Banner Day For Lutheran North Golfers
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2022
EAST LANSING - With his team tied with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood after the first round of the MHSAA Division 3 Girls Golf Finals, Macomb Lutheran North coach Alex Schlump didn’t need to deliver a big pep talk to his team going into the second and last day.
Instead, it was just a simple message he’s preached to his team all year.
“The focus was to play your own game,” Schlump said of what he told his girls. “We had to be mentally stronger than everybody else and we knew we were. That’s been our strength all season long, whether it’s been playing in the rain or playing in 40-degree weather.”
That mental strength was the difference for Lutheran North, which captured its first state title since 2017 on a chilly and windy day at Forest Akers East.
After Cranbrook and Lutheran North shot identical scores of 336 on the first day, Lutheran North was six shots better on the second day, shooting a 332 to finish with a final total of 668.
Cranbrook finished as the runner-up with a final score of 674, while Grosse Ile, which entered the day three shots back, took third with a 677.
Grand Rapids South Christian (682) and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (695) rounded out the top-5.
Leading the way for Lutheran North was junior Lauren Timpf, who followed up a first round score of 70 with a 72 in the second round to finish as the medalist with a 2-under par score of 142.
“I have played this course many times, and just coming into the week, I tried to give myself as many birdie opportunities as I could,” Timpf said. “Just take advantage of the short par-5 and getting there in two. Just really playing aggressive to get those birdie opportunities.”
Flanking Timpf was sophomore Saige Rothey, who tied for 13th with a two-day total of 163 (78-85).
Grosse Ile senior Lily Bargamian was the individual runner-up, finishing seven shots behind Timpf with a 149 (75-74).
Charlotte senior Hannah Robinson was third with a 150 (75-75), while Grand Rapids Catholic Central sophomore Ava Wisinski and Grand Rapids Christian freshman Lillian O’Grady tied for fourth at 153.
The highest finisher for runner-up Cranbrook was junior Mackenzie Behnke, who tied for ninth at 160.
Cranbrook was the defending state champion, but head coach John Minnich wasn’t unhappy at all to at least come away with a runner-up trophy given he called it a rebuilding year for his squad with no seniors.
“We play in the same conference in the Catholic League that Lutheran North plays in, and we’ve played them several times this year,” Minnich said. “Every match and every tournament we’ve played with them has been neck-and-neck. To be honest, they’ve had more firepower than we’ve had all year. Our players were more consistent though. We didn’t make the big numbers. We didn’t avoid them this tournament. We made a few too many big numbers.”
In the end, that proved costly for a Lutheran North team that beat out several larger schools to win the Macomb County championship earlier in the year, and now has another state championship trophy to add to its case.
“We knew we had so many good players and talent coming back,” Schlump said. “We have a team that’s mentally strong,” he said. “That is something we knew we could do with the group of girls we had.
PHOTOS (Top) Lauren Timpf wins her second consecutive MHSAA medalist honors. (Middle) Division 3 team champions, Macomb Lutheran North. (Photos by James Traynor.)
Medalist Husing Leads Iron Mountain to Title Sweep
By
Matt McCarthy
Special for Second Half
June 2, 2021
GAASTRA — Iron Mountain's Reidet Husing shot a tournament-low 99 on Wednesday to capture the medalist honor and lead the Mountaineers to the team title as well at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 Girls Golf Final at the George Young Recreational Complex in Iron County.
The Mountaineers as a team shot 469, nearly 30 strokes lower than runner-up Munising, which carded a 495. The team title was Iron Mountain’s sixth and first since 2016.
Husing, a sophomore and multi-sport spring athlete, is primarily a soccer player for the Mountaineers.
"It feels pretty good to come here and win," she said. "The greens were really fast and hard to judge, but I think I played pretty good."
Host West Iron County was third with a 518, as the Wykons were led by Madison Berutti, who tied Jenna Matson of Munising with a 104 for the individual runner-up honor.
Iron Mountain's Natalia Brown finished eighth with a 119, two shots better than teammate Lily Verette who carded a 121 for a ninth place finish. Bella Rosenthal shot a 130 and Lulu McCash carded a 152 to round out the Mountaineers lineup.
Maizy Brown of St. Ignace with 105, Hannah Larson of Bark River-Harris with 109, Peyton Cole of Stephenson at 110 and Kya Dallavalle of West Iron at 116 finished fourth through seventh, respectively. Logan Peters of Munising shot a 122 to round out the top 10.
Stephenson's 530 was good enough for a fourth-place team finish, followed by Bark River-Harris with a 539, Hancock with a 548 and Pickford with a 549.
PHOTOS: (Top) Iron Mountain's Reidet Husing stands atop the Upper Peninsula Division 2 standings Wednesday at George Young Recreational Complex. (Middle) Mountaineers teammate Natalia Brown follows through on a putt. (Photos by Matt McCarthy.)