Lakeland Skier Wins State Championship

The following was submitted to White Lake Patch by Scott Rolando, and written by ski coach Sue Wiberg.

 has a new State Champion in skiing, junior Kelsey Griffin. Lakeland's Boys and Girls ski teams competed at the State Meet on Feb. 27, at Nub's Nob near Petoskey. The venue at Nub's is very challenging with Giant Slalom courses set on Scarface and Smokey, and Slalom Courses set on Chute. The steepness and pitch changes on the hill are some of the most difficult in the state. The weather wasn't helping with wind gusts on top around 40 mph, leaving kids huddling together to try and stay warm.

All of that didn't slow down Kelsey Griffin who laid down two amazing slalom runs, the first run more than one second faster than the nearest competitor. With those two runs Griffin took first place in Slalom and is the 2012 Michigan State Champ. Also placing high for Lakeland were junior Taylor Janssen, with a 4th in slalom, earning him First Team All-State; senior Joe Metz with 11th in slalom for a Second Team All-State; senior Dan Smallegan finished 22nd in slalom; senior Brendon Clover finished 27th in slalom; senior Dana Wiberg was was 48th in Giant Slalom; and senior Mary Armstrong was 49th in Slalom.

Both Lakeland Girls and Boys ski teams qualified for the state finals by finishing in the top three at the Feb. 16 regional. Both teams represented Lakeland well. The boys took 8th place and the girls finished in 9th place for Division 1 Michigan high school skiing team scores.