Another year of high school sports has come to a close around Gaylord.
Sports fans around the 45th parallel were treated to another season to remember, with multiple state championships returning to Otsego County, deep playoff runs and exciting games all throughout 2024-25. Now, it’s time to let us know who you thought had the best year among the male athletes at Gaylord, St. Mary and Johannesburg-Lewiston.
Nominees were chosen based on individual and team accolades as well as each individual’s perceived impact on those accomplishments. Vote as many times as you like from now until Wednesday, July 16 at 9 a.m.
Keaton Abraham, Gaylord
Sports: Football, Alpine Ski
The younger brother of a former state champion Connor Abraham, Gaylord’s Keaton Abraham knew he had a lot to live up to entering high school. Now, after finishing his high school football career as an All-State lineman and his skiing career as a state champion, it’s safe to say he lived up to those expecations.
A multi-year starter for Gaylord football’s resurgence over the last four years, Abraham was a first-team all-state defensive lineman for Division 3-4 as a senior, totaling 57 total tackles and 10 sacks. He is signed with Michigan Tech to play football in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Then, after a heartbreaking finish to his junior season, Abraham rebounded to wrap his skiing career on top, winning the slalom at the D2 state finals with a final time of 62.02 seconds, earning himself a spot on GHS’s Wall of Champions.
Jaron Bensinger, Gaylord
Sports: Wrestling, Football
Much like Abraham, Bensinger came up in the GHS ranks behind an older brother who won a state championship, with Jaron following in the footsteps of Class of 2024 member Ty Bensinger in the wrestling ranks. And much like Abraham as well, he had to overcome failure on the state title level to secure his ultimate glory.
A junior and one of the top-ranked 144-pound wrestlers in the state all season, Bensinger was able to overcome a loss in the 2024 state finals and an all-out battle from Freeland’s Buddy Leonard in the D2 144-pound championship, but Bensinger refused to leave Ford Field empty handed again, surviving the ultimate tiebreaker to become the second Bensinger on the GHS Wall of Champions.
“I think last year helped me, it gave me a goal for this year to keep pushing towards,” said Bensinger. “Kept working, finally got there. Man, it took everything I had though.”
Bensinger was also a second-team All-Big North linebacker for the Gaylord football team and will be one of the top returning players next season.
Zachary Cowper, Gaylord
Sports: Track and field, Football
It only took Zachary Cowper one full year to make a lasting impact on the Gaylord High School community.
A first-team all-state lineman in the fall and a state champion shot put thrower in the spring, Cowper’s name and his accolades will live long into the future for GHS as he sets to take his talents to Illinois State next season.
First, he made his impact known immediately in the fall, taking over as the anchor for a usually stout GHS offensive line. His efforts earned him first-team all-state honors in D3-D4 as an offensive lineman.
Then, he took things to another level in the spring, dominating nearly every throwing event he entered during his final high school track and field season. He eventually went onto to the D2 state finals in Hudsonville, Mich. where he won the state title, set a new school record and recorded the longest throw in the state all year with a throw 65 feet, 0.5 inches, clearing the second-place finishers’ throw by over seven feet.
Daniel Jacobson, Gaylord St. Mary
Sports: Football (8-player), Basketball, Baseball, Golf
Being a school with such low enrollment numbers, Gaylord St. Mary is used to seeing their athletes stretched thin throughout all three seasons. It isn’t even rare to see those athletes excel at multiple sports and become the best player for multiple Snowbirds’ teams.
However, what Daniel Jacobson has brought to GSM athletics over the past two years is very, very rare.
Jacobson was not only the best athlete on any GSM team he found his way onto, he often was in the running for the most talented in the Gaylord-area and, sometimes, in the entire state.
In the fall, Jacobson secured the GHT Football Player of the Year Award after a remarkable season for the Snowbirds 8-player team, rushing for 1,413 yards and 24 total touchdowns in eight games of work. In the winter, he did it again, earning GHT POY honors after a stellar senior backetball season where he averaged 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the team with the best record in the area (15-6, 14-4 SVC).
He nearly swept the GHT POY Awards after another standout season on the diamond, hitting for a .451 average and 44 runs scored along with 11 RBI from his shortstop position. And, just for good measure, he became a state qualifier in golf as well, shooting a 74 overall at the D4 regional in Bellaire to finish third. He missed his chance to compete at the state finals, however, as he was helping the GSM baseball team win a D4 regional championship and advance to the state quarterfinals.
Nathaniel Hummel, Johannesburg-Lewiston
Sports: Football, Basketball, Track and Field
Known mostly for his role on the JoBurg football team, senior Nathaniel “Nater” Hummel quietly had a solid final year in black and red.
The starting fullback in coach Joe Smokevitch’s Wing-T offense, Hummel led the Cardinals in nearly every offensive category including rushing yards (604), rushing touchdowns (6), receptions (6), receiving yards (63) and receiving touchdowns (1).
In the spring, Hummel qualified for the D4 track and field state finals in pole vault, finishing 16th overall after clearing 10 feet, 3 inches, and was a Ski Valley Conference Champion in the 100-meter run with a time of 11.63 seconds as well as the 200-meter with a time of 24,27 seconds.
Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Vote for the Gaylord Herald Times Male High School Athlete of the Year for 2024-25
Reporting by Dylan Jespersen, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
