Prep roundup: Pinckney hockey's Sebastian Smith continues hot streak

CHELSEA — Junior Sebastian Smith maintained his hot scoring touch, leading Pinckney to two quality victories in the Michigan Public High School Hockey Showcase at the Arctic Coliseum.

Smith scored the game-winning goal in the third period of a 2-1 victory over Lowell, a team which has reached the state Division 1 quarterfinals the last two seasons. Neil Adams had the Pirates’ other goal.

In the second game, Smith had the only goal of the three-round shootout, giving Pinckney a 5-4 victory over Romeo, a team three years removed from winning the state Division 2 championship.

Smith two goals and one assist in regulation time, giving him 10 goals and six assists in his last five games.

Freshman goalie Max Lederer stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout.

Michael Whitus, Austin Selmi and Jacob Meade also scored for the Pirates (9-13), who have won three of their last four games.

Brighton 4, Utica Eisenhower 2

Caleb Seiter, Will Jentz, Logan Mitchell and Jason Verhelle scored for fourth-ranked Brighton, which took a 3-1 lead with 10:37 left in the second period.

Jared Kraski’s power-play goal with 57 seconds left in the second period got 12th-ranked Eisenhower within a goal. Verhelle scored with 2:11 left in the game to give Brighton (9-12) a cushion.

The Bulldogs outshot Eisenhower, 46-10.

Hartland 8, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 4

Bennie Tervo scored four goals and set up another, as Hartland (19-3) rolled past the third-ranked team in Division 1.

Gabe Anderson and Trent Krause each had a goal and three assists. Joey Larson and Brenden Tulpa had a goal and one assist. The Eagles beat two of the top four teams in Division 1 last week, having skated to a 4-0 shutout of No. 4 Brighton on Wednesday.

Hartland’s next game is at 4 p.m. Saturday against Livonia Stevenson for the KLAA championship at Hartland Sports Center.

SWIMMING

MISCA meet

Howell junior Hunter Gubeno won two events, setting school records in the process at Eastern Michigan University.

Gubeno won the 200-yard individual medley in 1:52.99 and the 500 freestyle in 4:33.82. He also helped Howell qualify for the state meet in the 200 medley relay with a 12th-place time of 1:41.33. Ethan Charles, Will Morrison and Braden Gregory also swam on that team.

Brighton senior Drew Panzl also had two school-record performances. Panzl took second in the 100 butterfly in 52.35 seconds, then teamed with Remy Fischer, Scott Spaanstra and Leighton Brien to place fourth in 3:15.26. They broke the school mark of 3:15.32 set in 1991.

Brighton got a state-qualifying time of 1:40.06 in the 200 medley relay from John Louria, Panzl, Seth Ellis and Brien, who placed ninth.

The Bulldogs also qualified their 200 freestyle relay team of Spaanstra, Ellis, Christian Koss and Fischer, which tied for eighth in 1:30.50.

Louria qualified in the 100 backstroke in 55.27 seconds, placing 13th.

“It is a huge weight off the team getting our relay state cuts before the KLAA championship meet (Feb. 23),” Brighton coach Jason Black said.

Brighton will host Howell at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the final dual meet of the season for both teams.

GYMNASTICS

Stick it for a Cure Invitational

Hartland finished third out of 16 teams and all five of its gymnasts placed in the top 10 all-around in Division 1 or 2 at Coldwater.

Hartland’s Leila Fetuni was second all-around in Division 1, placing second in floor exercise, third on vault, third on vault and fourth on bars.

Emma Verkerke was fifth all-around, Abbey VanGoethem sixth and Ariana Adams 10th. Verkerke was second on vault.

Ashlyn Shudick of Hartland was fifth all-around in Division 2.

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SKIING

Alpine Valley Divisional

Hartland’s boys followed up their first unbeaten dual-meet season by winning their first divisional championship by a 51-132 margin over Lakeland. Hartland was 9-0 in duals.

Joe Pezzotti led the Eagles, placing second in giant slalom and third in slalom. Brendan Hoose was fourth in giant slalom and seventh in slalom, Hunter Greig was third in giant slalom and 12th in slalom, and Bryce Natter was seventh in giant slalom and 13th in slalom.

Hartland’s girls, who were 3-6 in duals, finished sixth in the divisional meet with 186 points. Lakeland won with 99, but Milford was the overall season champion.

Isabella Hoose was fourth and Sabrina Pezzotti 13th in both events for Hartland.