Michigan High School (9-12) Team Championship

By Jennifer Skidmore

The 2005 Michigan High School Team Championships were hosted this year by Adrian College admissions office in the newly constructed Ridge Student Center. Despite its location, the 2005 championship tournament featured an elite field of twenty unique teams from diverse locations around the state. First-time schools included teams from Newbury high school in the upper peninsula, Bloomfield Hills International Academy, Grand Haven, St. Clair, and Redford.

Defending champions, Monroe led the field with an average team rating 200+ points higher than their nearest competitor. They demonstrated that this was no fluke by defeating their first round opponents, Goodrich with a 4-0 score. Other shut-out matches in round one included a Flint Kearsley victory over Battle Creek and a Detroit Cass Tech win over University of Detroit.

Second round action saw four schools attain perfect scores as Monroe defeated Detroit Southeastern, Kearsley shut-out Detroit Murray-Wright, Cass Tech won over Newbury, and Detroit Finney defeated Frankenmuth. Kearsley led the field with eight game points, but Monroe and Cass Tech faltered slightly as they each gave up a draw on one board. These perfect scores composed a final four responsible for nearly twenty of the thirty state championship titles.

Time controls for the final two rounds were lengthened this year to allow players more time in their more competitive games. The match between Monroe and Finney was determined by the bottom boards as Derek Wilder defeated John Gattinger on board one to score the lone point for Finney. A close match between Kearsley and Cass Tech, saw individual players Scott Thach, Eric Meyers, and Jaison Oliver each establish a perfect score before entering the final round. A draw on board four sealed the victory for Kearsley. Kearsley and Monroe were now tied in match points (3) and game points (10.5) as they prepared for an intense last round match.

Medal winners for teams not winning trophies included Grand Haven first board, Brent Kowalski, Byron fourth board, Phillip Hamilton, Battle Creek fourth board Ben Niewenhius, Murray-Wright third board, Adrian Berry, and Livonia Franklin first board, Bradley Lambdin. As trophies were awarded to half of the competitors, matches in the final round proved important as low as table eight where Newbury earned its first trophy at the high school team tournament with a victory over Frankenmuth. A Clio victory over Southeastern positioned them amongst the three point teams. Finney and Cass Tech who recovered from their round three matches with Monroe and Kearsley, respectively, joined them. The Monroe and Kearsley match wavered throughout the round as Chris Schmidt scored first for Kearsley on board three. Kalyan Ramakrishnan won on board 4 for Monroe, as did Ashley Carter on board two. A draw between Scott Thach and John Gattinger on board one ended the match with a decisive result as Monroe repeated their 2004 result to become the 2005 Michigan high school team champions.

Congratulations to all of the teams for their participation and a big thank-you to Adrian College and Janel Sutkus for the fabulous free cookies and warm welcome that we received.

Michigan High School (K-12) Team Reserve

By Jennifer Skidmore

The 2005 Reserve high school tournament included twenty teams representing fourteen schools. This was significantly smaller than the 2004 field of 27, but the competition was no less fierce. Detroit Bates, junior high team champions from the week before, was the top seed. Only 100 points separated second-seeded Monroe B from seventh-seeded Dearborn Fordson B, suggesting an evenly matched group of teams.

The first round results also indicated closely matched teams as only Flint Kearsley B scored a shut-out victory, defeating Detroit Northern on table four. This was Northern’s only loss of the tournament. Bates, Cheboygan A, and Ann Arbor King were amongst the other teams at the top of the field who were also victorious in the first round.

The top 4 teams were all successful in round two as well. Bates scored a shut-out victory over King on table one, as did Kearsley B over Mendon on table four. Victories by Monroe B and Cass Tech B completed the group of perfect scores and two teams moved to one and a half as Cheboygan A was held to a draw by defending champions Monroe Middle School A on table five.

Bates defeated Cass Tech B on table one and Kearsley B defeated Monroe B on table two to set up a last round match-up between Bates and Kearsley B. Cheboygan A moved into the fray with a victory on board three over Monroe Middle School C as did King with their victory on table four over Monroe Middle School A.

Round four games were intense as the players fought to ensure themselves individual medals as well as their team trophies. Individual medal winners for teams not winning trophies were, Medin Dedic, first board for Fordson B, Cass Tech B fourth board, Robert Forsyth, Monroe Middle School C fourth board, Tim Luck, Nick Applebee and Andrew Campbell, first and second boards for Byron B, Mendon and Kearsley C first boards, Jack Bungart, and Pat Dellinger, Jessica Walsh, Kearsley C fourth board, and Branden Anderson, Cass Tech C second board. Trophy decisions were made as low as table six where Northern became the only team to score two and a half by defeating Monroe Middle School A. Teams scoring three points were King, a resurgent group of Kearsley freshmen, and Kearsley B, the losers of the tournament defining match on table one. Cheboygan A won again to finish in second place, the only team with three and a half points. The winner of the final round match on table one was Detroit Bates, the 2005 Reserve champions.