Northville Rises from Low-Scoring Pack to Finish with 1st Finals Victory
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
June 10, 2023
ALLENDALE – A mere six shots separated the top three teams at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Boys Golf Final.
Out of the competitive tussle emerged a first-time champion.
Northville captured the program’s first Finals title after fending off its two closest competitors.
The Mustangs shot a two-day total of 605 to clip runner-up Rochester Adams (607) and third-place Brighton (609).
Adams’ junior Peter Roehl won the individual title after closing with a final-round 68.
“This program has never won a team state title in golf so this team, yesterday and today, just battled and battled and battled,” Mustangs coach Matt Lewicki said. “It’s been one of the toughest state finals we’ve ever seen from a competition standpoint top to bottom, so for these guys to prevail, it's incredible.”
Four seniors catapulted Northville to the win, led by Mason Sokolowski with a third-place finish.
Sokolowski fired a 144 (70-74), while teammate Greg Braun shot a pair of 74s and finished 11th overall.
“This is crazy, our first boys golf championship,” Sokolowski said. “Everyone had each other’s back, and we were having fun out there in our last high school tournament.
“We’ve been going back and forth all year (with Brighton), and today was about smart golf. No big numbers and not getting ahead of ourselves. We just battled on a really tough course.”
The unsung hero for Northville was senior Thomas Forsythe, who hadn’t competed during the last two weeks due to the team’s talent and depth and had to go through qualifying for the opportunity to play.
“He wasn’t expecting to play in this tournament and he came out and really contributed and really helped the team,” Lewicki said. “He came in and had a counting score yesterday and nailed it down today. He came through a gauntlet of qualifying to get in this tournament, and it was incredible for him and the rest of our seniors.”
Forsythe shot a 156 (77-79), while senior Ryan Gallagher added a 157 (79-78).
“I’m overwhelmed,” said an emotional Forsythe. “I had to qualify to get into this, and now we’re state champions. We have some good players on this team, and I’m happy that I could help and get this done.
“We just took it one shot at a time and managed to pull through. I’m happy for all the seniors, and this is the first one in school history. It’s a big deal and means a lot.”
Northville and Brighton entered the final round knotted at 300.
“The mindset today was to have fun, and the reason they were here was because they worked their butts off to get here,” Lewicki said. “Just stay calm and stay confident. Don’t get too high or too low.”
Adams trailed by nine strokes entering Saturday, but posted the best final-round score (298) to jump into second place.
Senior Justin Oviatt finished eighth overall with a 147 (74-73).
“These kids had a great year, and I think we had 10 first or second-place finishes,” Highlanders coach Matt Zavadil said. “Overall they had a great year, and to finish it off with runner-up is pretty good.”
Roehl shot a 72 on the first day, but stormed to the top of the leaderboard with stellar play and finished Saturday with a tournament-low 3-under-par round.
He bested runner-up Drew Miller of East Lansing, who shot a 143 (74-69).
“I was just trying to make par on every hole,” Roehl said. “I knew scores might be a little lower, but I didn’t really look at the leaderboard and just played the golf course hole by hole. It worked out in the end.”
Roehl drained a 20-foot eagle putt on the fourth hole.
“That kickstarted my round,” he said. “I cooled off a little bit but finished strong. It feels good to win, but it stings to come up short as a team.”
Two Brighton players, seniors Winston Lerch and Andrew Daily, finished among the top 10 individuals.
PHOTOS (Top) Mason Sokolowski putts during Northville’s title-clinching round Saturday. (Middle) Adams’ Peter Roehl tracks a shot during his medalist weekend. (Below) East Lansing’s Drew Miller follows one of his approaches. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
Piedmonte-Lang's 1-Putt Finish Gives Greenhills Championship Sweep
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 11, 2022
FRANKENMUTH – Ann Arbor Greenhills senior Cale Piedmonte-Lang had one objective in mind, but ultimately he couldn’t have been happier that he did NOT achieve it.
Stepping up to the par-5, 529-yard 18th hole at The Fortress during the second and final day of the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Boys Golf Final, Piedmonte-Lang was tied individually with Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Will Preston after recording a birdie on the par-3, 17th hole.
Piedmonte-Lang had one goal for the 18th: Get a par and into a playoff for the individual title.
“I hit iron off of the tee,” Piedmonte-Lang said.
After hitting iron off the tee, iron with his second shot and then a wedge to the green, Piedmonte-Lang found himself with roughly 25-foot putt for birdie that seemed like it was akin to putting down a steep hill of concrete.
“I was just trying trickle it to the hole,” he said. “That was one of the fastest putts I had all day. I was just trying to two-putt.”
Lo and behold, the ball ended up not only trickling toward the hole, but in it for a birdie that gave Piedmonte-Lang a one-shot win individually with a two-day total of 143 (72-71).
Preston shot a 2-under 70 on Saturday to finish at an even-par total of 144, while Mason Anderson of Belding was a shot behind Preston in third place at 145 (73-72).
“It shocked me a little,” Piedmonte-Lang said. “I thought it was short at first, but it kept going. It was kind of surreal.”
Even more surreal was that Piedmonte-Lang also got to celebrate a team title with the rest of the Gryphons, who easily captured their first state championship in boys golf since winning the Class D title in 1994.
Greenhills finished with a two-day score of 612 (306-306), which was 20 shots ahead of runner-up Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett was third at 635.
Piedmont-Lang had plenty of support, with senior Beau Brewer finishing fifth individually with a 150 (71-79) and sophomore Max Shulman finishing sixth at 152 (76-76) for a Greenhills team that was ranked No. 1 in the state going in.
“We got bounced early last year (in Regionals),” Greenhills head coach Michael Karr said. “We didn’t focus too much on it because we didn’t want to bring up bad feelings from last year, but we were definitely motivated this year to go further. It’s not often you have the firepower and talent to win a state title, so you want to take advantage when you’ve got the guys who are that talented to do it.”
Karr said his team got some familiarity with The Fortress when it competed in and won a tournament on the course back in April.
The team shot a 313 that day, and obviously seemed to like playing the course during the MHSAA Tournament.
The Gryphons shot a 306 on Friday to take a 10-shot lead over Traverse City Francis going into the second day, and the message from Karr was clear going into Saturday’s final round.
“We wanted to win today’s 18 holes,” Karr said. “That’s what I told the guys. We still had to be aggressive, we still had to be smart. Let’s win today’s 18 holes and leave no doubt.”
Despite windier conditions on Saturday, Greenhills left no doubt as a team, and all that was left at the end was to see if Piedmont-Lang could win the individual title.
Karr said he told Piedmont-Lang before the 17th hole how things stood, and then camped himself underneath a tree near the 18th green as Piedmont-Lang stood over his birdie attempt.
“Obviously he took the time to read his putt and read it correctly,” Karr said.
As a result, it was the ultimately storybook ending for Piedmont-Lang and Greenhills.
“A putt like that to win it is really something special,” Piedmont-Lang said.
PHOTOS (Top) Greenhills’ Cale Piedmonte-Lang, left, and GRCC’s Will Preston shake hands at the end of Saturday’s Division 3 Final at The Fortress. (Middle) Piedmonte-Lang also celebrated the team championship with the Gryphons. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)