Negaunee's Niskanen, Escanaba Pull Through to Celebrate Close Victories
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 1, 2022
HARRIS — It took all 18 holes to determine an individual champion at the Upper Peninsula Division 1 Girls Golf Final here Wednesday.
Negaunee junior Rachel Niskanen came through with a 25-foot birdie putt on the No. 18 hole, becoming medalist for the first time with 82 strokes.
Menominee senior Madison Derusha, who narrowly missed an eagle putt on the last hole, settled for birdie and the runner-up honor at 83 on a sunny and mild day at Sweetgrass Golf Club.
“I started with par on the back nine, then I double-bogeyed the next three holes,” said Niskanen, who led by six strokes at one point on the back nine. “Both of us had bogeys. She was five down going into 11. It was really intense. I just tried to take it one stroke at a time and reminded myself that I couldn’t change the past. I just had to focus on the future.”
Escanaba was crowned team champion for the first time in four years with a 411. The Eskymos were followed by Negaunee at 417, Marquette at 422, Ishpeming Westwood with 431 and two-time reigning champion Menominee at 440.
“The girls really came through,” said Escanaba assistant coach Jake Berlinski. “Last year they were playing for the first time. This year was a little bit different. The girls made it a sport they really cared about.
“We ask a lot of these girls. They miss a lot of school, which is stressful for them. We’ve been asking them to miss two days a week for the last five weeks.”
Derusha, who plans to play golf at Michigan State University, said it was kind of a bittersweet ending to her high school career.
“It would have been nice to get the eagle, but it was still nice to get a birdie on my last high school hole,” she added. “Both of us were as nervous as could be. I have to stay as positive as I can and be proud of the way I finished.
“I will be doing club golf in my first year (at MSU), then I’ll play varsity golf as a sophomore. It will be a big learning curve.”
Westwood senior Jillian Koski, who sank a hole-in-one on No. 12 during Tuesday’s practice round, placed third with at 89 on Wednesday.
“On the front nine I had a 40,” said Koski, who will also attend MSU this fall to major in business management. “My putting was going real well, then they weren’t falling anymore on the back nine. I was nervous. I wanted to do as well as I did on the front nine.”
Escanaba junior Cierra Scott moved up two places from a year ago, taking fourth this time at 90. Iron Mountain’s Redeit Husing placed fifth with a 93.
“I’ve become more consistent with my long game,” said Scott. “My drives were pretty good today, but putting is something I need to work on. My putts weren’t very good. You’re never going to have a perfect round; you can come close, but it’s highly unlikely you’re going to get that perfect round.
“I wasn’t playing my best golf in the beginning of the season and was getting down on myself. Then, I kind of changed my mentality. Going into the season, winning the team title was top priority. Our team has improved so much.”
Berlinski often refers to Scott as “Captain.”
“Last year, we weren’t sure if we’d have a full team,” he said. “Cierra earned that name. She recruited some players and brought them along with her. She had some early-season struggles and shot scores that were uncharacteristic for her, but good players find a way to get through that stuff and Cierra played her best golf in the end.
“This is a nice feather in her hat for somebody who’s aspiring to be a college golfer. She’ll play somewhere. She’ll find a home.”
PHOTOS (Top) Negaunee's Rachel Niskanen tees off on No. 16 at Sweetgrass Golf Club during Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Division 1 Final. (Middle) The Escanaba girls golf team holds up its team championship trophy. From left: Sophia Derkos, Peyton Wellman, Annika Wangrud, Cierra Scott and Maddie Wilson. (Photos by Justin St. Ours.)
Portage Northern's Leinwand Driving to Contend Again, Lead Huskies' Rise
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
August 23, 2022
PORTAGE — When she was 4 years old, KT Leinwand’s parents joined the Kalamazoo Country Club, she said, to give their children something to do during the summer months.
Special events for children included “fun things around the (golf) course with little kids and little putt-putt matches,” Leinwand recalled this week. “They just wanted to keep me busy.”
Little did she realize that those “fun things” would lead to a passion for golf that has catapulted Leinwand into becoming one of the top high school golfers in the state.
Last fall, as a Portage Northern sophomore, she finished second at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final.
What is more unusual is that no one in her family — her parents, three siblings or grandparents — plays golf.
