2025 in review: Lansing Eastern falls, MSU makes major athletic changes

The past year didn't produce a single dominant local news story, but it was a newsy 2025, nonetheless.

From a classic Tom Izzo Michigan State University men's basketball run in February and March, to the end of one of the oldest criminal cases still in the local court system, to seismic changes in MSU athletics at the end of the year, here are our choices for the top stories of the year, in calendar order:

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MSU makes Elite 8, Izzo sets Big Ten wins record

Tom Izzo saw his bid for a ninth Final Four fall just short in an Elite 8 loss to Auburn, 70-64, but what a February and what a season it was for the Spartans. MSU, led by freshman Jase Richardson, won the Big Ten title by three games and logged Izzo’s sixth 30-win season, finishing 30-7. Izzo, already a Hall of Famer, broke Bobby Knight’s Big Ten wins record and was awarded Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. The honors were just the latest for Izzo, who has led MSU to eight Final Fours, 11 Big Ten championships, a national championship and made 27 straight NCAA tournaments — the longest streak in college basketball.

East Lansing boys win state basketball title

East Lansing, with a roster that evoked memories of Michigan State basketball history, won its second boys basketball title in school history, and the first since 1958, coasting to a win over Wayne Memorial in the title game, 66-46. Cam Hutson, Kingston Thomas and KJ Torbert, all sons of former Spartan players, led them to a 28-1 season, winning six games in the tournament, all by 17 or more points.

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Lansing Eastern High School demolished

In March, the historic former Lansing Eastern High School behind the University of Michigan-Sparrow Hospital was demolished. The hospital system, in 2016, before it was owned by UM, bought the building from the Lansing School District. Preservationists tried for years to save the building, but UM ultimately decided to use the 18-acre site for a $97 million, 120-bed psychiatric hospital and tear down the school. Little remains today of the building, including a cupola preservationists had hoped would survive. Plans called for the 1927 cornerstone and a stone arch to be saved for inclusion in a memorial garden.

Faith-healing parents convicted

A jury in March convicted Lansing parents Joshua and Rachel Piland of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of their infant daughter, Abigail, following a jury trial in March. Their sentencing three months later in June brought to an end an eight-year criminal case that began after Abigail died in 2017, just days after she was born. She had a treatable condition that caused a lethal buildup of bilirubin, known as jaundice. The couple lost custody of all of their surviving children in civil court proceedings. The Pilands testified they trusted only in God for healing and would not have taken Abigail to a doctor for any reason. Prosecutors contended the couple caused the baby's death by shunning medical care, despite warnings the baby could die. They are serving prison sentences of 20 to 45 years.

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12 injured, teen dead after Lansing street race

A street race in south Lansing on April 24 led to a crash that killed a 15-year-old Lansing boy and injured 12 other people. Lansing police said two vehicles racing down South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Pierce Road collided with a third vehicle making a legal turn. Five vehicles were ultimately involved in the crash. One other person was critically injured among the dozen, and the victims ranged in age from 3 to 52, police said. Both drivers of the vehicles accused of racing denied they were doing so, but video shows the cars traveling at a high rate of speed prior to the crash.

Driver that struck, killed family members in drunken driving crash sentenced

A Perrinton woman accused of driving into a family walking home along a rural Clinton County roadside in May 2024 while she was driving drunk pleaded no contest in August. Ashley Monroe, 36, pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder and eight counts of driving while intoxicated causing serious injury. The crash on South Wacousta Road, in front of Gloria Miller Looking Glass Valley Park, in Watertown Township killed Johnathan Esch, 30, a Lansing Township firefighter, and Daniel Harris, 42. More than a dozen others were injured, with some suffering major bone fractures, head trauma or other injuries that could have been life-threatening. Monroe had a blood-alcohol level of 0.195 — more than twice the legal limit — after the crash and had taken prescription drugs with adverse side effects, according to testimony in an earlier hearing. In October, she was sentenced to 30-60 years in prison for second-degree murder, and eight concurrent terms of two to five years for driving while intoxicated causing serious injury

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Major Michigan Avenue rebuilding project finished

After two years and $14 million, Michigan Avenue in October fully reopened to traffic between the state Capitol and Michigan State University. Officials lauded the completion of the project that made it tough on local businesses, but was a major upgrade designed to make the corridor between Lansing and East Lansing safer, more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly and more attractive. "It's been a long time coming, especially for businesses and drivers," Lansing Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick said in October as the road reopened. "It will take awhile for traffic to get back to normal." The road was reconfigured from five lanes to four, with new sidewalks and traffic signals and updated sewer and water mains. That section of Michigan now has two westbound lanes, a center turn lane and one eastbound lane. "Cycle tracks" were added to accommodate bicyclists. The construction began early in 2024.

3 killed after business jet crashes in Bath Township

A business jet en route to the Lansing area crashed on Oct. 16 in the Rose Lake Wildlife Area near Bath, killing all three people on board. A federal agency said the Raytheon HawkerXP, owned and operated by Aerolineas del Centro, had its regular flight crew at the controls during a routine post-maintenance stall test. The small jet had just undergone maintenance at a Duncan Aviation facility near Battle Creek. The National Transportation Safety Board said test pilots experienced in stall tests for the aircraft should have been flying the plane, but were not. "...after being unable to co-coordinate the stall test flight with a test pilot, the flight crew elected to perform the post-maintenance stall test themselves." All three crew members were Mexican nationals. A final crash report by NTSB could take as long as 18 months, officials said in October.

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Smith out, Fitzgerald in as Spartan football coach

New MSU athletic director J Batt moved quickly after the MSU football team ended its season Nov. 29 with a win over Maryland in Detroit, snapping an eight-game losing streak. On Nov. 30, he fired second-year head coach Jonathan Smith, who is owed about $33.5 million on a seven-year, $53 million deal he signed in November 2023. Within hours, word was surfacing that Batt would hire former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is the program's fourth coach in as many years, as Smith was let go two seasons after the implosion of the Mel Tucker era. By Dec. 2, MSU announced that Fitzgerald, who led Northwestern to a 110-101 record over 17 seasons from 2006-22 years before being fired amid a hazing scandal in 2023, would make $30 million over the five years with an incentive-based contract that could reach as much as $54 million over eight years. Tucker is suing MSU for wrongful termination and the nearly $75 million he was owed when he was fired.

East Lansing couple set record with donation to MSU

It was a busy December for MSU athletics. On Dec. 5, the university announced a $401 million donation from the CEO of Grand Rapids-based Acrisure, Greg Williams, and his wife, Dawn, who live in East Lansing. Some $290 million of the donation will go to Spartan Athletics as part of the new $1 billion "For Sparta" fundraising initiative that MSU announced days earlier. The donation was the largest in school history, the previous record in athletic being $32 million, given by former MSU basketball player and United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia in 2021. "The commitment that Greg and Dawn are making represents an extraordinary act of generosity and belief in Michigan State University's future," MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz said at the time. As part of the donation — in addition to the $290 directly to MSU Athletics — the Williamses are investing $100 million into "Spartan Ventures," a newly created nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation “designed to advance, promote and support MSU's department of athletics."

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 2025 in review: Lansing Eastern falls, MSU makes major athletic changes