East Jackson Off to Record-Setting Start
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
August 25, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
JACKSON –The East Jackson girls golf team is riding an impressive three-tournament streak. And the Trojans have yet to win a title.
In each of East Jackson’s three tournaments this season, it has broken the 18-hole school record, which was 397 coming into the season. Then, the Trojans sliced it to 376, and earlier this week, they shot 364 – a full 33 strokes better than the all-time best coming into the season.
Coach Ray Hill doesn’t pretend to say he knew this was going to happen.
“I really am stunned at what they have accomplished this year,” he said. “All of them worked really hard this summer and played in youth tournaments, and frankly, they didn’t play well. All summer I’ve been trying to calm them down and tell them not to worry if they are shooting 115 in June or 108 in July. That’s not important. We’re focused on the fall.
“I wasn’t sure I was buying it, but I had to convince them, and once the season started, the light turned on and they’ve been getting great scores. All the work they did in the summer paid off.”
Along the way, East Jackson had four girls each break 100 in the same event for the first time in school history. Coach Hill, in his 12th season, already has tabbed this as his best team, but he didn’t expect this much improvement this quickly.
“Before the first tournament, the Northwest coach texted all the coaches coming to the tournament and said all the teams were going to be grouped together and wanted to know what score we anticipated shooting. I said 400, and we shot 392,” Hill said. “The other coaches were giving me a little bit of grief, calling me a sandbagger.”
Tootsie Pops and cookies
At East Jackson, finding girls to play on the golf team takes a little work. There is no feeder program, unless you count Coach Hill handing out Tootsie Pops and cookies to any middle schooler willing to hear about the wonders of playing golf.
“I make a point to talk to every middle school girl in our building at some point,” Hill said. “When I’m asked during a school day to sub for the French teacher, I will spend a few minutes talking about golf.
“I have a meeting every year, and I bring Tootsie Pops and cookies to get them to come to the meeting, and it’s kind of hit and miss. I will hand out Tootsie Pops in the hallways if someone will consider golf. “
Hill gets a lot of disinterested or confused responses. Most of them have never played golf in their lives and plan to try out for the volleyball team. Hill has a ready answer for them.
“They say, ‘I’ve never played before,’ and I say, ‘You’ve never been taught before, and once you’re taught, it comes along,’” Hill said. “The first year you just learn how to hold the golf club and hit a shot here and there, and the second year you’re ready to take off.”
This season, East Jackson has four freshmen on the team, one season after having three freshmen – so the Tootsie Pops and cookies must be hits. But in the end, the game of golf is the selling point.
“If I can get them out to the golf course a time or two, I can usually keep them,” said Hill, who also tells the girls and their parents what they can expect from being an East Jackson golfer.
“One, it has to be fun, and I try to keep things loose,” Hill said. “I buy a lot of ice cream, we have snacks, and we make it fun and keep things light and loose. Number two, they are going to improve. They’re going to get better throughout the season. Every time they come to the golf course, they’re going to be better than they were the day before. It’s not fun to do a sport or anything in life if you’re not getting better.
“Three, I want them to be competitive. It’s a lot more fun if you have a chance to win events, if you have a chance to compete for a league championship, so I want them to get to a point where they are competitive. They are going to work harder if they have a chance to win. And four, as a parent, a teacher and a coach, I think it is important that a kid achieves excellence in something, and for each kid it’s going to be a little bit different.”
Learning the game
While Hill likely would like to bring more experienced girls into his program, he sees a positive side to their relative inexperience.
“I don’t have to unteach everything that Uncle Larry taught them, and as beginners, they are open to instruction,” he said. “They want to get better. I look for athletic kids who are smart.”
Sophomore Alexis Brzezinski has been the No. 1 player so far. She is averaging 88.6 for 18 holes and earlier this week she broke the school record with an 84. She had virtually no experience as an eighth-grader – just two years ago.
“I started playing right before my freshman year,” said Brzezinski, who earned honorable mention on the all-conference team last year. “I got into a lot of junior clinics with Mr. Hill before that and then I took a lesson. I started getting into it when I started getting better.
“I realized that golf is a really hard sport. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I had played volleyball before. It’s a really challenging game, and you are always batting yourself and you’re never satisfied with your score. There is always something you can do better. I love that about it.”
