This week West Bloomfield High School was in the spotlight as every winter sports team participated in a match, meet, or event.
The WBHS Wrestling team put up a hard fight in the team district matches on Wednesday, February 11th at North Farmington High School. The Lakers faced off against the number 5 ranked team in the state, Walled Lake Central (WLC), as their first round opponent. Despite the Laker’s very hard fight and a close match throughout, WBHS was just short of advancing to team regionals, as WLC finished with the victory. This season, the WBHS Varsity Wrestling team has taken down major opponents and have proved to be a threat to opponents around the state, even with this season’s curse of injuries. This was the last team event of the season. On Saturday, the WBHS Wrestling team competed in the individual district tournament. Matt Gudeneau (senior) finished the tournament in first place and Deshawn Cole (senior) and Justin Hollins (senior) each finished in second place. These three Lakers will advance to the individual regional events on Saturday, February 21st to compete for a spot in the state championship.
The Varsity Girls Basketball team put up a good fight against the Troy High School Colts on Tuesday, but were unable to take the victory. The Lakers started off slow, as they were outscored 8-2 in the first quarter and had to play catch up for the rest of the game. WBHS rallied in both the second and fourth quarters but their efforts were just short and the Lakers fell, 38-32. The Lakers’ Charlika Stubbs (junior) led the the team with 15 points and Taylor Pierce (junior) added 8 points and 9 rebounds.On Friday, the JV Girls Basketball team took on Bloomfield Hills High School and dominated throughout. The Lakers maintained a respectable lead from the start and managed to hang on for the 41-31 victory. The Varsity and JV teams will each face Lake Orion High School in an away match on Thursday, February 19th.
The Varsity Boys Basketball team played two games last week and racked up two hard fought victories. The Lakers first tipped off against Stoney Creek High School. The Lakers maintained just a slim 3 point, 39-36 lead at the end of three quarters and saved the best for last. The Lakers erupted in the fourth, outscoring their opponents 24-13 to take the 63-49 victory. WBHS was led by point guard Trishton Jackson (junior) with 22 points to give the Lakers their 6th straight victory. The Lakers then faced Birmingham’s Seaholm. After two quarters the Lakers trailed Seaholm by just 2, 25-23. They then regained the lead and much more in the second half as they busted the game wide open to take a 68-39 victory. The Lakers dominated the fourth quarter by scoring a monstrous 32 points. In the midst of the Laker’s unstoppable run, Michael King (senior) tossed a lob to Trishton Jackson, who finished strong with a hard slam of which seemed to be a possible candidate for Sportscenter’s Top 10 plays. Center, Zach Allread (senior) finished with 20 points and WBHS extended their run to 7 games. The Freshman team was also in action and managed to split the games last week. The freshman were victorious in their first match against Stoney Creek with a 33-20 win. The team then took on Seaholm and could not seem to spark a late run to take the lead, as they fell 49-39. All boys basketball teams look forward to taking on Avondale High School on their home court on Tuesday, February 17th.
The WBHS Hockey team fell in a difficult loss to Birmingham Unified on Thursday, February 12th after a 7-0 victory the week before against Avondale. The Lakers were beaten in every aspect of the game in their 7-1 loss against Birmingham. The Lakers still remain hopeful and are expected to take on L’Anse Creuse on Wednesday, February 18th to improve their 12-6-2 record.
This week the Varsity and JV Cheer teams each competed in a competition of which consisted of multiple teams from around the county. The JV team dominated their competition and finished with the gold in first place. The Varsity team did just as well and took home the silver in second.
The Varsity and JV Winter Guard took the stage and competed against 50 other schools at a regional competition held at Walled Lake Western High School on the 14th. Both teams did not fail to excite: the Varsity team finished in 11th place and the JV team blew out their competition to finish in 2nd. WB was the only school that had both a Varsity and a JV team participating.  Once again the WBHS Winter Guard teams performed at an exceptional level and made the West Bloomfield Community proud. The Lakers hosted a traveling team from Southgate for lunch on the day of competition which began at 6:00 am and ended close to 11:00 pm.  Good luck Lakers at their next Regional competition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 28!
Come back next week for more sporting updates!