Ludington High School

Susan (MacDonald) Monaghan has the distinction of being the first outstanding girls distance runner in the county, having owned records at Ludington High in the 880-yard, mile, and two-mile races. No one has surpassed her two-mile mark. She was the state runner-up in 1978 with a time of 11 minutes, 7.7 seconds and placed sixth in the mile. She pioneered the Orioles' cross country program, and did ...Read More...

Chadd Holmes is one of only three Ludington High School basketball players to earn first-team all-state honors twice. He did it in 1994 when he averaged 18.9 points a game and again in 1995 when he averaged 22.4 points per game for the 22-4 Orioles. In high school, the 6-foot-9-inch Holmes also started on Ludington's state-ranked soccer teams. After high school, Holmes attended Division 1 Davidson ...Read More...

Lee Edmundson, as a high school sophomore in 1964, shot an 80 in the Class B state golf tournament, helping Ludington High to a share of second place, three strokes behind co-champions Kalamazoo University High and Whitehall. In his junior year, the Orioles finished ninth as a team but Edmundson was co-medalist in the state meet with a 77. As a senior in 1966, Ludington was fifth and Edmundson sho ...Read More...

When Ludington High started its five-year state championship run in gymnastics, it had been competing in the sport for only two years. The first state title came in 1975 and Martha Garrett was the lone all-stater on the team. She was second in floor exercise, third on the uneven parallel bars, fourth in vaulting and tumbling and third in the all-around competiton as the team went 19-0 in duals. In ...Read More...

Howard Jensen coached Ludington High's boys tennis teams for 29 years during which the Orioles won 17 conference and 14 state regional championships. His teams won 292 dual matches and lost 77, a .791 percentage. During one 12-year span, his teams were 174-5 in duals and won 12 conference and 11 state regional titles. Eight of his teams finished in the top 10 at the state finals. His players went ...Read More...

Jay Stielstra participated in track and field, football and basketball in all four years of his high school career. In track and field, he long-jumped 22 feet, 9 5/8 inches, setting a school and Mason County record that still stands. It is the oldest county record still standing. In 1950, Stielstra was the Class B state champion in the 180-yard hurdles with a time of 20.9 seconds. In 1951, he fini ...Read More...

Nikki Arner earned four letters in basketball and two in volleyball. She was named to the Associated Press Class B All-State team as a sophomore, junior and senior. Arner, who will attend Ferris State University on a basketball scholarship, played in more winning games (76) in her four-year high school career than any other Oriole. Her 1,430 career points places her second on the school's al ...Read More...

The team that launched the Golden Age of Basketball in Mason County, the 1953 Ludington Orioles won 21 games and lost two and is still the only LHS squad to advance to the state finals. Coached by Joe Kowatch, who was then in his first year at Ludington, the team won the North Central championship as well as Class B district and regional titles. The team won its first four games of the season befo ...Read More...

Bob Organ earned all-state honors in 1989 and 1990 in football and was a member of the Detroit News Blue-Chip team signifying the best 11 players in Michigan. He was also listed as one of the top 100 prep players in the nation by Street & Smith magazine. His junior year he caught 13 passes for 215 yards and five touchdowns and Ludington, which was 9-1, was champion of the Seaway Conference. Th ...Read More...

Russell Houk led Ludington High to Big Seven basketball championships in 1938, 1939 and 1940 and was the Orioles leading scorer his senior season. He was the president of his class, graduating with honors. One of the area's premier athletes in the 1940's and 1950's, he attended Central Michigan University where he played center at 6-feet, 4 inches and 170 pounds, in 1941 and 1942 before enlisting ...Read More...