UP Golf Finals: Westwood, Houghton win again
June 2, 2012
The Houghton and Ishpeming Westwood girls golf teams continued their Upper Peninsula Finals dominance to highlight finishes at the MHSAA championship tournaments Thursday and Friday.
The Gremlins shot a 365 to repeat as Division 1 champions, at Wawonowin Country Club in Champion. Westwood, meanwhile, repeated as Division 2 champion and earned its fourth-straight MHSAA title – the Patriots also won Division 1 in 2010 and Division 2 in 2009 – by shooting a 411 at Newberry Country Club.
All five Houghton players shot 91-94, led by sophomores Megan Kelly and Kenna Farrey and senior Hannah Hill all with 91s. Marquette junior Avery Rochester won the Division 1 individual title with an 82, three strokes better than Calumet senior Zoe Woodward.
Megan Manninen and Berkley LaFreniere shot 87 and 90, respectively, to take the top two individual spots and lead Westwood to its team championship. The Patriots finished 40 strokes better than runner-up Bark River-Harris.
At the Division 3 Girls Final at Terrace Bluff, Cedarville won its first championship since 2004 by shooting a 431, 23 strokes better than runner-up Painesdale-Jeffers. Junior Cayla Massey shot a 95 to finish second individually and led Cedarville, while Crystal Falls Forest Park’s Alexis Gussert shot a 90 to win the individual championship.
The Painesdale-Jeffers boys won their first MHSAA championship in that Division 3 Final, at Highland Golf Course, thanks to 79s by senior Matt Zerbst and sophomore Tyler Bailey. Those scores tied for third individually, behind first-place freshman Joe Duncan of Cedarville’s 76 and Forest Park senior Dustin Dishaw’s 77.
The St. Ignace boys won their first MHSAA championship as well, at Division 2, led by individual medalist Patrick Sweeney. He shot a 71 after finishing sixth individually last season.
The Houghton boys claimed their first MHSAA title since 2000 by beating Gladstone at the Division 1 Final on a fifth-scorer tie-breaker. Both teams shot 329, but Houghton’s fifth player shot a 90, one stroke better than the fifth for Gladstone.
Manistique senior Mike Nagy – who has signed to play next season at the University of Tennessee – shot a 70 to win his third MHSAA individual championship. He finished five strokes better than Gladstone senior Drew Scheenemun, while Houghton freshman Brendan Longhini and Kingsford junior Nick Baldwin tied for third with 77s.
Click for full girls results and boys results.
Hackett Dominates Again in D4
June 15, 2013
By Tom Kendra
Special to Second Half
EAST LANSING – Father’s Day came early this year for Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central golf coach Steve Rider.
The first gift came from his team, which brought home Hackett’s third MHSAA championship in the past five seasons at Saturday’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final.
The Fighting Irish dominated from the start, surging to a 10-stroke lead after Friday’s opening round and extending it further Saturday, finishing with consecutive rounds of 300 for a 600 total, 21 strokes better than second-place Saginaw Nouvel.
“We’ve been fortunate, and we’ve had a good group of kids come through here in recent years and they’ve been successful,” said Rider, who was still drying off after a celebratory dousing of water from his players. “Our goal was to win a state championship, and what a way to go out.”
Suttons Bay (630) placed third, followed by New Lothrop (642) and Fowler (657) in a tournament played in near-perfect conditions with no rain and very little wind at Forest Akers East golf course at Michigan State University.
The next early Father’s Day present came from his own son, Ted Rider, who won a two-man playoff on the second hole to repeat as Division 4 medalist.
Ted Rider opened with a 1-over 73 on Friday, then shot the round of his life to get into the playoff – a 3-under par 69 – for a 142 total. That equaled individual qualifier Zack Bialik of Manistee Catholic Central, a senior who shot back-to-back 1-under par rounds of 71.
Rider won on the second playoff hole when Bialik’s par putt just burned the edge of the cup.
"I honestly wasn’t thinking about the individual part of it at all this weekend,” said Ted Rider, who finished second at the Final as a sophomore before winning it the past two years. “It’s just so great to win the team state in my senior year. I’ve never been in a playoff at the state finals, so winning that was like icing on the cake.”
Coach Rider acknowledged his team will be hard-pressed to “three-peat” next spring, as he will be losing the top four players off of this year’s team – three of whom finished among the Top 10 individually Saturday.
In addition to Rider, Hackett junior Colin Joseph finished third overall after back-to-back rounds of even-par 72. Joseph will not be back with the Irish next year as his family is moving to Ohio.
Finishing ninth for Hackett was senior Luke Stull, who shot rounds of 73 and 75. Senior Spencer Walter (166) and sophomore Joe Wenzel (168) completed the scoring for the Irish.
After posing for some unique team pictures, including a cheerleader-like pyramid, Coach Rider reflected on an amazing five-year run, which now features three MHSAA championships and a runner-up finish a year ago to Lake Leelanau St. Mary.
“These kids love to play golf together. They push each other, but they love each other,” said Rider, who also coached his older son, Jack, on the Hackett championship teams of 2009 and 2010; he now plays for Grand Valley State’s golf team. “This has been a very special run.”
Coach Rider also has not decided whether he will bring back the Kelly green shorts, complete with white shamrocks, which one of the parents located earlier this month and his team and coaches wore on Friday and Saturday.
“I’m thinking we’ll probably retire the shorts, but I’m not sure; we played pretty well in them,” Rider said.
Saginaw Nouvel placed second behind the 1-2 punch of senior Brody Schiller and sophomore Nick Ludka.
Schiller shot consecutive 73s to finish fifth overall and Ludka, who had the low round on Friday with a 70 before falling back to a 77 on Saturday, placed sixth. The Panthers were unable to make a move on Hackett, with only one other score in the 70s.
Suttons Bay, New Lothrop and Fowler all struggled in Friday’s opening round and then played much better on Saturday to secure top-five team finishes.
Suttons Bay, which entered the Final ranked No. 2, wound up third after shooting 322 on Friday and 308 on Saturday. Senior Sean Lammy led the resurgence, bouncing back from a 76 with a 71 on Saturday, second only to Ted Rider’s 69, to finish tied for sixth individually.
New Lothrop did not have a single player in the Top 10, but locked up its fourth-place team finish by shaving six strokes off Friday’s score.
Fowler, paced by the steady play of junior Austin Feldpausch (74-73-147) was five shots better on Saturday than on Friday to hold off Pentwater for fifth place.
Other individuals placing in the Top 10 were Eau Claire senior Andy Vanderburg (145) who took sixth, and Petersburg-Summerfield senior Wyatt Spalding (148), who tied for ninth.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo Hackett’s Ted Rider tees off during the individual playoff Saturday at Forest Akers East. (Middle) Manistee Catholic Central’s Zack Bialik watches one of his tee shots during the playoff. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)