Dallas Mora (L), a 2018 graduate of Cedar Springs High School, is pictured here with Matt Silicia, head coach of the GRCC Cross Country team. Courtesy photo.

The GRCC Men’s Cross Country team made a run into the post season and placed 24th overall as a team at the NJCAA Division I National Championship this past fall. As a team, the Raiders finished as one of the top MCCAA schools represented, just behind Macomb and Lansing at the National Championship.

The Raiders add Dallas Mora from Cedar Springs High School to the roster for 2018-19. Mora lettered in Cross Country, as well as Track & Field for the Red Hawks.

Mora was recognized for many team and individual awards during his senior season. He helped his team take home trophies from the Spartan Invitational, the Red Hawk Invitational, and the Kent/Ottawa County Championship, as well as a second place finish at the Carson City Invitational. Additionally, the Cedar Springs Men’s Cross Country team finished 10th overall at the State Championship.

Mora was named All-Conference, as well as second team All-Area during his senior season. He finished out his season with a time of 16:31, placing 43rd at the State Championship meet, while earning his best time and highest placing in three years of racing.

With Mora’s best times coming in during the end of his high school career, the Raiders are excited to have him join the team and help continue their success!

Reprinted with permission from Grand Rapids Community College.

Four athletes from the Cedar Springs High School Boy’s Track Team qualified to participate in the MHSAA Division 2 State Track Meet in Zeeland on June 2, 2018. From left to right: Junior Anthony Brew finished 10^th in pole Vault; Freshman Corey Bowers had an All-State finish with an 8^th place in the 1600; Senior John Todd finished 13^th in the 400 and 17^th in the Long Jump; and Senior Brandon Sawade had an All-State 7^th place finish in Pole Vault.  They are pictured with Head Coach Jeffrey Brazier. 

JV baseball team in the dugout at Forest Hills.

Due to weather delays and cancellations, the JV baseball team was only able to play Greenville twice last week, on Thursday, May 23, and then took on Forest Hills Central on Friday, May 24.

In game one against Greenville, Kyle Wise pitched a great game, striking out six in the 8-2 victory. At the plate, the Red Hawks were led by Connor Ellison, Trenton Snoeyink, Dylan Knauf, Jeremy Campione and Willy Zain with two hits each. Lucas Secord and Dylan Greenland each had hits as well.  

In game two the boys lost 8-4. Colton Moore and Trenton Snoeyink struggled a bit on the mound. Clyde Dykhouse had a pair of hits, as did Knauf and Zain.  Gage Haywood and Dylan Greenland each had hits. Though they hit the ball well, the hits didn’t come at the right times during the game.

On Friday, the boys drew Forest Hills Central in the first round of their end-of-the-year conference tournament. Throughout the game our boys collected nine total hits, led by Trenton Snoeyink with two. Ellison, Knauf, Zain, Greenland, Campione, Moore and Wise each had hits also. Connor Ellison pitched a great game on the mound, taking a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 7th. A pair of walks, followed by a string of hits led to a 4-3 walk off victory for the Rangers, effectively ending the JV season for Cedar Springs.  

All in all, the boys’ record was 13-13-1. Like many sports seasons this one was full of ups and downs. The boys learned a lot and played some great baseball against some pretty tough opponents. The outlook on the future is bright as a quality group of sophomores will head off to varsity next season, and the talented freshmen will look to improve upon this record next season.

The 14th Annual Rockford Area Kids Triathlon is set to be held on Saturday July 14, 2018 at the Rockford High School.  Races will start at 9:00am and participants should arrive an hour before race time.

This is a swim/bike/run event for children age 2-17 sponsored by the Rockford Department of Public Safety, Kent County Sheriff’s Department, and the Michigan State Police. The purpose of the Kids Triathlon is not only to promote physical fitness to our children, but to give them positive alternatives to drugs and alcohol through athletic competition 

Every participant will receive a t-shirt, medal, and participation certificate.  The top three boys and girls in each age group will receive a trophy.  The cost of this race is $20.00 and all proceeds from this event will benefit the Michigan Special Olympics.  The following is a list of races, start times, age groups and the distances they will be performing in:

Awards will be presented at approximately 12:45pm.

