Hancock's 1st Win a Title Clincher
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
May 29, 2013
NORWAY — About a month ago, there was some doubt whether Hancock High School would have a golf season this year.
The Copper Country was getting hit with heavy snowfall in April and early May, and area athletic directors were forced to consider cancelling the season.
Mother Nature, however, finally gave the Keweenaw Peninsula a break and the Portage Lake Golf Course in Houghton opened on May 14.
“We literally got one practice in on our home course (Portage Lake) and it was out the door,” Hancock coach Joe Gervais said. “We started our season on May 15.”
The Bulldogs then made up for lost time and were rewarded Wednesday with their first victory this season, which just happened to be the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 championship.
Hancock edged Norway 324-325 for its first U.P. title in four years. Third-place Iron Mountain had 330 strokes at Oak Crest Golf Course.
For Hancock, this marked a 22-stroke improvement from its opener, also at Oak Crest.
“With the season being compressed, we wanted to get a little better with each meet,” Gervais said. “Norway has a nice golf team. But we knew if we played the way we’re capable, we could give them a run for their money.
“One of the keys is our third through fifth golfers brought their scores down 4-5 strokes. This group is very dedicated. We’d get back from a meet and the kids would go to our home course and shoot another round. We’re very pleasantly surprised by today’s events, especially considering how well Norway had been playing.”
L’Anse junior Tristen Leaf was medalist with a 74, including a 36 on the back nine.
“I’m very happy with my putting today, and my drives were solid,” said Leaf, who recorded three eagles and five bogeys. “I’ve been catching up with my game. Last week, I shot an 84 in the West-Pac Conference meet at Portage where I didn’t hit the ball well at all. I worked on my drives a lot this year, and it paid off.”
Hancock junior Kyle Hauswirth, Norway sophomore Austin Hansen and West Iron County senior Austin Waara shared runner-up honors at 77.
“I just tried to get on the course as much as possible and work on my short game,” Hauswirth said. “The weather was better, too. We had a lot of meets called off this year, which was kind of disappointing because we could see the other teams were having a season. We usually have five conference meets for awards. This year we had three in our conference and only one for awards. It was a relief to finally get some meets in. This is definitely a nice finish, especially considering this is our first win this season.”
Hansen hit an eagle on the ninth hole, sinking a 150-foot putt to take a one-stroke lead at the midway point. He finished at 37 on the front nine, then faded to 40 on the back.
“I was really fired up when I got that eagle,” Hansen said. “Then, I didn’t do things too well on the back nine. I popped up my head too soon rather than keeping it down during my shots, which is one of the classic mental errors. I finally started keeping my head down on the last three holes and parred each one.
“We had a real good team this year. We just wanted to win this for our seniors (Mike Zygiel and Bo Brew) so bad. Our fourth and fifth guys did everything they could. It hurts a little right to come up a stroke short.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Ishpeming's Matt Kilberg, Manistique's Alex Anderson and Ishpeming Westwood's Jake Kivinsky got their swings in during Wednesday's Upper Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) L'Anse's Tristen Leaf shot a 74 to finish first individually. (Photos by Theresa Proudfit.)
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.)