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Finals Preview: No. 1s Eye Return to Top
June 13, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Battle Creek Lakeview, East Lansing, Lansing Catholic and Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central all have rich traditions in boys golf. They're also the teams ranked No. 1 in their respective divisions by the coaches association heading into this weekend's MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals.
But none of the four is a reigning champion – something they hope to remedy beginning with Friday's first rounds.
Below is a look at some of the expected team and individual favorites at each Final. First-round play tees off at 9 a.m. Friday, with the final round beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday. Click for a full list of Finals qualifiers and Regional results.
Division 1 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West
Battle Creek Lakeview finished a stroke behind champion Birmingham Brother Rice at last season’s Final, and Muskegon Mona Shores finished third and six strokes back. Lakeview and Mona Shores are ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, heading into this weekend. No. 9 Saline, No. 7 Plymouth and unranked Rockford also broke 300 at their respective Regionals. Detroit Catholic Central is ranked No. 4 after finishing sixth last season and winning the Division 1 title in 2010.
Battle Creek Lakeview: The Spartans shot an outstanding 287 on their home course, Cedar Creek, to win the Regional by seven, with sophomore Matt Alderink finishing second, senior Matt Garland third and senior Landon Osborne and freshman Andrew Walker among those tying for fourth individually. Garland is the reigning Division 1 Finals individual champion and Osborne tied for seventh last season; Alderink and sophomore Gabe Penegor also were in the lineup a year ago.
Muskegon Mona Shores: Five seniors hope to finish with their first championship and the school’s first since 2005. All five were in the lineup for last season’s third-place finish, and four of the five helped the team to a fifth place in 2011. Reed Hrynewich was the only Mona Shores player to make the Finals in 2010, when he tied for sixth individually as a freshman. They finished third at the Regional at Cedar Creek, with Hrynewich tying for fourth individually and Joel Maire tying for eighth.
White Lake Lakeland: The Eagles are seeking their first MHSAA title after qualifying for the Finals for the first time since finishing fifth in 1995. Lakeland tied with DCC for the team title at their Regional at Wixom’s Lyon Oaks with four juniors and a freshman in the lineup. Junior Alex Kleckner tied for second at that tournament with three more teammates among the top 15.
Detroit Catholic Central: Senior Charlie Green missed in the individual top 10 at last season’s Final by two strokes, but returns along with senior Corey Szmadzinski. The latter and sophomore Glen Piot tied for fourth at the Regional with Green tied for sixth. Green also was on the sixth-place Finals finisher in 2011 and the championship team in 2010 – when he tied for third individually.
Other individuals to watch: Grosse Pointe South sophomore Joe Becker tied for fourth last season, and Brother Rice senior Kyle Gaines finished sixth – and won the Regional at Wixom with a 68. Rockford junior A.J. Varekois shot the lowest Regional score in Division 1 last week, winning in Battle Creek with a 67.
Division 2 at the Meadows at Grand Valley State
East Lansing is ranked No. 1 as it pursues its first title since 2000. But reigning champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood has moved up to No. 2, and No. 4 DeWitt beat East Lansing at their Regional and owns two of the last three Division 2 titles (and finished second last season). No. 3 Grand Rapids Christian is playing for its first championship. Marshall, ranked No. 7, and No. 9 Detroit Country Day also were among five that broke 320 at Regionals.
East Lansing: The Trojans are back after a three-year Finals hiatus with a crew of five golfers who all averaged 40.7 strokes or fewer for nine holes this spring. Sophomore Joe Croom has been among leaders and tied for third at the Regional at Gull Lake View West, and Connor Danigelis tied for ninth and is one of three seniors hoping to finish with a team title.
Cranbrook-Kingswood: The Cranes reached the Final by a stroke after finishing third at the Regional at Fieldstone in Auburn Hills. But expect a bounce back this weekend with two top-10 individual finishers back from last season’s championship team. Senior Alex Papa and sophomore Dylan Deogun tied for 10th at the Regional and tied for ninth and fourth, respectively, at last season’s Final.
