The Hastings Banner — Thursday, June 24, 2021 — Page 13Trio of area softball players earn all-state honors
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
They started out as the battery for the
Lakewood varsity softball team as freshmen,
pitcher Morgan Stahl and catcher Hannah
Slater.
It was a different conclusion to their time
on the Lakewood varsity softball team than
they would have expected back then, but both
girls have just been named first team all-state
in Division 2 by the Michigan High School
Softball Coaches Association. They’re joined
in earning postseason honors from the
MHSSCA by a Delton Kellogg girl just start-
ing her varsity tenure – slugging freshman
first baseman Allison Brandli.
Brandli came on strong as the season pro-
gressed, helping lead the Delton Kellogg var-
sity softball team to its third consecutive
Division 2 District Championship. The
Panthers were 20-11 overall this season.
Stahl was also honorable mention all-state
in Division 2 as a sophomore back in 2019.
Like the rest of the varsity softball players in
the state, Stahl and Slater missed their 2020
season because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A missed junior season wasn’t nearly
enough to keep Stahl from becoming the
Lakewood varsity softball team’s all-time
strikeout leader. The Vikings’ pitching ace
finished her three varsity seasons with 990
strikeouts, besting the 847 total set by Stevie
Spetoskey from 2003-2006. She broke her
own single season strikeout record at
Lakewood by striking out 498 this spring.
Slater was named to the all-state team as a
designated player (DP). She played shortstop
for the Vikings this spring, a move made in
part due to an injury and in part due to the fact
that the Vikings had a new talented, freshman
catcher in the program.
The Lakewood team won a district champi-
onship in Division 2 this spring, and played in
its first regional final in 25 years after besting
Greater Lansing Activities Conference rival
Olivet in the regional semifinals. The
Lakewood girls saw their season end in a 6-1,
ten-inning loss to Owosso in their regional
final in Fowlerville June 12. The Vikings
were one strike away from upending the
Owosso girls in the top of the seventh inning
before the Trojans rallied to stay alive in the
state tournament.
Owosso captured the Division 2 State
Championship Saturday, besting Marysville
8-5 in the Division 2 State Final at Michigan
State University.
Stahl was in the circle for all 29 of the
Vikings’ wins this season as her team finished
the year with a 29-8 record.Alford ready for next level of competition at Ferris
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Nathan Alford is excited to be engrossed in
science, math and running
The member of the the Lakewood High
School graduating class of 2021, who quali-
fied for the Division 2 Lower Peninsula Cross
Country Championships and set a school-re-
cord in the 3200-meter run with the Viking
varsity boys’ track and field team this spring,
signed his National Letter of Intent to join the
Ferris State University Mens’ Cross Country
and Track and Field teams in February.
He has high hopes of making the Bulldog
varsity roster as a freshman, but also knows
that is going to be a challenge. While it was a
freshman, American International College’s
Ezra Mutai, who won the 2019 NCAA
Division II Cross Country Championship [the
last one held], that is not how the transition
goes for most high school runners moving up
from 5K to 10K and 8K races against more
experienced athletes.
“What I have heard is that as a high school
senior you’re killing all the competition all
the time, and going into college as a freshman
you’re going to get killed now,” Alford said.
“I’ve been told don’t let it damage your ego,
because people think I have a big ego.”
Alford chuckled a bit when asked if he
thinks he has a big ego.
“I don’t know. I think I’m proud of my own
accomplishments, but I think I have a reason
to be proud because I have worked so hard. I
don’t brag like, ‘I’m better than you,’ but if
people ask about what I do I will tell them, ‘I
win sometimes.’”
He won the Greater Lansing Activities
Conference Cross Country Championship in
October 2021, setting a new personal record
with his time of 16 minutes 14.9 seconds, and
then a few days later qualified for the cross
country state finals with an eighth-place
regional finish. He was forced into quarantine
soon after and was unable to compete in the
finals at Michigan International Speedway.
Alford felt like his senior year was cursed a
bit, first missing the cross country finals and
then battling an injury that limited him on the
track all spring. He still managed to set new
personal records in the 400-meter dash, the
800-meter run, the 1600-meter run and then
finally set a new Lakewood school record in
the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:56.08 at
the Greater Lansing Honor Roll Meet of
Champions June 1. He had been even a few
seconds faster than that in the 3200 at an unof-
ficial, timed event, Distance Night at the CAT,
hosted by Grand Rapids Catholic Central a
few days prior to the Honor Roll Meet.
He won the 1600-meter run at the GLAC
Championship as a senior and was second in
the 3200-meter run, behind Olivet senior
Noah Griffith. Soaking wet and covered in
mud, Alford leaned across the finish line at
Turkeyville six tenths of a second ahead of
Griffith to win the GLAC Cross Country
Championship last fall.