Zoe Swiatlowski, a two-time all-Cascades Conference selection, is one of three seniors on the team, and she is averaging 94.0 for 18 holes. She joined the golf team as a freshman basically because her older sister Savannah was a senior on the team.
“I really wanted to play volleyball instead,” she said. “I got talked into it, and then I ended up loving it. I thought golf was so boring and dumb. I realized there was a lot more to it. I thought that it was probably just really easy, and it was something you do when you’re bored, but it’s really competitive. It’s a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.”
One of the things she likes best is the ability to get to know opposing golfers.
“You get to meet a lot of new people,” she said. “It’s not like basketball where you just see them for a half a second and they are running away. You can talk to them for like five hours at a time.”
And then there is senior Alessandra Mireles, a senior who was all-conference as a sophomore but missed half of last season after being in a serious car accident. She is playing with a metal rod in her leg. She is averaging 102, and Hill said “her swing is regaining form” as she continues to recover.
Mireles went out for golf, not so much because of the Tootsie Pops, but because she had a good friend who was on the team.
“She really wanted me to play golf,” Mireles said. “I was like, ‘I might as well try something new.’ It was an acquired taste. Not a lot of girls our age play golf, so I didn’t know if it was for me, and I was trying to play volleyball at the same time, so I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
“Now, I just love my teammates; that’s what makes me want to play. And wherever you go, any golf course, they’re so nice. It’s the environment that I like to be in. I would like to play in college, too, but either way, I’m still going to play golf.”
While those three girls have the top averages on the team this season, East Jackson’s depth is helped by Sami Andrus, Reagan Rudd and Jordan Goostrey.
Future goals
Hill is a realist. He knows the Trojans are not going to break the school record every time out this season, but the girls aren’t as convinced.
“I told them we have to be content with having a blip here or there, and the girls wouldn’t hear of it,” he said. “They all talked about leaving four or five shots on the course, and they felt like they could do better. I see it, I absolutely see it, but I don’t expect it to happen every time.”
While confidence is soaring, a major obstacle keeps the Trojans grounded. It is perennial power Jackson Lumen Christi – the team that finished first in each of the three tournaments this season in which East Jackson set a school record.
The Trojans are very aware of Lumen Christi and that program’s success.
“Lumen Christi has an excellent team and has an excellent program, and they establish a standard in the area and everybody aims for them,” Hill said. “Over the years, our kids have been intimidated by the Lumen Christi aura, and this year, all of my girls have played in summer tournaments with them and they know the Lumen girls.
“They don’t have that intimidation factor, and the Lumen girls are a nice group of girls. Still, we’re gunning for them. I don’t think we have the scores yet to get them, but we’re getting closer.”
The Trojans do not shy away from the topic of Lumen Christi. It is obvious the respect is there.
“It doesn’t make us cocky,” Swiatlowski said of having Lumen Christi in the same area. “It might be overwhelming that we are doing so good, but they kind of knock us down. Even when they have a bad round, someone else steps up, just like we do as a team, but they’re just a little bit better. It helps us work harder.”
East Jackson understands it is all a process.
“We’re used to fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth-place finishes, so second place to one of the top programs in the state is quite an accomplishment,” Hill said. “We’re very proud of that.
“The girls look at all the schools they have beaten and some of them are two or three times larger than we are. They are real excited and proud of that, and we’re trying to maintain it throughout the years.”
Hill concedes that his realistic team goals for this year already have been rewritten because of the excellent start.
“We finished fifth in the Regional, and the top three go to the state meet,” he said. “We’ve never really come close to going to the state meet as a team. I’ve been able to take five girls individually to the state meet over the years. These girls want to go, and if they can sustain the scores they are shooting right now, we’ll be in good shape.
“Qualifying for the state meet as a team would be huge, but Lumen Christi is at our region and Napoleon is in our region, but three teams go, and we feel like we’re in position to do it.”
Along the way, Hill takes pride in seeing the girls learn to play the game of golf and learn to love it.
