Elk Rapids Boys Wins Soccer Title, Local Runners Stack All-State Honors During Busy Sports Weekend

It was a big weekend for local high school sports, with multiple local teams clinching state titles and numerous individual athletes securing all-state status. Read on for a rundown of some of the highlights.

>The Elk Rapids boys soccer team beat Williamston 1-0 on Saturday to win the Division 3 state championship – the program’s first state title since a pair of back-to-back wins in 1997 and 1998. The triumph came in a nailbiter of a match that saw the score deadlocked at 0-0 for the entirety of regulation time and most of overtime. Elk Rapids junior Noah Liggett scored the lone goal of the game with just over two minutes left to play in overtime, avoiding a winner-take-all shootout and securing the Elks a victory. The Elk Rapids boys had narrowly missed bringing a title home two years ago, when they fell in the championship match against Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. The Elks end the season with a sterling 24-1-3 record. Elk Rapids High School will host an open-to-the-public celebration assembly for the team this Friday, November 13, at 2:05pm in its competition gym.

>For the second year in a row, Kingsley High School’s football team routed their northern Michigan rivals, Traverse City St. Francis, to win the district championship. The Stags beat the Glads 38-7 to secure the victory. Next up, the team will face off against Sanford Meridian for the regional title, starting at 7pm this Friday, November 13, on their Kinglsey home turf. A win Friday would put Kingsley just one more victory away from a state championship game at Ford Field. The Stags made it to the finals last year, but lost to Jackson Lumen Christi. A year ago, though, Kingsley had a record of 9-2 coming out of the district finals, versus a perfect 11-0 record this year.

>The Traverse City West Senior High boys cross country team finished fifth in the Division 1 state finals this weekend, led by a 17th place finish by Liam Wierzba. Wierzba ran a 15:28 at the state championship meet, held at Michigan International Speedway, but had run a 15:04.5 at regionals – an all-time school record for West. In Division 3, Charlevoix’s boys team won the state title for the second year in a row, led by a fifth-place finish by Hunter Eaton, in a time of 15:35. Also in Division 3, the Traverse City St. Francis Girls finished third overall, led by a ninth-place finish from Maggie Mohrhardt.

Wierzba, Eaton, and Mohrhardt all end the season with all-state honors, which are earned by any runners who finish in the top 30 of their respective state meet races. Other all-state runners from northern Michigan include TC West’s Finn Frost-Grayson and Tessa Mascari; Charlevoix’s Ryder Hopkins and Hannah Muladore; Petoskey’s Reeve Oberman, Jack Frentz, and Garrett Lansing; Cadillac’s Ella McInerney; Glen Lake’s Spencer McNitt and Abraham Feeney; St. Francis’s William Ready; Benzie Central’s Eli VanPoortfliet, Maggie McClellan, and Avery Kelly; Kingsley’s Tristan Hernandez; Leland’s Carter Suttman and Sophie Grinage; Buckley’s Ethan Harrand; and Petoskey St. Michael’s Veronica Page, Mea Wesley, and Cole Wesley.

>In volleyball, Traverse City Central’s season drew to a close after the Trojans lost in five sets to Midland Dow in the district finals. Elsewhere in northern Michigan, though, multiple teams won their district titles, including Suttons Bay (who beat Leland on Friday to win their first district crown in 19 years) and reigning D3 state champions Kingsley (who won their third straight district title on Thursday). Notably, Kingsley have moved up from Division 3 to Division 2 this season.