Falcons Finish 1st Title with a Flourish
October 18, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – East Kentwood High School senior Sarah White could never have expected to finish her high school golf career the way she did Saturday afternoon.
Winning the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 team championship was not a huge surprise for East Kentwood, which returned its top four players from the team that finished sixth last year.
In the process, White, who finished second as a freshman three years ago and sixth the past two years, captured the individual honors with back-to-back rounds of 73. Again, it was not a huge surprise.
However, facing a 51-foot putt on the 18th hole – the final hole of her high school career – White did not think about sinking it, but she did, wrapping up her career and both the team and individual championships at Bedford Valley Golf Course.
White also could not have known that she needed to make the putt to win the individual title and avoid a playoff with Jaclyn Facola of Monroe, who finished one stroke back. White’s two-day total of 146 also was two strokes ahead of Elayna Bowser of Dearborn and Lauren Ingle of Rochester Hills Stoney Creek.
“I was like, ‘Just put it close, two-putt par, easy 74,’ ” White said. “And then it’s halfway and starts turning toward the hole, and I think, ‘Just go in,’ and it goes in. I threw a fist-pump, and I didn’t even know what was going on. I just kind of celebrated because it went in. I wasn’t expecting it.
“It was awesome because the past couple of holes I was burning the edge or it stopped on the lip, so to get one to fall on the last hole was awesome.”
While the race for the individual title was close, East Kentwood made sure the competition for the team title wasn’t close. The Falcons held a 10-stroke lead after a team score of 324 on Friday, and Saturday it dropped to 319 for a two-day total of 643 – well ahead of runner-up Lake Orion at 665 and third-place Dearborn at 671.
“It’s really nice to see them deal with a 10-shot lead as well as they did,” first-year East Kentwood coach Andy Giarmo said. “They approached the day as being just another 18-hole tournament where everybody was starting at zero, and they really did a great job of staying patient and staying mature through the whole round.”
Nine of the 10 rounds played by the five East Kentwood girls were below 90, and each of the five had their score count at least once, something White said has been a trademark of the team all season.
“If someone is having a bad day, someone steps up,” White said. “That’s what I love about this team. We’re invincible as a team, but individually we’re ineffective.
“As a team, we’re just so much stronger.”
On Friday, it was Emma Millard and Janelle Quinn who stepped up for East Kentwood. Millard shot 80 on Friday and followed it with 83 for a 163 total.
“It feels pretty good,” Millard said. “I was just thinking of my team the whole time, and I wanted to come through for them and finish strong.”
Quinn, a sophomore who just took up the game of golf two years ago and was the team’s No. 5 player, had rounds of 86 and 89 for 175. Her 86 was one of the top four scores turned in Friday by the Falcons.
“Janelle has come through for us all year,” Giarmo said. “The great thing about this team is we’ve had people step up when we need to. For Janelle to show that level of maturity and confidence as a sophomore has been so impressive all year long.”
Junior co-captain Mackenzie Keenoy followed a disappointing first-round 85 with a 75 on Saturday, and credited her putting for the improvement.
“I did not play well Friday, and Emma stepped up,” Keenoy said. “I finally made some putts (Saturday). I needed it. Friday I went out and did not play to my game; I struggled all day, so I went in thinking I need to make some putts.
“My shots were not perfect – I was not hitting the ball great – and I needed to make some putts. It was great.”
Isabel Meier, another senior, had rounds of 93 and 88 for the Falcons, and her 88 counted toward the team total Saturday.
“We all worked really hard, and it was a team effort,” she said. “I’m not very pleased with how I played, but we all put a lot of effort into it. It’s great.
“I don’t think it will sink in for a couple of days. It’s really crazy. A lot of us have been on the same team for four years, and it’s weird to think that we really finally did it.”
Possibly the most interested spectator at Bedford Valley was Lindsey Boyle, who coached the team the previous three years before resigning, although she helped out the team at times this year.
“I worked with the girls since they were freshmen, and Sarah White especially,” Boyle said. “It’s a proud moment to see them come out on top.”
White is a long-hitter who plans to continue her golf career at Western Michigan University.
“She does everything well,” Giarmo said. “She hits the ball a long way off the tee and very straight, and she can make the big putt when she needs to, and that’s special – not a lot of people can do that.”
White was a little more colorful in describing the way she played Friday and Saturday.
“I just was killing my driver these past two days,” she said. “I’ve been outdriving everybody and putting myself in great opportunities to get birdies.”
White also said that winning the team title was a greater thrill than the individual championship.
“To win a golf tournament as a team is awesome,” White said. “It’s better than individually. I’d take it over individually any day. To win as a team, we all get to share it, and we’re all so excited.”
Sharing in success is probably one reason why White wanted to give credit to both her current and former coaches.
“The great thing is that Coach Boyle showed up; she’s the one who kind of brought us together as a team,” White said. “We definitely want to give it to her as well as Coach Giarmo.
“She’s the kind of coach who can make you laugh when you’re crying after a bad hole, but Coach Giarmo has his perks, too. He’s a great guy and a great coach. We wouldn’t have been here without both of them.”
The Falcons also recognized another coach, but not one of their own. Each East Kentwood player wore a ribbon in their hair to honor Grand Rapids South Christian girls golf coach Rob VanDyke, who was killed earlier this month when he was struck by a motorist while bicycling in Hudsonville.