Grand Rapids Christian: Three players from last year’s lineup that finished eighth should lead a rise up the standings, led by junior Ben VanScoyk – who tied for sixth at the Diamond Springs Regional and was the team’s low Finals scorer a year ago. Senior Tom Voskuil and sophomore Sam Kuiper also were in last season’s lineup, and along with junior Tommy Rietema also finished among the top 15 at the Regional.
DeWitt: Sophomores Owen Beyer and Courtland Nelson joined holdovers from the back-to-back champions of 2010 and 2011 to help the team finish second a year ago. Beyer tied for third and junior Brandon Erickson for seventh at last week's Regional as the team finished one stroke ahead of East Lansing and seven better than No. 10 Richland Gull Lake.
Others individuals to watch: Hamilton sophomore Nick Carlson won the individual championship after a playoff last season and returns. Detroit Country Day junior Rishi Patel missed the top 10 last spring by four strokes but won his Regional last week with a 71. In addition to DeWitt, East Lansing and Gull Lake, the Gull Lake View West Regional also included the two low Regional shooters in Division 2 – St. Joseph junior Matthew Zerbel with a 69 and Plainwell junior Peter Torres with a 70.
Division 3 at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley
Jackson Lumen Christi has owned Division 3 with championships the last four seasons – much like Grosse Ile dominated with five titles in six seasons from 1998-2003 and Lansing Catholic did with three titles in five seasons from 2001-05. Those three and Hanover-Horton are ranked highest coming into this weekend; Lansing Catholic holds the top spot, followed Lumen Christi, Hanover-Horton and Grosse Ile, respectively. Hanover-Horton was runner-up last season and owns one title, from 1993.
Lansing Catholic: The top four players from last season’s fifth-place Finals team will lead the Cougars into this weekend. Senior Jacob Johnson tied for eighth individually at last season’s Final and won last week's Regional at Glenbrier in Perry by two strokes with a 72 (and then a playoff). Sophomore Niko Voutaras followed in third and junior Brent Marshall in 10th; both were in last season’s lineup too along with junior Joey Jurkovic. Lansing Catholic owns an impressive win this season at the CAAC Open ahead of Division 2 contenders East Lansing and DeWitt.
Jackson Lumen Christi: Although senior Dean Hitt is the only returnee from the Titans’ latest MHSAA champion, his new lineup mates have kept with tradition. Senior Connor Maddalena shot 74 to win their Regional at Cascades in Jackson, and juniors Jacob Anuszkiewicz and Patrick Campbell tied for fifth as Lumen Christi won by 10 strokes over runner-up Hanover-Horton. Hitt will be playing in his third MHSAA Final.
Hanover-Horton: Senior Johnny Brockie and sophomores Brock Spink and Kenzie Brockie all are back from the team that led last season's Division 3 Final after the first round before finishing second after winning a tie-breaker. Kenzie Brockie tied for eighth individually that day and for 10th at last week’s Regional – where Spink tied for seventh and Johnny Brockie finished third.
Grosse Ile: The Red Devils lost that second-place tie-breaker last season, but hope to make a play for a third straight top-three finish with senior Jimmy Kobrick back from last season’s Finals lineup. He tied for 10th at that Cascades Regional and sophomore Nick Bonomici tied for seventh as Grosse Ile finished third as a team and seven strokes back of runner-up Hanover-Horton.
Individuals to watch: Grand Rapids West Catholic senior Sam Weatherhead won last season’s individual championship by four strokes with a 136 and shot a 75 to win his Regional last week at The Medalist in Marshall. Alma senior Brent Green tied for the lowest Regional round in Division 3 with a 72 before losing in the playoff at Glenbrier. Freshman Scott Sparks shot a 74 to win his Regional at Flint Elks by two strokes over senior teammate Dan Raicevich. A number of others shot 75s at Regionals.