“I’ve had five girls who had never played golf before their freshman year at East Jackson go on and play in college,” he said. “That’s huge. One of them is an assistant coach now at Siena Heights University, and the opportunity started here. That’s the most rewarding part for me.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Jackson's Zoe Swiatlowski watches a drive during an event this fall. (Middle top) The East Jackson team poses with one of its two tournament runner-up plaques earned this month. (Middle below) Alexis Brzezinski fires from a sand trap during one of her rounds. (Below) Alessandra Mireles watches her approach from the fairway (Photos courtesy of Ray Hill.)
Finals Preview: All-Time Greats Guarantee Plenty of Anticipation
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 13, 2022
Last season saw some of finest performances in MHSAA Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Finals history. And with a number of standouts returning this weekend, we’re looking forward to the encore.
Macomb Lutheran North’s Lauren Timpf is a returning individual champion after her 139 last season was the second-lowest score in LPD3 Finals history and tied for third-lowest for any Class or Division, with her opening round 66 setting an all-Class/Division record. Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Mia Melendez set the LPD4 Finals record with a title-clinching 143 – and she’s back as just a sophomore.
South Lyon senior Gabriella Tapp is pursuing her third individual title after shooting a 144 in 2021 to tie for the fourth-lowest 36-hole score at an LPD2 Finals. Portage Northern’s KT Leinwand posted the 10th-lowest for that division all-time in finishing second at 148.
Meanwhile on the team side, Northville is in pursuit of a fifth-straight LPD1 championship – and coming off a two-day 615 last year that was the second-lowest in all-Class/Division Finals history.
Play both days this weekend begins at 10 a.m. See below for a number of teams and individuals who could be in contention, and check out the MHSAA Website for full lineups and more.
Rankings are by iWanamaker based on teams' 18-hole rounds through Regionals.
LP Division 1 at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley
Top-ranked: 1. Northville, 2. Brighton, 3. Rochester Adams
This is a loaded top three. Northville has won the last four LP Division 1 championships and claimed the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Tournament title last week. Brighton defeated Northville earlier this season in match play to eventually end up the champion of the KLAA West. And Adams is just a few weeks removed from winning its first Oakland County championship. Brighton was fourth and Adams seventh last season, and Rockford is aiming to be another serious contender ranked No. 4 after finishing eighth a year ago.
Northville: Seniors Samantha Coleman and Avi Gill are the only returnees from last year’s Finals top five, but both bring plenty of high-level experience to this weekend. Coleman just missed placing among the top 10 individuals last year after tying for sixth as a sophomore and scoring for the Mustangs at the 2019 Final, while Gil tied for 14th in 2020. Northville won last week’s Regional at Washtenaw Golf Course by 36 strokes, shooting a 324, with senior Ally Zuidema finishing first individually, Coleman second and junior Meera Sankar tying for sixth.
Brighton: The Bulldogs have ascended from not qualifying as a team in 2019 to tying for sixth in 2020 and finishing fourth last fall. All five of last season’s starters are back this weekend, and junior Abbie Pietila missed placing in the top 10 last year by three strokes. Brighton shot a 310 at El Dorado in Mason to win last week’s Regional by 28 strokes, with senior Amelia Gatti third, junior Lauren Forcier tied for fourth, junior Madison Martens sixth and Pietila seventh. The Bulldogs are seeking their first Finals championship, having finished LPD1 runner-up in 2017.
Rochester Adams: The Highlanders also are seeking their first Finals championship, having finished runners-up in 1999 and 2020. Adams was seventh last season with just one senior in the lineup, and junior Laura Liu is back after tying for fourth individually last year and just missing the top 10 as a freshman. Senior Grace Wang also returns after tying for ninth individually in 2020. Adams won its Regional at Metamora Country Club with a 315, 17 strokes lower than No. 5 Rochester High. Junior Katie Fodale tied for individual runner-up, with Wang fifth and Liu sixth.
More individuals of note: Grand Blanc senior Kate Brody has been one of the state’s most dominant golfers during her four seasons, winning the LPD1 individual championship in 2020, tying for fourth last year placing third as a freshman. Troy Athens senior Olivia Hemmila also has been driving toward a high finish after tying for ninth last year and qualifying for the Finals her first two seasons as well. They and Liu are the only top-10 returnees from 2021, although Troy senior Riley Hayden was 11th and should contend again. Brody shot a 65 to win the El Dorado Regional, and Hemmila won at Stoney Creek Metropark last week. Also claiming Regional titles were Rockford junior Jessica Jolly – with a 64 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State – Farmington junior Venetia Chap and Rochester sophomore Madison Yang.
