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Marquette wins everything at Division 1 regional ski meet

Marquette's Andrew Thomas makes a hard cut during the MHSAA Division 1 regional ski meet held at Schuss Mountain in Bellaire on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Thomas was fourth in slalom and sixth in giant slalom as the Redmen cruised to an easy victory. (Photo courtesy James Cook)

BELLAIRE — Marquette Senior High School might’ve saved its best performances for Monday at an MHSAA Division 1 regional downhill ski meet at Schuss Mountain.

The Redmen and Redettes swept all the team and individual titles, ensuring they’ll be a force to be reckoned with at the state championship meet to be held at Nub’s Nob in Harbor Springs on Monday, Feb. 27.

In team competition, the Marquette boys were dominant as they’ve been all season, taking four of the top six places in slalom and five of the first eight spots in giant slalom for 31 points, far ahead of runner-up Traverse City Central’s 80.

Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern was third with 115, followed by Traverse City West with 128, Portage Central 210, Rockford 226, Grand Haven 251, Saginaw Heritage 268 and Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 306.

Despite taking the top two spots in both GS and slalom, the MSHS girls had a much closer meet, scoring 49 1/2 points to second-place TC Central with 57.

TC West was third with 72, followed by Forest Hills Northern with 154, Rockford 204 1/2, Portage Central 227 1/2, Loy Norrix 258, Heritage 309 and Grand Haven 333 1/2.

Marquette showed off its depth with four different individual champions.

The Redmen’s Bradley Seaborg won the boys slalom with runs of 28.93 and 29.69 seconds, the two fastest runs of the day, for a total time of 58.62 seconds.

That beat out runner-up Evan Culp of TC West by nearly 1 1/4 seconds even as Culp posted the third- and fifth-fastest runs for a total of 59.84 seconds.

Other Marquette scorers as part of the team’s top four were Eric Gencheff, third in 1:00.37, Andrew Thomas, fourth in 1:00.66, and Adam Skendzel, sixth in 1:02.72.

In addition, the Redmen’s Dylan Robinia was 13th in 1:05.73 and Aaron Grzelak 14th in 1:05.76.

Gencheff claimed the GS title with runs of 23.86 and 22.49 seconds for a 46.35-second total, just a tenth of a second ahead of Forest Hills Northern’s Ben Meyers, who had the single fastest run of the day and came in at 46.45 seconds.

Skendzel was third in 46.97 seconds, edging out Culp by two-hundredths of a second. Thomas was sixth in 47.68 and Robinia seventh in 48.20 as Marquette’s top four.

But the Redmen’s Truman Durand was right behind them in eighth in 48.74, while teammate Seaborg was 28th in 52.76.

In the girls meet, the Redettes’ Ainsley Kirk was the dominant force, winning giant slalom and taking second in slalom.

Kirk had the only sub-25-second first run and sub-26-second second run in GS, clocking 24.94 and 25.89 seconds for a 50.83-second total. But she only won by 0.46 of a second over teammate Natalie Robinia, who had 25.26 and 26.03 for 51.29 seconds.

Jacey Johnson was seventh in 52.35 seconds and Sadah Scheidt tied for 12th in 53.95 to round out Marquette’s top four. Teammate Jenna Miller was 18th in 55.22 and Amelia Cole was 20th in 55.31.

In girls slalom, Scheidt bounced back with the fastest opening run and second run, clocking 32.75 and 30.19 seconds for a total of 1:02.94, just over three-quarters of a second ahead of the runner-up Kirk, who came in at 33.30 and 30.41 for 1:03.71.

Included in the Redettes’ top four were Johnson, fifth in 1:05.30, and Cole, 19th in 1:11.05. Robinia was 24th in 1:14.29 and teammate Haley Thams 26th in 1:15.17.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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