'Energizer' Leads Grosse Ile to Title
October 19, 2013
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – Margaret Esordi says she likes to play golf in the rain, and she proved it Saturday in the MHSAA Division 4 girls golf championship meet at Bedford Valley Golf Course.
Esordi, a sophomore who has been the No. 5 player for Grosse Ile, battled the cold and rain for a 38 on her first nine holes and finished with a team-best 85 to lead the Red Devils to their second MHSAA championship in three years.
Grosse Ile held a six-stroke lead after play Friday and finished just two ahead of runner-up Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian.
“I was in shock when I came in,” said Esordi, who shot 94 on Friday. “I was just really focused, and I wasn’t thinking too much. I was just focused on helping my teammates, especially the seniors. I wanted to make it special for them.
“I like to play in the rain, and we knew the challenges that we faced, and we all stuck together and focused.”
Grosse Ile coach Jim Bennett was thrilled with the play of Esordi.
“She’s been No. 5 all year, and she came to life and just had a great front nine,” he said. “She just hit everything solid and started making putts.”
Senior Emily Bargardi confirmed just how special it was to win another title.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “We were state champions my sophomore year, so to have the feeling again is incredible. Since I was a sophomore then, I really didn’t know what really was going on, but being a senior makes it that much better.”
Bargardi’s two-day total of 171 led Grosse Ile, but she slipped to an 88 on Saturday after an opening 83 on Friday.
“I normally don’t play that good in bad conditions,” she said. “It was really tough for me because I was really nervous because of my previous times in the cold and rain – they haven’t been so good.
“My front nine was really bad – I had a 46 – but when I teed off on No. 10, the weather was still bad but I thought, ‘I’m definitely going to come back,’ and I did, which I’m really proud of.
“It wasn’t my best, but it was enough to win.”
Bargardi said she was re-energized when she found out how well Esordi was playing.
“Oh my gosh, I think that almost made me play better because it made me so happy,” Bargardi said. “I was so proud of her.
“I found out when I was about to tee off on No. 14, and I was just like, ‘I think I can finish strong; I think we all can finish strong.’ ”
Grosse Ile had a balanced team, and all five players finished among the top four for the team on either Friday or Saturday. In addition to Bargardi and Esordi, Katherine Kuzmiak had 88-92-180, Megan Moco had 91-96-187 and Katie Williams had 101-95-196.
“We’ve been bunched together all year,” Bennett said. “We don’t have that No. 1 player that goes out and shoots a great score, but all the girls pick up each other.”
The second-place finish by just two strokes was tough to take for Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian.
“Our girls are hurting al little bit right now from looking at themselves, but you can’t do that,” coach Tom Koert said. “I’ve even had to take a second and say, ‘Wait a minute. We all tried our hardest.’ Not one girl gave up one minute, and that’s the proudest you can be of a team. If they all give every minute out there, you can’t dip your head.
“We’ll fix ourselves from this, but right now it’s hard for them and me. I’m so proud of what they did.”
Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian did have the most inspirational player in sophomore Jessica Zystra, who was honored at the end of the tournament for her courage to play golf after having scoliosis.
Zystra had surgery to put two metal rods in her back and she has 10 fused vertebrae, but she walked all 36 holes and finished with 104-99-195.
“The hardest part was before the surgery, deciding whether to have it or not because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do any activities like sports anymore,” Zystra said. “It’s been great the last couple of years. I’ve recovered very well, and it’s just been great.”
When asked if she could have imagined this day a few years ago, Zystra could not have given a better answer.
“Anything can happen, and today’s just a great day,” she said.
Monica Koert led Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian with 84-75-159, and third-place Flint Powers Catholic had Kristen Wolfe and Morgan Zloto each with 168 as the team finished six strokes behind Grosse Ile.
Three-time defending champion Lansing Catholic finished fourth and had the individual champion in senior Jacqueline Setas, who had a 150 total to win by nine strokes over Koert, who finished second. Setas had 77 on Friday and 73 on Saturday and seemed more pleased with the showing of her team, which lost four of its top five players from a year ago.
“I think everyone really didn’t think our team could be in the top five this year, so I think we made a bold statement,” said Setas, who plans to play golf at Michigan State University. “Just to make top four is an accomplishment.”
Lansing Catholic shot 359 on Saturday for its lowest 18-hole score all season.
