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.)
Eskymos Unseat 3-Time Champ Houghton
June 1, 2017
By Ryan Stieg
Special for Second Half
MARQUETTE — It isn’t easy to topple a team that has won the last three titles, but the Escanaba boys golf team pulled it off Wednesday afternoon at the Marquette Golf Club.
The Eskymos unseated Houghton as Upper Peninsula Division 1 champion, outlasting neighboring Gladstone by one stroke (319 to 320) to claim the title and leave Escanaba head coach Brian Robinette with a big smile on his face.
“The boys have had the ability to do something like this all year long, and I kept telling them about the idea of making teams beat you,” Robinette said. “For a while, we weren’t doing that, but little by little, they figured out how to fight their way to good scores. They fought hard today up until the moment that they signed their scorecards, and that was great to see.”
For Gladstone, it was a disappointing end to the day after coming up just short of a title once again. Braves head coach Dane Quigley was a little down afterwards, but he was proud of how his squad performed and likes the group he has coming back next year.
“Today was just a heartbreaker,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get that title the last few years, and I thought we might have the team to do it this time, but it didn’t work out. We actually did pretty well with our numbers three, four and five guys stepping up, but unfortunately, Esky had guys in the 70s and that’s hard to beat. The good thing is that we have some really good golfers coming back next year, and I think we’ll have another good chance to win it.”
Negaunee, which finished second to Houghton last year, took third place this time in the 11-team tournament and had its best performance of the year with a 327. As a result, Miners head coach Dustin Hongisto was very pleased with what he saw.
“I was really happy with how we played,” he said. “We had three solid scores and today was actually our lowest team score of the year. My number one guy (Carter Mason) struggled a little bit today, but he’s had a great career with two conference championships and he was medalist last year, so he has nothing to be ashamed about. But his brother (Jordan) made up for that, and everyone else kind of picked up the slack.”
Marquette tied with the Gremlins for fourth place with a 337, while Calumet finished sixth with 338.
Redmen coach Ben Smith felt his young squad learned a lot and thinks there’s a lot of potential for next season.
“Whenever you host a meet like this, you hope that it will give you a good advantage, and it did a little bit,” he said. “Jordan Jurmu had a solid round (81) after battling some cold weather. We had a couple of guys shoot 85s, and that was good. There was a lot of older guys on the other team, and I think that will help us get a taste of what it takes to win. Hopefully, we can build on today and we can keep plugging away for next season. I think we’re going to see some good things.”
Individually, Houghton senior Ben Strong was the medalist shooting a 73. He was happy with his performance and was glad to end his Gremlins career on a good note.
“I think I had a good day overall,” he said. “I made a couple birdies and kept it together mentally throughout the round today. I played really well my four years in Houghton. My freshman year, I placed fourth and now as a senior, I won U.P. Finals. You can’t get much better than that.”
Menominee’s Evan Kramer took second with a 75, and Negaunee’s Jordan Mason finished third with a 77, while the Eskymos’ Johnny Kositzky and Parker La Pointe as well as Gladstone’s Bryce Douglas tied for fourth at 78.
PHOTOS: (Top) Negaunee’s Carter Mason lines up a putt on the way to shooting an 80 on Wednesday. (Middle) Gladstone’s Bryce Douglas watches his approach shot; he finished fourth individually. (Photos by Rachel Oakley.)