“Our whole team made ribbons for him in his memory because he was a great guy,” White said. “His team went out and won regionals lights out, and that was awesome.”
“Awesome” might have been the word of the day for East Kentwood, which picked up its first MHSAA championship in girls golf.
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my entire life than to be where I am right now,” White said. “This exceeds anything. My mind is blown right now.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud to be a Falcon than today. It’s awesome.”
While White and East Kentwood stole the show and the titles, junior Lucy Buzolitz of Grosse Pointe South provided a memorable moment on Friday when she scored a hole-in-one on the par-3 12th hole.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Kentwood’s Sara White celebrates a 51-foot putt on the 18th hole that secured for her the LP Division 1 individual title. (Middle) Grosse Pointe South’s Lucy Buzolitz fires a shot from the sand Saturday; on Friday, she scored a hole-in-one. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
Shores Core 4 wins Fourth MHSAA Title
October 20, 2012
By Greg Chrapek
Special to Second Half
ALLENDALE – Repeating was the theme of the weekend at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Girls Golf Final.
Not only was Muskegon Mona Shores looking for a fourth straight team championship, but Okemos junior Elle Nichols had her sights set on repeating as the individual medalist at The Meadows Golf Course on the campus of Grand Valley State University.
In the end, both the Sailors and Nichols accomplished their goals, but not without plenty of thrills along the way. On the team front, Mona Shores became the first girls golf team to win four straight Lower Peninsula championships. The Sailors also came full circle as their two-day total of 666 matched the score they shot in winning the 2009 title with four of the same players.
Mona Shores led the tournament at the end of the first day with a 341 and came back on Saturday to shoot a 325. Battle Creek Lakeview finished second with a score of 707 while Okemos took third with a 711.
“We talked about the butterflies after the first day,” Mona Shores coach John Brainard said. “We talked Saturday morning about getting rid of the butterflies. About getting a fire in our bellies instead and going out after it.”
That was exactly what the Sailors did, as seniors Hailey Hrynewich and Morgan Smith led the way with scores of 79 while fellow seniors Britni Gielow and Kelsey McKinley shot rounds of 83 and 84, respectively. All four have been among the team’s top five for all four championships.
“It feels so great to win it again,” Hrynewich said. “That was our goal from day one this season, to win a fourth state title. There was a lot more pressure on us this year. Everyone knew we were going for our fourth in a row, but we knew we had to do it."
The title was bittersweet for Brainard, who will say goodbye to his special senior class.
“I’m so proud of these girls,” Brainard said. “These four seniors are very special. They set the state record that no other team has done before.”
With a fourth title heading to the trophy case, Brainard is already looking ahead to a possible fifth next year.
“That’s my job,” Brainard said. “I’ve already started looking ahead. I started last summer getting some girls out for the junior varsity team, and we’re going to work on getting some more golfers out.”
While the Sailors won by 14 strokes, Nichols had a much closer margin of victory as she had to go to a three-person playoff to repeat as champion by one stroke.
Nichols was in third place, three strokes out of first as she carded an 81 on Friday. She came back Saturday and fired a 77 to finish with a 36-hole total of 158. Hrynewich came in with scores of 79 on both days to also finish with a 158, while East Lansing senior Kristyn Crippen, who was the Division 2 runner-up last fall, shot a 76 on Saturday to go with Friday’s round of 82.
The three golfers then played the treacherous 18th hole. Nichols’ second shot landed short of the green in the tall grass that was even more of a hazard due to the heavy rain from the previous two days. However, she was up to the challenge as she blasted a shot out of the tall grass and mud and onto the green some 40 feet beyond the hole. From there, it was a 40-foot, downhill put for par. Nichols sent the ball on a smooth line to the hole, but once it arrived at its destination the ball jumped just over the lip.
After her opponents missed their bogey putts, Nichols sank her next to edge Hrynewich and Crippen by a stroke and win the playoff.
“I knew somehow I had to get out of the gunk,” Nichols said. “I knew if I could get out of that I had a chance. My first putt lipped out, but then I got my second putt to go in.”
Nichols saved her best putts until the end, according to her coach Dan Stolz.
“Elle didn’t play her best,” Stolz said. “She struggled with her putting some, but then she almost holed that 40-footer that went around the lip. She had eight or nine three-putts, and if she made some of those it wouldn’t have been as close.”
Or as dramatic.
“It was really exciting,” Nichols said. “I was not sure it was going to happen, but I had been there before so I had confidence that I could do it again. I won state last year and knew that I could get it done.”
For Hrynewich, who was on the green in two, the sting of losing the playoff was soothed by the thought of being a four-time team champion with her classmates.
“I thought I had it, but then I missed that putt,” Hrynewich said. “It was disappointing to lose in the playoff, but we won the team championship, and that was the big thing. Winning our fourth team title was what we I really wanted more then anything.”
PHOTO: (Top) Muskegon Mona Shores' Hailey Hrynewich, East Lansing's Kristyn Crippen and Okemos' Elle Nichols shake hands after their playoff hole ended with Nichols winning her second MHSAA championship. (Middle) Mona Shores receives the Division 2 team trophy for the fourth straight season. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)