For any questions or to register for this race please contact F/Lt Kevin Sweeney of the Michigan State Police at 517-719-1195 or by email at sweeneyk@michigan.gov   

Clyde Dykhouse and Colton Moore getting ready in the field.

On May 17, the Cedar Springs Red Hawks JV baseball team traveled to Big Rapids to take on the Cardinals in a double header.  

In game one, Connor Ellison pitched a great game, striking out 7 while only walking 1. One costly error in the final inning cost the Red Hawks the victory as they lost 5-3. The Hawks scattered 7 hits throughout. Colton Moore, Willy Zain, Kyle Wise, Clyde Dykhouse, Dylan Greenland, Lucas Secord and Dylan Knauf each contributed.  

In game two Colton Moore and Dylan Knauf divided the pitching duties in the 7-5 victory. The Cardinals came out pounding the baseball, but the boys threw strikes and were able to keep them off balance. The defense made a few great plays as well. Knauf and Zain led the team at the plate with two hits apiece. Wise, Dykhouse, Jeremy Campione and Trenton Snoeyink each had hits as well.  

The JV are now 12-11-1 and will wrap up their season with a three game series with Greenville, followed by a conference tournament next week.

Pictured above: Bottom Row (Left to Right):  Avery Lake, Molly Wierstra, Madison Viau, Madison Reyburn, Ella Peck; Middle Row (Left to Right):  Kelsi Green, Stella Malon, Molly Perez, Sienna Wolfe, Reagan Viau, Madelyn Carnes, Gabrielle Christie, Olivia Williams, Adrianna Newhof; Back Row: Coaches Michael Viau, Steve Malon, Chad Lake

This past weekend (May 19-20) the CASSA Tri-Hawks U12 girls team participated in the Cherry Capital Cup Tournament in Traverse City in the Silver Division and came away winners.

The tournament bracket consisted of two pools. The champion from each pool goes onto the championship game. Two games were played on Saturday, where the girls came out with decisive 2-0 wins in both games and against Michigan Fire Juniors and TASC.  

Sunday started out just as successful with a 4-0 win over Cadillac Crush to set up a championship game with Michigan Legends FC from Brighton. The girls fought hard through a very physical game that was tied at the end of regulation, which leads to two 5-minute overtime periods. The Tri-Hawks scored early off a corner kick in the first 5-minute session, which led to the eventual final score of 1-0 to take home the championship.  

To go through four games in a tournament without giving up a single goal is an amazing accomplishment and can’t be done without great teamwork, effort, and soccer ability. The coaches and parents are very proud of this group that have many girls that have played together for 3-plus years from multiple schools in the area and have had continued success against increasing competition to build up to this achievement. We look forward to continue to see these girls on the pitch in the future! 

The adoption of major changes to the Michigan High School Athletic Association transfer regulation was among notable actions taken by the Representative Council during its annual Spring Meeting, May 6-7, in Gaylord.

The Spring Meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,400 member schools is generally the busiest of its three sessions each year. The Council considered 29 committee proposals and dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.

The revised transfer regulation will go into effect for the 2019-20 school year, based on a student-athlete’s sports participation during 2018-19. The new transfer rule will make transferring student-athletes ineligible for one year in any sport played during the previous year at the previous school—unless that student-athlete’s situation fits one of the current 15 exceptions that allow for immediate eligibility. However, the revised transfer regulation also allows that transferring student-athlete immediate eligibility in any other MHSAA-sponsored sport not participated in during that previous year at the previous school.

 The additions to the transfer rule received vast support from member schools in surveys leading up to the Council’s vote.

 “We are hopeful this ‘sport-specific’ transfer rule will be easier to understand, and therefore, more consistently enforced,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “This rule better addresses the changing landscape of transfers, hopefully dissuading those considering moving for athletic reasons while still allowing a full range of sports for those who do switch. It may seem like a punishment to some, but the new rule is actually more permissive for many transfer students, and we saw growing support for these changes from our schools since we began discussing this proposal a year ago.”