Division 4 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East
Top-ranked Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central missed a third MHSAA title in four seasons by finishing five strokes back of Lake Leelanau St. Mary at last year’s Final. Saginaw Nouvel Catholic, No. 3 heading into this weekend, followed in third in 2012. No. 2 Suttons Bay and No.4 Fowler also posted top-seven finishes a year ago.
Kalamazoo Hackett: The Fighting Irish posted the lowest Regional score in Division 4 by seven strokes, 309, and return this weekend with the top four from last season’s runner-up team. Senior Ted Rider won last year’s individual championship by five strokes, and junior Colin Joseph tied for eighth; Joseph, senior Luke Stull and Hillsdale Academy senior Chip Blood all tied for first at last week's Regional on Hackett’s home course of Milham Park before Joseph won in playoff.
Suttons Bay: The Norsemen also return four from last season’s team, which finished seventh. Sophomore Devin Capron tied for first at their Regional at Spruce Run before losing in a playoff, but all five Suttons Bay players finished among the top 14 as the team won by 12 strokes with a 316.
Saginaw Nouvel: The Panthers should make another run at the title with three players back from last season including individual sixth-place finisher Brody Schiller. He finished second at the Regional at Pine River in Alma to sophomore teammate Nick Ludka – who shot a 72 and along with junior James Fabiano also was on the 2012 varsity. Nouvel won the Regional by 14 strokes with a 317.
Fowler: The Eagles finished second at their Regional at The Emerald in St. Johns, two strokes back of Pentwater. But they bring back three players this weekend from the team that finished sixth at the 2012 Final. Senior Andy Birchmeier tied for the team’s low scorer at that Final, and was the Regional runner-up last week after missing tying for first by a stroke.
Other individuals to watch: Seven of last season’s top 10 will play this weekend. Leland/Lake Leelanau St. Mary sophomore Joel Sneed won the tie-breaker last week against Capron at Spruce Run and finished fourth at last season’s Final. Manistee Catholic Central senior Zack Bialek was one spot behind Sneed last season and won the Regional at The Emerald. Auburn Hills Oakland Christian junior John Van Noord and Hillsdale Academy’s Blood also tied for eighth last season at Forest Akers West.
PHOTO: Hamilton's Nick Carlson won last season's Lower Peninsula Division 2 individual championship in a playoff and returns this weekend as the favorite. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
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Lumen Christi Lives up to Links Tradition
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
June 9, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
JACKSON – Every city has things for which it is known. Jackson is no different.
Jackson is the birthplace of the Republican Party.
It claims to have originated –and perfected – the Coney Island hot dog.
And Jackson is home to some really great golf.
Just what makes Jackson such a great golf town?
“Maybe it’s the water,” Jackson Lumen Christi boys coach Dave Swartout said with a smile. “I think the fact that there are 20 courses in the county certainly helps. So anybody who is young and wants to play golf has the opportunity, and luckily for a lot of people in this area, especially as juniors, you can play golf for not a lot of money. It’s not as expensive of a sport as some people might think it is.”
According to the National Golf Foundation’s annual report this year, Jackson is second in the state to Monroe and 12th in the country for 18-hole golf courses per capita. And that has led to some sensational golf out of Jackson on the high school level.
Dating back to 1937, when Jackson High School won the Class A title, Jackson County boys golf teams have totaled 30 MHSAA Finals boys championships, led by Lumen Christi, which has 14. Lumen Christi also has won four girls golf titles.
“I play golf almost every day,” Lumen Christi senior Will Double said. “It does help when you have the availability to play different courses every day and play different holes.”
The Titans appear to be in the mix for another title. They are ranked No. 2 in Lower Peninsula Division 3 going into this weekend’s championship tournament at Forest Akers East on the campus of Michigan State University. Lumen Christi is coming off its 11th consecutive Regional championship last weekend.
“I really think we have a realistic chance to win it, but I’ve said that the last five years, too, and we’ve finished second and third,” Swartout said.