Griffith also has plans to run for Ferris
State University, and Alford said the two are
planning to be roommates at Ferris State as
freshmen.
“I am really looking forward to it,” Alford
said. “I have been looking forward to college
since freshman year. I wanted an environment
that was more serious, more professional,
especially when it comes to running and stuff
... I have always wanted a team that has the
same mindset as I do, of being that elite,
next-level athlete. In school, I have always
wanted to take the classes I felt would benefitme the most, not like art or history, I wanted
to take science and math classes because that
is what I want to do with my life. I have
always wanted an environment that is more
focused on my interests, and I always though
college could be that place.”
The hard work continues for Alford this
summer. He is working on strength training
this month, and has plans to transition to more
mileage based work as the calendar turns to
July and in the lead-up to move-in day in Big
Rapids in late August. He thinks he’ll be run-
ning 80-90 miles a week by then. He currently
travels to AL!VE in Charlotte five or six times
a week for CrossFit training - doing a lot ofreps of light-lifting work and movements.
He has plans to run in a 10K or two before
the summer is done to see what it is like to
race at that distance.
Alford said he has been running as long as
he can remember. His parents, Bill and Dawn
Alford, met at Lansing Community College
where they both ran competitively. Nathan
also wrestled before high school and during
his freshman year at Lakewood, but he decid-ed to focus solely on running after a knee
injury on the mat.
Since the seventh grade, when he got brac-
es put on, Nathan has known he wanted a job
in the dental field. He plans to get into the
pre-dental program at Ferris State University.
Nathan was one of the top scholars in his
graduating class at Lakewood this spring, and
is a member of the National Honor Society
and the Lakewood Circle of Excellence.Lakewood state champs prepping
for Lansing Hall of Fame
The Lakewood Viking 1975 Class B State
Championship varsity boys’ basketball team
will finally get to celebrate its induction into
the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame
July 29 during the 45th Annual Dinner and
Induction Ceremony at the Lansing Center.
The Vikings’ former head coach Rolly
Krauss learned that his 1975 team would be a
part of the Hall’s Class of 2020 in late
December, 2019, but the pandemic forced last
summer’s 2020 ceremony to be postponed.
A group of nine individuals, the 1975
Lakewood varsity boys’ basketball team and
the 1977 DeWitt varsity girls’ basketball team
will be honored at the ceremony. A welcome
hour will being at 4:30 p.m., with dinner at5:30 p.m. The Hall of Fame program begins at
6:30 p.m.
Krauss is still hoping to get in contact with
Denny Geiger, Dan Bishop, Tom Johnson, Al
Westendorp and Jim Elenbaas from that 1975
team to include them in the celebration, and
he would appreciate any help from the com-
munity in tracking them down. Coach Krauss
can be reached by email at sparty1968@hot-
mail.com.
Lakewood defeated Mount Pleasant in the
1975 Class B State Final, 69-47, at the
University of Michigan’s Crisler Arena in
Ann Arbor.
Reservation forms to order tickets for the
Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Famedinner and ceremony can be found on the
lansingsportshalloffame.org website. The cost
is $280 per eight-person table or $35 for each
individual ticket.
All ticket reservation forms must include
payment in full. Orders will be processed on a
first come, first served basis. Seating is limit-
ed. All seats are reserved and are available
through advanced sales only. There will be no
sales the day of the event.
Those with any questions or who require
additional information, may contact Bob
Every at 517-484-0677 or email him at
[email protected].
Tickets will be mailed to purchasers
approximately July 17, 2021.Lakewood’s Nathan Alford (seated center) smiles after signing his National Letter of
Intent to join the Ferris State University Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field
programs for the upcoming season. Ferris was joined at his signing day ceremony at
Lakewood High School in February by his parents, Bill Alford (seated left) and Dawn
Alford (seated right), Lakewood varsity track and field coach Jim Hassett, his brother
Ryan Alford and Lakewood varsity cross country coach Curtis Tyler. (Photo supplied)
Lakewood’s Nathan Alford (right) and Olivet’s Noah Griffith close in on the finish line
together at the end of the 2020 Greater Lansing Activities Conference Cross Country
Championship at Turkeyville. The two have plans to be roommates and teammates,
on the men’s track and field and cross country teams, at Ferris State University next
season. (File photo)Delton Kellogg freshman first baseman Allison Brandli has been named honorable
mention all-state in Division 3 by the Michigan High School Softball Coaches
Association. (File photo)Lakewood senior pitcher Morgan Stahl
has been named one of six first team all-
state pitchers in Division 2 by the Michigan
High School Softball Coaches Association.
(File photo)Lakewood senior Hannah Slater has
been named first team all-state in Division
2 as a DP (designated player) by the
Michigan High School Softball Coaches
Association. (File photo)Call 269-945-9554 for
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