To read about other changes made at the spring meeting, read the entire article at https://www.mhsaa.com/News/Press-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/7243/MHSAA-Representative-Council-Adopts-Revised-Transfer-Regulation-at-Spring-Meeting.

These Cedar Springs wrestlers competed at the WAAAM state finals earlier this month. Courtesy photo.

On Sunday, May 6, nine boys from Cedar Springs competed at the Wrestling Amateur Athletic Association (WAAAM) State wrestling competition at Battle Creek Lakeview High School.

Maston Wood took a 1st place; Cole Hacck took a 3^rd; James Joldersma took 7^th; Aaron Smith took 5^th; David Erxleben took 5^th; Westley Wentworth took 6^th; Ben Brunner took 2^nd; Trevor Marsman took 1^st; and Andrew VanGessel took a 3^rd place.

“These boys have worked hard all season and made a big Improvement throughout the season. We are so proud of all the accomplishments they made and can’t wait for next season,” said Coach Nick Emery.

Footgolf is one of three new sports added to the Meijer State Games this summer. Photo by FIFG [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Registration is open for most sports 

Grand Rapids, Mich., May 15, 2018 — The Meijer State Games of Michigan will showcase three new sports at the 2018 Summer Games. The three sports that will be added to the Summer Games lineup this year are: Footgolf, BB Gun/Air Rifle/Air Pistol and Archery Tag. The Meijer State Games of Michigan is now offering over 40 sports in this year’s event lineup.

Archery Tag will take place on Saturday, June 16, at East Kentwood High School (6230 Kalamazoo Ave. SE Kentwood, MI 49508). The shooting sports divisions of BB Gun, Air Rifle and Air Pistol will take place on Saturday, June 23, at the Grand Rapids Rifle and Pistol Club (1331 Nagel Ave SW Wyoming, MI 49509). Footgolf will take place at Stormy Creek Footgolf Course on Sunday, June 24 (3450 36th St Kentwood, MI 49512).

Footgolf sport director, Mirza Causevic, talked about the addition of footgolf to the Meijer State Games of Michigan. “Footgolf is a twist of golf and soccer, which I think will draw interest from all age groups.” “Participants can expect to play 18 holes with a soccer ball, in a competitive environment.”

Ron Carr will be running this year’s shooting events.

“There are three new shooting divisions being introduced to the summer games, and I think this will be appealing to people who want to get in the shooting range, be competitive and have some fun,” said shooting sports director, Ron Carr. “I’m eager to see more shooting sports in the State Games, and I’m honored to be able to coordinate this event.”

Registration is now open for most sports. There is an estimated 8,000+ athletes participating in over 40 sporting events in this year’s Summer Games. For more information about registration, please visit www.stategamesofmichigan.com/summer-games-sports-lineup/. Registration is located on each sports page.

The Cedar Springs Red Hawks JV baseball team played a three game set against Northview last week.  

Games 1 and 2 were played Monday, May 7.  Game 1 went nine innings with Northview coming out on top 9-8. Connor Ellison and Trenton Snoeyink pitched a great game but, again, errors cost the Red Hawks the game. At the plate, Gage Haywood, Dylan Greenland, and Willy Zain each had two hits. Snoeyink, Ellison and Dylan Knauf each had a hit as well. The boys had several chances to win the game, leaving 10 runners on base throughout the game.  

In game 2, errors cost them again as Colton Moore took the mound. Five errors led to big innings by Northview as they defeated the Red Hawks again 10-2.  Connor Ellison continued hitting the ball well with two hard hits. Jeremy Campione chipped in with two hits as well. Trenton Snoeyink and Dylan Knauf each had a hit.

Game 3 was played on Wednesday, May 9. Kyle Wise, Willy Zain and Jeremy Campione shared time on the mound. The Wildcats of Northview hit the ball well, scoring 18 runs. The Red Hawks managed 8 runs on 8 hits, led by Connor Ellison with two. Snoeyink, Campione, Secord, Greenland, Knauf and Dykhouse each had hits as well.

It was a long week of fighting illness and injuries, leaving the JV team with an 11-10-1 record. Next is a non-conference week against West Ottawa and Big Rapids.