, Cristian Rojas, Gabe Smoczynski,
Gabe Ramsey, Francesco Monni, Hugo Martino, Chad Stopher, Isaiah Resendiz, Andrew Diamond, Rhys Bedford, Torren Mapes,
JV coach Cogan McCoy, Blake Lillibridge and head coach Jim Hogoboom.See DISTRICT, page 11
Thornapple Kellogg senior Mali Holland and her teammates perform during round
two of the MHSAA Division 2 Competitive Cheer Finals at Central Michigan University's
McGu irk Arena Saturday, March 2. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg's Mia Hilton (back left) and Payton Gater are the first to celebrate their team announced as the sixth-place
finisher at the MHSAA Division 2 Competitive Cheer Finals inside Central Michigan University's McGuirk Arena in Mt. Pleasant
Saturday, March 2. (Photo by Brett Bremer)See TROJANS, page 11