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5 straight at state: Marquette Senior High School boys win school-record 5th consecutive state ski title

Marquette’s Adam Skendzel has a disagreement with one of the gates during a boys giant slalom run at the MHSAA Division 1 skiing finals held at Nub’s Nob in Harbor Springs on Monday. Skendzel recovered to finish sixth in the event as the Redmen won the team title. (Traverse City Record-Eagle photo by James Cook)

HARBOR SPRINGS — Bradley Seaborg doesn’t think this is the end of the road for Marquette’s skiing state championships.

The Redmen are graduating four seniors from a team that won Monday’s MHSAA Division 1 state title for the fifth straight year, scoring fewer than half the points of runner-up Traverse City Central in a sport where less is more.

“I don’t think this is the end at all,” Seaborg said. “We’ve still got Andrew Thomas, who is a very good junior. We’re losing four good guys, but we’re picking up a couple good freshmen next year.”

Seaborg is one of those seniors, but he went out by taking the state slalom championship.

He and the rest of the team also went out a different way.

In shorts.

The entire Redmen team showed up to the awards ceremony — which was held outdoors at Nubs Nob in Harbor Springs — in khaki shorts, much to the amusement of the crowd gathered.

Since the Redmen had their Upper Peninsula championships canceled because of unseasonably warm weather, why not celebrate another state crown in mild conditions?

“We were all like, ‘What should we wear for awards?’ and we were thinking khakis,” Seaborg said. “Then it was going to be pretty hot, so why not khaki shorts?”

First-year coach Dan Menze didn’t wear shorts, but wasn’t about to stop his boys from doing what they wanted after winning a school-record fifth straight title.

“You have to be professional throughout the day,” Menze said. “But at the end of the day, if you want to have a little fun and celebrate winning five championships in a row, I feel like they deserve to celebrate.”

Marquette had 35 points to TC Central’s 88. Rochester Adams-Stoney Creek was third with 110, followed by Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern-Eastern with 164, Brighton 187, White Lake-Lakeland 207, Grand Blanc 243, Hartland 253 and Holly-Oxford 271.

The Redmen won four straight from 2000-03, a mark now eclipsed by this group’s streak of five.

“For us to break that and get our fifth is pretty sweet,” said Seaborg, who was involved in three of those titles.

Seaborg is a six-time first-team all-state selection, taking fifth in giant slalom in addition to his slalom championship.

He also won slalom last season and was top five in GS. He was top 10 in both as a freshman before taking off his sophomore season to focus more on club skiing.

Menze said he inherited a great program, and said the pressure was on to continue its winning ways.

“I was blessed with an extremely talented team that I walked into coaching,” Menze said. “I’ve coached a lot of these guys coming up.”

Like Seaborg, Menze also isn’t willing to concede that the Redmen’s run could end next season.

“We had a lot of freshmen competing for spots on that A team,” Menze said. “We will have a slight rebuild. You can’t say you’re not going to after you had first and second on (one) side were seniors and three in the top 10 on the other side. It’ll be an interesting year next year. It’ll be a lot closer than it has been for years.”

“We expected to get second and we got second,” said TC Central junior Joe Aulicino, who was seventh in slalom and ninth in GS. “It was kind of exactly what we thought would happen. It’s still pretty cool.

“Marquette is very good. They lose four seniors next year, so hopefully we can get them next year.”

Seaborg and teammates Eric Gencheff and Andrew Thomas gave the Redmen three of the top four slalom spots. Dylan Robinia was 11th, Adam Skendzel 20th and Truman Durand 21st.

Forest Hill’s Ben Myers was the only non-Marquette skier in the top four, taking third.

Myers also won the giant slalom championship, holding off runner-up Gencheff on the second run.

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