By age 8, she was learning the finer points of the sport by attending clinics.
“I would come and play with my friends,” Leinwand said. “We met (KCC assistant pro at the time, now head pro) Kyle Horton, and I decided I wanted private lessons with him when I was 9.
“Kyle gave me the love of golf, and then I kept going. Then I went with another coach, Abby Pearson, and she made me love it even more. I just kept getting out there every day and playing. Been with her ever since.”
Leinwand, who turned 16 two weeks ago, is the top golfer for the Huskies.
“We have obviously a really good No. 1 golfer in KT, which offsets a lot of scoring because she’s consistently in the low- to mid-70s,” Portage Northern coach Chris Andrews said. “So that gives us a little bit of a buffer for our fourth and fifth golfers.
“This year, we really have a good No. 2 and 3 golfer. We have a handful of girls trying to get us that fourth score we need. I’m looking at if we can get 100 or less out of that fourth scorer, we could be a state qualifier.”
The No. 2 golfer is senior Zoey Quinn.
“She’s gotten to the point where she’s actually a really, really good softball player, but she’s switching her passion to golf and wants to play in college,” Andrews said. “She shoots in the 80s consistently.”
No. 3 is freshman Brooke Randall.
“She has had two good rounds so far,” Andrews said. “I see her scoring in the 80s consistently this year.
“If she gets out here the next couple weeks and plays more with KT and Zoey and just picks up some of the course management, she’s going to be a really, really good golfer as well.”
Others on the young varsity team are sophomores Lizzy Rzepka, Jenna Vliestra, Lauren Shaman and Addison Munn plus freshman Lilly Ray.
If the team does qualify for the MHSAA Finals, that would be a bonus for Leinwand, who was an individual qualifier the last two years.
Last fall, her two-day total of 148 at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek was just four strokes behind champ Gabriella Tapp of South Lyon.
If Leinwand qualifies again this year, “Gabriella will be a senior, and she’ll still be around so I’ll see her,” she laughed.
As a freshman, Leinwand finished 23rd individually in LPD2 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West, the site of this year’s LPD2 Final.
Jumping from 23rd to second in a year took a lot of work and practice, she said.
“I worked in the winter a bunch at the Dome Sports Center in Schoolcraft. I was out there all the time working on my swing,” Leinwand said. “In the summer and spring when it was finally nice out with no snow, I was playing every day.”
With no others golfers in her family, Leinwand relies on her coach and friends to hit the links.
Sometimes she will go out by herself or join up with another group, which can cause some surprises.
“You don’t see a lot of young girls that good,” Andrews said, adding that Leinwand’s drives average 260 yards.
Andrews makes his point.
“I had a friend here and we played golf with my son,” he said. “KT joined us for one hole before she had to leave.
“My friend’s a scratch golfer. He was disappointed she left because he enjoyed watching her play. That’s a common reaction when people see her play.”
Leinwand credits her coach with helping her keep focus on the course.
Andrews teaches health, personal finance and International Baccalaureate sports exercise health science at Northern, and also is a mental performance trainer.
As the Huskies baseball coach, he credits mental performance as part of the success that propelled his 2019 team to the Division 1 championship.
He also works with other teams and individual athletes in the area.
“I use a lot of mental strategies from my coach,” Leinwand said. “After a bad shot, I have to erase it and go to the next shot and totally clean slate and totally forget about that bad shot.”
However, her strength is her power off the tee, she said.
“I can hit it a good amount farther than a lot of the girls. When we’re playing short courses, I don’t always need to hit my driver off the tee, so I hit something like an iron or a wood that can be more consistent and straighter.”
Andrews looks to his junior as a role model for others on the team.
“KT brings a quiet confidence that I think the other girls can look at her and not just admire her physical ability, but her presence on the course and her presence around the course,” he said.
“She’s always in good spirits, and she doesn’t have too highs or too lows. She’s steady. Her mental game is probably her strength. She’s a good role model to the other girls to work hard and stay steady with the mental side.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Portage Northern’s KT Leinwand is aiming to take the next step after finishing runner-up in Lower Peninsula Division 2 last season. (Middle) Northern girls golf coach Chris Andrews also led the school’s baseball team to a Division 1 title in 2019. (Below) Leinwand awaits her turn to putt during practice. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)