Eskymos Rise to Challenges in Repeat
May 31, 2018
By Mark Johnson
Special for Second Half
HARRIS - Back-to-back Upper Peninsula Division 1 golf championships is a sweet payoff for the Escanaba boys golf team.
The Eskymos were the top team again Thursday, after battling a difficult course at Sweetgrass Golf Club, an afternoon heavy downpour and rain delay and the top U.P. boys golf teams.
“The team performed great,” said Escanaba coach Brian Robinette. “You don’t shoot 317 on a demanding course like this unless your players are focused. This course can beat you down if you let it. Our team was tournament tough today.”
Team balance was the key for the Eskymos, and the 2018 champions were led by senior Nathan Rosseau’s runner-up individual finish (41-34-75). Rosseau said he used the rain delay to his advantage.
“It was a momentum change. I am happy with how I came back on the back nine to shoot a 34,” said Rosseau. “It is awesome to win back-to-back U.P.s, and all our guys were putting up numbers. We played well to win on two tough, tough courses at the GNCs and on this course. Here you are one swing away from a double.”
Sweetgrass played 6,400 yards for the Division 1 championship, using the forward tees. And following the heavy rains, it was a wet golf course before the sun bake and temperatures rose into the 80s for the late afternoon finish on the plush Harris layout.
Robinette praised his senior leader Rosseau and his championship team.
“Nathan is a coach’s dream,” said Robinette. “He is always working on his game, and he puts in the time and I am very proud of all our team winning again this year.”
Escanaba’s Brett McDonough shot 35-44-79 to tie for fifth overall, Trevor Denome carded a 42-38-80 and Jaden Gravelle was the fourth scoring player with a 40-43-83 for the winners.
Gladstone’s Rudy Peterson was the medalist firing a 37-37-74 despite a double bogey on his final hole.
“I hit the ball really well today,” said Peterson. “I played probably the best I have in a long time. My driver was good and my wedges were really good today; I only missed three or four greens.”
Calumet was the team runner-up shooting a 322.
Wyatt Tuoriniemi shot a 43-35-78 to led the second-place finishers, placing fourth individually.
Calumet teammate Tyler Johnson scored a 39-40-79 to tie for fifth.
“They have a nice team,” Robinette said of the Copper Kings. “They have four good players, and we always battled with Houghton (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 champions) too for years.”
Robinette’s teams have now won three U.P. team titles with the other championship in 2011.
Gladstone was third in the team standings with a 336 score. Marquette was fourth (340), and Houghton rounded out the top five with a 344 team tally.
Braves’ coach Dane Quigley was disappointed his team did not contend for the title but happy for individual winner Peterson.
“Our team is disappointed, but we have some four-year players who have been with our program a long time and have done well,” said Quigley.
“At our practice round on Wednesday, Rudy shot a 69, and it carried over to the course today. I am impressed with Rudy’s play all season long for us.”
Marquette junior Jordan Jurma shot a 39-38-77 to place third overall and his coach Ben Smith commented on Jurma’s grit.
“Jordan finished his junior year playing really well today. He eagled number four on a hole-out from 100 yards and chipped in on a par five for an eagle,” said Smith. “He battled back from some penalty shots and bad shots, and he hung in there and competed to the end.”
Sweetwater yielded only seven scores in the 70s, and 16 other golfers shot scores in the 80s.
PHOTOS: (Top) Escanaba’s championship team, from left: coach Brian Robinette, Trevor DeNome, Jaden Gravelle, Nathan Rousseau, Nick Ramos, Brett McDonough and coach Jake Berlinski. (Middle) Gladstone’s Rudy Peterson. (Photos by Mark Johnson.)
Skyline's Favorite Status Stands with 1st Finals Win
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2021
EAST LANSING – Ann Arbor Skyline was ranked No. 1 all season, which meant bringing high expectations into the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Golf Finals as the prohibitive favorite.
