If you missed anything from the weekend, make sure to head over to https://catholiccentralsports.com/ and check out this weekend's Cougar Sports Recap. 

We are trying to showcase each team’s competition over the weekend for everyone to see. If you are a parent and have photos you want to share with us, please reach out to Assistant Athletic Director Brian Ciluffo at brianciluffo@grcatholiccentral.org. We could always use more photos of our athletes!

The Cougar Athletes had a busy weekend handling some tough competition. The Varsity Boys Tennis team traveled to Hope College to play in the Division 4 MHSAA State Finals. The Girls Varsity Golf team traveled to Allendale to play in the MHSAA State finals at the Meadows. The Football team traveled to Houseman Field for a chance to clinch the OK-Gold Conference Championship outright with a win, and the Freshman and Sophomore Girls Swim & Dive team competed at City High in the FR/SO Invitational.

⛳️   It is only fitting that we start with our CHAMPIONS! 

A season that started out with a lot of optimism after last year's 5th place finish, ended this past Saturday at the MHSAA Division 3 State Finals with the CC Varsity Girls Golf Team winning the program's first State Championship!  The win brings a 3rd Golf State Championship to CC in the last 3 seasons, following the boys team and their title runs in 2021 and 2023.

The weather was less than desirable at The Meadows Golf Course at Grand Valley State University, but that did not hold back the team as they ended the first day of competition 18 strokes ahead of Williamston and last year's champion Macomb Lutheran North.  As Head Coach Kim Napieralski noted after the weekend's competition:  “The good news about this weather is I have mudders for players. They don’t care about the conditions as much as some other teams perhaps. It was hard to get through the puddles of water, but they just kept playing.”

Pacing the team was Junior Ava Wisinski (76/82-158) who finished tied for 6th place out of over 100 golfers competing.  Sophomore Kelsey Preston (80/79-159) finished a stroke behind Ava in a tie for 8th place and Senior Katie Cook finished in the top 20 at 173 (87/86).  Sophomores Sofia Piccione (92/92) and Margaret Deimel (91/95) rounded out the team's scoring for a 2 day team total of 673, 12 strokes ahead of Williamston and 23 strokes better than Macomb Lutheran.

🏈  The Varsity football traveled to Houseman Field to take on the Ottawa Hills Bengals in the final regular season game. In the end the Cougars came away victorious and outright OK-Gold Conference Champions with a 42-0 win.

Scoring for the Cougars were 2 touchdowns for Lucas Thelen (15 yard pass from Connor Wolf | 23 yard pass from Connor Wolf), Brock Jones (25 yard run), and two touchdowns for Kamall Hillard (10 yard run | 10 yard run), Cameron Maley (1 yard run).

With the win, the Cougars advance to 8-1 on the season in preparation for the Division 5 MHSAA playoffs. In the first round the Cougars will be hosting the Benton Harbor Tigers. The game is scheduled for 7:00 PM kickoff on Friday, October 27. Since we are entering the playoffs - tickets will go to the digital phase through GoFan. The link will be posted on the Catholic Central Athletics website and social media sites shortly.

🏊‍♀️ The Girls Swim & Dive team traveled to City High School on Saturday for the Freshman/Sophomore Invitational. In the end, the girls put on a strong showing and swam some really fast times! Placing for the Cougars were:

Lucy Cotter 1st place in diving 

200 medley relay 5th place - Maggie Doyle, Kate McNamara, Valeria Rodriguez, Mae Braun 

200 Freestyle 1st place - Mae Braun 

200 freestyle relay 6th place Mirabelle Boivin, Maggie Doyle, Barbara Padron, Ella Morrow 

100 backstroke 2nd place - Mae Braun 

400 freestyle relay 4th place - Mae Braun, Mirabelle Boivin, Valeria Rodriguez, Kate McNamara

  🎾   Mother Nature was not kind to the Boys Tennis team and their quest for an MHSAA Division 4 State Title. The two day event was hampered by rain and forced the event to be played indoors for most of the two days, which brought long waiting periods between matches for the Cougars.

Overall. The Cougars finished in 12th place with 7 points in a very competitive Division 4 Finals Meet.

In what could have been one of the most thrilling matches on the first day, 1st Singles Charlie Lindermann lost in his first round after battling back from a 5-0 deficit in the 2nd set to force a tiebreaker. It was definitely a match that grabbed the attention of many of the other players in attendance.

In 2nd Singles - Matiss McNally lost in the first round after being one of the first groups to restart outside post rain. 

In 3rd Singles - Thomas Tamae punched his way out of the first round before falling in the second round.

In 4th Singles - Axel Cummings moved the farthest for the Cougars, making it all the way to the semifinals before falling.

In 1st Doubles - Sebastian Deimel and Ben Radgens lost in the second round.

In 2nd Doubles - John Kaufman and Danny Kirk lost in the second round.

In 3rd Doubles - going the farthest for the Cougars in the Doubles flights were Jackson Dozema and Davis Vu who made it past the first and second round before bowing out of the tournament in the third round.

In 4th Doubles - Jude Miller and Paul Huynh lost in the second round.