History of success
Lumen Christi has won an MHSAA-record 14 Finals championships in boys golf. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Lumen Christi opened in 1968 with the merger of Jackson St. Mary and Jackson St. John, and from 1954-61, St. Mary, coached by Ed Cimock, won eight consecutive Class C/D championships. That streak has not been matched or broken, and during it, St. John was the Class C/D runner-up in 1956.
Those St. Mary teams had real star power. Brothers Dave and Mike Hill led some of those teams and went on to enjoy excellent careers at the professional level. Dave won 13 titles on the PGA Tour and six more on the PGA Senior Tour, while Mike won three times on the PGA Tour and 13 times on the Senior Tour.
In 1972, the Hill brothers pulled off a unique feat, as both won a PGA Tour event in the same year.
Six years later, Lumen Christi won its first MHSAA Finals title – one year after the graduation of Steve Maddalena, who went on to win three Michigan Amateur titles. From 1981-86, Lumen Christi won six consecutive Class B titles – tied for the second-longest streak in MHSAA history to St. Mary’s eight in a row.
Star power, however, has not been a staple of Lumen Christi’s 14 championships. None of Lumen Christi’s championships included an individual MHSAA champion. Jamie Clark was the 2005 Division 3 champion – the only individual Finals champion in school history – and that team did not win the title.
Lumen Christi did have the 1991-92 Mr. Golf in Derek Robison, and although that team won the Class B championship, Robinson was not the individual winner.
In Class B, the Titans had 10 Finals titles and two runner-up finishes. In Division 3, they have four titles with four runner-up finishes.
Lumen Christi is coming off a third-place finish in 2015, which to most schools would be an amazing accomplishment. But for the Titans, it was their worst finish at the Finals since 2008.
“We always go into the season with certain goals, and one is to always win the conference,” Swartout said. “In all the years I’ve coached, my teams have only not won the conference twice. Then, we’d like to keep the Regional streak alive.”
The architect
Swartout has been associated with the program since 1972, mostly as head coach. However, he’s not a natural-born golfer. At one time, he was a frustrated basketball coach.
“I spent one year as a freshman basketball coach at Lumen Christi in 1971 and got an ulcer from it,” he said. “The athletic director said, ‘Maybe you should try something else,’ and so did my doctor. The coaching job opened up in golf, and I couldn’t break 90, so I said, ‘I’ll do that for a while until I get a basketball job somewhere else.’ ”
He never left the program.
“I fell in love with the game and really spent a lot of time reading and watching other good golfers, trying to improve myself,” Swartout said. “I read everything I could get my hands on, because I couldn’t beat any of the kids on the team.”
Between his new-found love for the game and his passion to teach, Swartout became a successful golf coach. He also coached the Lumen Christi girls team when it won the 2004 Division 3 title.
“I was a teacher in the classroom and love teaching, and I think the combination of those two things helped me become a good coach,” he said. “One, from teaching, I could communicate ideas, and two, from all the studying and work I did to improve my game, I learned a lot about technique.
“I do like to think I have a pretty good eye. I can see the small things that a player might be doing. When the juniors get to the level when they are shooting anywhere from 76 to par or better, then when the timing begins to break down. It’s the little things that are making a difference. You’re not going all the way back to create a new swing; you’re trying to find that one little flaw that is impacting their play.”
In those early years, Swartout was working on his game as well as helping his players work on theirs. That, too, proved to be a winning combination.
“I had to really work to improve my game,” said Swartout, whose brother Steve has been his assistant coach the past three years. “I was 24 when I became coach, and by the time I was 30, I was a 2 handicap. In order to get from 90 to that, you have to work at it and learn things. I had to discover how I needed to swing to hit the ball correctly, so therefore from that and reading everything I could get my hands on, I could communicate that to the players.”
The players
While the game hasn’t changed much in the 45 years Swartout has been associated with the Lumen Christi team, the equipment certainly has made great improvements.
