Harbor Springs Goes Low, Claims 1st Title
October 21, 2017
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Going into this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Girls Golf Finals at Michigan State's Forest Akers East, the best team score Harbor Springs had produced this season was a 330.
When his team shot a 352 to place fourth after the first day, Harbor Springs coach Pete Kelbel pointed out that 330 number as a barometer for the Rams to try and close the 12-stroke gap that existed between them and first-place Almont.
“We already did a 330, and if we shot anywhere near what we did, we will be in the hunt,” Kelbel said.
Harbor Springs not only got to 330, but bettered it – and as a result was more than just in the hunt when it all was said and done.
The Rams were MHSAA champions.
Thanks to a blistering score of 328 in Saturday’s second and final round, Harbor Springs finished with a total of 650, 11 shots ahead of runner-up Jackson Lumen Christi.
Almont was third at 699, North Muskegon fourth with a 716 and Kalamazoo Hackett was fifth with a final score of 718.
The title was the first in Harbor Springs girls golf history. The Rams finished runner-up in 2014, their lone top-two finish before Saturday.
A big reason for the team jump was the improved scores on the second day from junior Madi Bezilla and sophomore Evie Garver.
After shooting an 87 on Friday, Bezilla did 11 shots better Saturday with a 76.
Garver also had an 11-stroke improvement, going from a 92 on Friday to an 81 on Saturday.
“(Evie) is probably the longest-hitting girl here,” Kelbel said. “Of course in golf you have to get the wedge shots on and the putts in, and that’s what she did today.”
Lumen Christi entered the day one shot back of Friday leader Almont and turned in a second-day score of 350, but it wasn’t enough to match Harbor Springs.
“This team won it,” Lumen Christi head coach David Swartout said of Harbor Springs. “My hats off to any team that can shoot that score on the second day. Typically on the second day, scores go up.”
However, the second-place finish was still a source of pride for Lumen Christi.
Swartout said the program was almost scrapped five years when only two girls came out for the team, and he saw one of the current seniors shoot a 21 on her first hole at the 2014 MHSAA tournament.
Lumen Christi ended up finishing 14th that season.
“To come from that to runner-up state champions, that’s phenomenal,” he said.
Senior Geraldine Berkemeier and junior Hillary Ziemba shot identical two-day scores of 163 to lead the way for Lumen Christi.
Individually, Brooklyn Columbia Central junior Alissa Fish emerged from a four-way tie for the lead after the first day to win medalist honors, following a first-day total of 79 with an 80 on Saturday.
“I struck my irons close enough, but I didn’t putt real well,” Fish said. “I actually putt really bad today and it had me in tears at some point. A lot of it came down to putting it close enough to where I could finish out a lot of holes.”
The individual runner-up was Almont senior Grace Zimmerman, who followed up a 79 on Friday with an 82 on Saturday to finish at 161.
PHOTOS: (Top) Harbor Springs poses with its first MHSAA Finals championship trophy won in girls golf. (Middle) The top 10 individual finishers at Forest Akers East. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Standout Pair Cards Personal Bests to Lead Mercy's Repeat Title Charge
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 21, 2023
EAST LANSING – Farmington Hills Mercy might have had a lead going into the second round of the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Girls Golf Final at Forest Akers East, but longtime head coach Vicky Kowalski had quite a quandary.
Kowalski didn’t have her No. 1 player, junior Maeve Casey, available to play.
Casey shot a team-best 73 and was in second place individually after the first day, but wasn’t even in the state for the second day.
“She’s a Triple AAA hockey player for Little Caesars,” Kowalski said. “She got on a plane last night to go to a hockey tournament (in Minnesota). We had to put a sub in.”
But not even not having its top player couldn’t stop Mercy from achieving some program history.
Thanks to other players stepping up, Mercy won its fourth Finals title overall and repeated as champion for the first time in Kowalski’s 47 years as head coach.
The Marlins finished with a two-day score of 636, 17 shots ahead of Catholic League rival Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood.
Mason was third with 657.
The Marlins entered the day with an 8-shot lead over Cranbrook. The Mercy player who made up for the loss of Casey the most was senior Abby Slankster, who shot a 2-under-par round of 70, a round Kowalski said was her all-time best.
Kowalski said junior Macy Morphew also shot her best score, contributing an 81 to the cause.
Junior Lila Polakowski shot a 79 and senior Brinley Nay added an 89 for Mercy during the second round.
“I’m just so happy that our girls played so well today,” Kowalski said.
In outlasting Cranbrook, Mercy capped off a season that featured a lot of back-and-forth between the two teams.
“Some of the tournaments we went to, we’d be ahead, and some they’d be ahead,” Kowalski said.
Cranbrook moved up to Division 2 this year after winning the Division 3 championship in 2021 and finishing runner-up last year.
Sophomore Sydney Behnke led Cranbrook with a two-day total of 156 (75-81), while senior Mackenzie Behnke was right behind at 157 (79-78).
“When we moved up to D2, we thought we would be able to compete,” Cranbrook head coach John Minnich said. “We did compete. It was not the finish we hoped for. Mercy beat us at the Catholic League championship, and they beat us at Regionals. They’ve been just a little bit better than us all year.
“I’m really proud of my team. They played great.”
Also playing great was Coopersville senior Lauren Davis, who was the medalist with identical scores of 70 for a two-day total of 140 in chilly and rainy conditions.
Davis finished four shots ahead of Dexter sophomore Avery Manning.
“My putting was super solid,” Davis said. “That was the biggest help for me.”
Davis capped off her career winning it all after finishing fifth last year.
“My state tournaments have been weird,” she said. “My first year we had only one day (because of a COVID-19 format change). My second states’ year I was playing great and was at the top, but then on my third-to-last hole I had a 10. Last year, I had one bad round. It’s good to put it all together this year.”
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy's Abby Slankster drives during Saturday's second round at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) Coopersville's Lauren Davis celebrates her medalist honor. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)