LP Division 2 at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West
Top-ranked: 1. South Lyon, 2. Farmington Hills Mercy, 3. Byron Center
South Lyon won its first championship in 2020, after finishing runner-up in 2019, and the Lions placed third last season. Mercy is seeking its first top-two Finals finish since placing runner-up in LPD1 in 2012; the Marlins won LPD1 titles in 1999 and 2001. Byron Center is seeking its first championship but coming off its highest Finals finish, runner-up last year to a first-time champion in Dearborn Divine Child. South Lyon shot a 321 to edge Mercy by seven strokes and win last week’s Regional at Farmington Hills Golf Club.
South Lyon: Senior Gabriella Tapp is finishing up another of the most illustrious careers in MHSAA history, seeking to add a third championship to her Finals titles in 2019 and 2021 and tie for sixth place in 2020. Senior Ellen Albert joined her in last season’s lineup, and sophomore Kaylyn Wisniewski tied Tapp – and then defeated her in the tie-breaker – to win the medalist honor at last week’s Regional, where Albert placed fourth.
Farmington Hills Mercy: The Marlins finished fourth at last season’s Final with six players figuring into the lineup – and none a senior. Five of those six are slated to play this weekend, and all five placed among the top 15 at the aforementioned Regional at Farmington Hills GC. Sophomore Maeve Casey was third, junior Abbey Slankster fifth, sophomore Lisa Polakowski sixth and senior Chloe Vig seventh. Vig was the team’s low scorer at last season’s Final and also scored for the team that finished fourth when she was a freshman in 2019.
Byron Center: The Bulldogs also made their run at the championship last season with a younger group, graduating only one from the five that finished nine strokes back. Junior Macie Elzinga finished third individually last season, and she was the Regional runner-up at Yankee Springs in Wayland last week as Byron Center won the team title by 22 strokes. Seniors Jayda Kerns (seventh) and McKenna Turnbull (tied for ninth) also placed among the top 10 at the Regional.
More individuals of note: The top four and six of the top 11 individual finishers from last season are back. Portage Northern junior KT Leinwand was runner-up in 2021, four strokes back of Tapp and four ahead of Elzinga, and Coopersville junior Lauren Davis was one of three players to tie for fourth last season. Zeeland West junior Rylee Smith tied for ninth, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern senior Ashleigh Duflo was 11th and just a stroke out of ninth. Leinwand edged Elzinga by a stroke to win last week at Yankee Springs, and Davis was the Regional champion at Arrowhead in Lowell. Midland Dow freshman Sophia Lee, Dexter freshman Avery Manning and Ypsilanti Lincoln junior Madison Cowhy also won Regional titles.
LP Division 3 at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers East
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Macomb Lutheran North, 3. Grosse Ile
Cranbrook Kingswood is the reigning champion after edging Grosse Ile by six strokes a year ago, with that title the Cranes’ first since 2001. Grosse Ile would love to similarly add to its proud history this weekend, with its most recent championship in 2011. Lutheran North also is a regular near the top, finishing sixth last season with its most recent Finals title in 2017.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes graduated three from last season’s championship team, but junior Sienna Ilitch will be playing in her third Final and junior teammate Mackenzie Behnke also was a starter last year. Cranbrook’s 334 at Flint Elks Club last week was second at that Regional but also second-lowest among all LPD3 scores. Behnke was third, Ilitch fourth, sophomore Sophia Kouza fifth and junior Anya Samsonov tied for sixth with scores of 82, 83, 84 and 85, respectively.
Macomb Lutheran North: The Mustangs were the team to best Cranbrook at Flint Elks and statewide last week, led by junior medalist Lauren Timpf, runner-up sophomore Saige Rothey, another sixth-place finisher in senior Aileen Cosentino and 10th-place freshman Gabby Cardenas. Timpf is the reigning LPD3 Final champion after besting the field by 14 strokes last season, and Cosentino, Rothey and senior Mia Roe also were part of the 2021 lineup.