“I’m feeling pretty good but a little sad for the seniors who are leaving,” coach Mary Schafer said. “It’s been a very special time.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grosse Ile's Emily Bargardi putts during the second round of this weekend's LP Division 2 Final. (Middle) Lansing Catholic's Jacqueline Setas watches a shot Saturday on the way to winning the individual championship in her final high school event. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)
4 Years of Work Paying Off as Senior-Led Linden Heads to Finals
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 13, 2021
Ask any member of the Linden girls golf team if she thought three years ago that the current level of success the team is enjoying was possible, and they quickly say no.
It’s tough to blame them. In 2018, the varsity team was made up of five freshmen and two sophomores, and the Eagles were struggling to be competitive, shooting a 467 in the Regional and coming in 10th out of 10 teams.
But that didn’t stop them from buying all the way in, and now the Eagles – led by those five freshmen who are now seniors – are headed to the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals with all of their season goals already accomplished.
“I would tell them then, ‘Three years from now, if you keep working, maybe you might have a chance to do something,’” Linden coach Jon Hamilton said. “I was talking to their parents about this, but how many kids will keep going when you tell them that if they work for something for three years, that maybe you’ll accomplish something? They did.”
Linden placed third in this year’s Region 10 tournament, shooting a 364 to qualify for the Finals, which will be played Friday and Saturday at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek. All four scorers for the Eagles – Ella LaMothe, Cate Draper, Kaitlyn Straub and Emma Lurvey – are seniors, as is Brooke Goll, who was the No. 5 on that day. All five were on the team in 2018.
“During freshman year, I wouldn’t have seen myself going to states,” LaMothe said. “I would have seen us as a team being a lot better, and maybe having a chance in the Metro League and the Regionals. But it’s taken a lot of hard work – four years of practicing every day in the fall and on our own during the summer. It’s been a lot of fun.”
It’s the first time in the nine years Hamilton has been coaching that he will take a team to the Finals, and that wasn’t the only first for the program under his guidance this season.
The Eagles won the Flint Metro League title, edging rivals Fenton and Goodrich in the league tournament. They also earned a head-to-head victory against Fenton.
After that win, Hamilton dug into his archives to pull out the scores from the 2018 showdown between the programs. Back then, Fenton won 179-257. This year, Fenton was again at 179, but Linden shot a school-record 165.
“After beating Fenton it was like, ‘Wow, we’re actually at the top of our league at the moment,’” Straub said. “It just feels amazing that we were able, as a team, to get better. It wasn’t just one singular girl getting better, it was all five of us from the beginning of freshman year to now getting better.”
LaMothe, Straub and Draper – who missed most of her freshman year with an eye injury – had played some golf before they joined the varsity squad. Lurvey said she had been on a course “a few times” but that freshman year was truly when she started. Goll was basically brand new.
“I was friends with the girls, so I figured why not try?” she said. “I had some kids clubs that I used to use to just hit some whiffle balls in my hard. I had to get a new set and everything, because those were really small.”
While they’ve made up the majority of the scoring for Linden during each of the past four years, they haven’t been completely alone. Hanna Baldwin and Cassie Most were the sophomores on that 2018 team, and Emma Most has contributed this season.
But the core has been the Class of 2022, which believed enough in itself, even when times were tough, to work toward bigger goals.
“I think that it’s super amazing,” Lurvey said. “We all didn’t really expect this at all, and this year we really just kicked it in. It’s a big accomplishment for all of us.”
The season isn’t over, of course, with the trip to Bedford Valley still to come. But while there are some admitted nerves heading into the biggest tournament of their careers, the Eagles are rolling into Battle Creek without any pressure as they’ve already accomplished all they had set out to do this season – and much more than anyone believed they were capable of just a few years ago.
“I’d say it’s probably icing on the cake,” Draper said. “We want to go in and compete, shoot a low score and place. But we’re going to go and have fun and work together as a team. I don’t really feel pressure to be the best in the state in our division. I think we’re just going in to have fun.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Linden’s Ella LaMothe, Emma Lurvey and Kaitlyn Straub convene during the Flint Metro League Tournament, won by the Eagles. (Middle) The team’s five seniors, including also Cate Draper and Brooke Goll, have played varsity together since they were freshmen in 2018. (Below) The five seniors stand together during one last Regional, from left: Lurvey, Draper, Straub, Goll and LaMothe. (Photos courtesy of the Linden girls golf program.)