“I look back to when I started coaching in the 1970s and 80s and even into the early 90s,” he said. “You’re talking about high school teenagers hitting a golf ball – and not a very good golf ball but a softer golf ball – with wooden clubs that had a sweet spot the size of a dime. Yet I was still getting scores in the high 60s and low 70s, but equipment has made a huge difference.”
Instead of star power, the staple of Swartout’s successful teams at Lumen Christi has been team depth, and this year’s team is no different. Lumen Christi won the Regional at Hantz Golf Club in Tecumseh with four players scoring 82 or lower and a fifth at 85.
Double, the team captain and one of two seniors, led the way with a 75. He didn’t have a three-putt all day. He’s finished second or first in tournaments at least six times this season, and he’s been in the top 10 of every tournament he’s played except one.
“He’s not very big, but we call these kind of players sneaky long,” Swartout said. “You look at them and think they won’t hit the ball far, but he has fairly decent length off the tee.
“Over the course of the past four years, he has worked on every aspect of his game, and he is very dedicated to try and improve.”
The dedication really stood out during the summer after his freshman year.
“I’ve worked so hard to get to the point I’m at now,” Double said. “My freshman to sophomore year, I had no social life. It was golf every day, and I’m not lying. I think I saw my friends once or twice in the summer, but the next summer I hung out with them a little more.
“I’ve been here for four years and finished second twice and third last year. To most schools, that’s a great accomplishment, but to me that’s disappointing. I want to win a state championship.”
The next two players are senior Grant Konkle and junior Luke Girodat. Both shot 82 at the Regional.
“Konkle and Girodat are just flat-out long hitters,” Swartout said. “Both of them can hit it anywhere from 300 to the 340 range. It makes the par 4s rather short.
“Their biggest difficulty this year has been being consistent off the tee. You can hit it a long way, but if you go right or left, that is costing you shots.”
Konkle doesn’t want to leave Lumen Christi without winning an MHSAA championship.
“We’re out here every day working,” he said. “We get something to eat, hit range balls and then go play. We feel the pressure because nobody likes to take second. It’s tough.”
Juniors Logan Anuskiewicz and Riley Hestwood and freshman Tanner Schnell complete the top six players on the team. Schnell competed in the Regional and shot 80 while filling in for Hestwood.
“Hestwood was out of town and couldn’t go down there to practice,” Swartout said. “If you don’t know that course and have never played it before, you are not going to play it well. So I took the freshman, and he shoots 80 and finishes in the top 10.”
It is that sort of depth that gives Swartout confidence going into this weekend.
“I told them this the other day, and other coaches have told me this, too: In terms of having six players all capable of striking the ball, I’ve never had a team as good as this,” he said. “I told them, ‘Look at some of the great teams that I’ve had. I’ve had two teams that averaged 304. I had one team that broke 300 seven times and shot even-par 288 as a team, but never this depth and never as good as this team is.
“Their difficulty is they can’t stay away from the big numbers, and that is what has held us back. They might make a double-bogey here or a triple-bogey there, and if you make a couple of those, I don’t care how well you play the other 16 holes, you’re still going to shoot 80.”
Swartout hopes the players avoid those big numbers, and if they can do that, they will have a great chance.
“We’ve seen every team that is ranked around us, and I don’t think that there is a difference at the top,” Swartout said. “I am biased, but I think my team is better as a team. I’ve got five guys, and I can even throw the freshman in, who all are capable of shooting 75 or better on that course, and I don’t think the other teams have five guys who can do that.
“But we are going to have to play really, really well to win, because if the weather holds, you are going to see some really low scores.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Jackson Lumen Christi’s Will Double tees off during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final. (Middle) This season’s Titans: Front row, from left: Grant Konkle, Tanner Schnell, Will Double. Back row, from left: Dave Swartout, Luke Girodat, Logan Anuszkiewicz, Steve Swartout. Not pictured: Riley Hestwood. (Click to see more like top photo from HighSchoolSportsScene.com; team photo by Chip Mundy)