Grosse Ile: The Red Devils graduated two of their top four from last season’s runner-up team, but return the third-place individual finisher and another who just missed making the top 10. Senior Lily Bargamian, junior Hanna Hargrove and senior Sydney Botten all are back and were the team’s top three scorers at last week’s Regional at Huron Meadows in Brighton. Bargamian – the third-place Finals finisher in 2021 – won last week’s Regional, with Hargrove fourth after finishing three strokes outside the Finals top 10 a year ago.
More individuals of note: The medalist race should be interesting with Timpf back off that big win but likely to be challenged by five more returnees from last season’s top 10. Joining her and Bargamian are Grand Rapids South Christian junior Ashley Thomasma (fourth), Freeland sophomore Averie Pumford (fifth), Grand Rapids Catholic Central sophomore Ava Wisinski (tied for seventh) and Ada Forest Hills Eastern junior Sophie Skoog (10th). Timpf and Bargamian won Regional titles last week. Williamston sophomore Nicole Schafer edged Pumford by a stroke at nearby Wheatfield Valley, and Grand Rapids Christian freshman Lillian O’Grady bested a field at Willow Wood in Portland that included Wisinski and Thomasma tying for second. Ludington junior Emma McKinley and Charlotte senior Hannah Robinson also won Regional titles.
LP Division 4 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University
Top-ranked: 1. Jackson Lumen Christi, 2. Adrian Lenawee Christian, 3. Kalamazoo Christian
Two-time reigning champion Montague just missed advancing to this year’s Finals, but Lansing Catholic is in the field after finishing second both of those seasons. Lumen Christi was third last season and is seeking its first championship since 2004. Lenawee Christian was fourth in 2021 and Kalamazoo Christian was sixth, and both are seeking their first top-two finishes.
Jackson Lumen Christi: All five starters are seniors after four started as juniors a year ago and three as sophomores in 2020. Senior Ashley Hilderley missed the top 10 at last year’s Final by a stroke, and she was the medalist at last week’s Regional at Pine Hills in Laingsburg as the Titans finished 13 strokes better than runner-up Lansing Catholic. Michaela Hauer tied for third, Alexa Spencer placed sixth and Anna McClure ninth at Pine Hills, with Hauer and McClure joining Hilderley as three-year anchors in the lineup.
Adrian Lenawee Christian: The Cougars have built from 17th in 2019 to tied for ninth in 2020 to fourth last season, when senior Lauren Swiggum also tied for fourth individually. Lenawee Christian returns all five starters from last year’s Finals lineup, and all five placed in the top 10 last week at Hills of Lenawee in a 59-stroke Regional win. Senior Morgan Bell was the runner-up, Swiggum was fourth, junior Yuki Nakamura fifth, senior Avery Sluss sixth and senior Madalyn Shaw tied for 10th.
Kalamazoo Christian: Although three seniors graduated off last year’s team, now-senior Kylie Gernaat and now-sophomore Jordyn Bonnema were the team’s low scorers at last fall’s Final. They are joined this time by another senior and two more sophomores, and that group won last week’s Regional at Moss Ridge in Ravenna by 43 strokes against a field that also included No. 4 Montague, No. 5 Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep and No. 6 Grandville Calvin Christian. Gernaat was second individually, sophomore Scarlett Hindbaugh was fourth and Bonnema finished fifth.
More individuals of note: Only three of last season’s top 10 are back, and four of the top 12. But Ann Arbor Greenhills’ sophomore Mia Melendez is the reigning champion and coming off a 15-stroke Regional win at Washtenaw Golf Club. Traverse City St. Francis sophomore Grace Slocum was eighth at the Final last season, and Brooklyn Columbia Central sophomore Logan Bentley was ninth – making for some possibly intriguing Finals for the Class of 2025 over the next few seasons. Bentley and Slocum joined Melendez and Hilderley as Regional champions last week, as did Grandville Calvin Christian senior Andrea Diemer and Remus Chippewa Hills sophomore Madison Allen.
PHOTO Macomb Lutheran North's Lauren Timpf watches one of her drives during last season's Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)