And with a lineup that boasted two freshmen, the Eagles delivered at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
Skyline recorded a two-day total 594, placing ahead of runner up Detroit Catholic Central (603), plus Traverse City West and Forest Hills Northern (each at 613).
Three of the Eagles’ five players had never been to the Finals before.
“So, they really didn’t understand what all the hype was, which kind of served as a good thing, to not know exactly what they were getting into,” said Skyline head coach Ashley Mantha. “But once they got here, they understood what I was talking about. Fortunately, our (program has) been here before so I could share with the newbies on what to expect.”
Skyline had four players place among the individual top 25 to pace the field. Freshman Ieuan Jones was part of a three-way tie for runner-up to medalist Davis Codd of Brighton, followed by Skyline brothers Vibhav and Vimal Alokam at T13 and T23, respectively, plus Mitchell Strickland at T23.
“Usually we’re the underdogs (coming into a state final), so there a big role reversal today,” Mantha said. “We’ve never been in this situation so how do we prepare for people coming for us, so to speak?
“Each player has like a key phrase I can use to get them in the right head space. We talk about things like how they play with their buddies, or I say ‘Washtenaw,’ just little things that kind of bring them back down to their own game.”
Mantha pointed out how the win was truly a team victory as Skyline counted a normally fifth-player score toward Friday’s first round.
“Luke Richard, my junior, shot his best season score on Friday in the five spot,” she said. Normally he’s in the high 70s but he got a 74 for us, which counted because my No. 1 shot his worst score (on Friday). You can talk about how we should play, but he really played to the moment.”
On the individual side, Brighton’s Codd had spent the last two weeks at an NHL prospects hockey camp in Erie, Pa. – and had to return there immediately Saturday night to play in a game Sunday in front of several NHL pro teams’ scouts.
Yet that didn’t stop the high school golfer from returning to Michigan twice to become co-medalist at his Regional and finish the season at Forest Akers.
And did he ever finish it in style.
Codd came back from 12th place after Friday’s first-round score of 73 to shoot 5-under par 67 on day two (140 total), to win the individual championship.
“Going into this day I had a game plan to go out there and make as many birdies as I could,” Codd said. “The entire day I didn’t look at the leaderboard once. After I walked off that green (No. 13) I kind of figured it out (that I’d won). But I had the same game plan all day, to go and attack the hole.”
Attack he did.
Codd birdied his first four holes (Nos. 14-17), and after some up-and-down play midway through the round, he stepped up to the last hole, the par-5 13th, and ripped a drive down the long, skinny fairway to within wedge length. He made a two-putt birdie to top off his final round as a high school player, who happens to double as a professional hockey player for the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit. Prior to joining the Spirit, he finished Division 1 golf runner-up as a freshman and sixth as a sophomore, and he was able to compete again this golf season because the Spirit have not played in over a year.
Codd out-paced three others who tied for runner-up at 143 – Murphy Kehoe of Traverse City West, first-round leader Jack Zubkus from Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, and Jones of Skyline.
“When you start off with four birdies in a row, that gets the wheels going around and sets a pace,” Codd said. “But I had just a different level of focus on those first four holes, and when that happened, I felt like it was my day, and my day to win, so it was great to start that way.”
Codd said he didn’t get in a practice round for Finals, so he didn’t set any expectations for himself.
“I just went out there to try and enjoy my last two rounds as a high schooler, and it worked out,” he said.
“It’s pretty special to be a part of this Brighton program,” Codd added about the team that took seventh place Saturday. “I was just so fortunate to have my coach, Jimmy Dewling, such a great golf mind and such a great friend, to guide my golf career these last few years and I can’t thank him enough. And I’ve had great teammates over the years. We weren’t the best my first couple of years, but the character in that group set this program on where it’s headed. It’s been a couple of great years in this program.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Skyline's Vibhav Alokam lines up a putt during Friday's first round. (Middle) Brighton’s Davis Codd connects with one of his putts during Friday’s first round. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)