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New Division, Same Mustangs Success
October 21, 2017
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Macomb Lutheran North girls golf coach Lori Gill admitted the news came as a surprise.
Once the season commenced, Gill found out from Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood coach Mark Moyer that Lutheran North would be competing in Division 3 this year.
It was a significant revelation, given Lutheran North won the state title in Lower Peninsula Division 4 last season.
“I got blindsided with it,” Gill said. “I had my top three players from last year, and they were strong. I thought we might be able to squeak into the top three.”
Lutheran North did better than that, squeaking into the “top one” by winning the Division 3 title Saturday at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
The Mustangs shot a two-day total of 697, three shots better than the 700 produced by runner-up Grand Rapids South Christian.
Three-time reigning champion Spring Lake was third with a 709, Cranbrook was fourth at 718 and Flint Powers Catholic rounded out the top five with a final score of 749.
Lutheran North entered the day one shot ahead of South Christian and three ahead of Cranbrook after Friday’s first round, but it became a battle between Lutheran North and South Christian as the final day progressed.
Lutheran North ended up shooting a 341 on Saturday thanks in large part to senior Serena Nguyen, who ended her high school career finishing as the runner-up individually with a two-day score of 152 (78-74).
Junior Kaity Rittner added a 163 (84-79) and senior Grace Farquhar a 163 (90-83) to flank Nguyen for Lutheran North.
“I told the girls that they had to play their very, very best and couldn’t falter today, and they didn’t,” Gill said. “Yesterday, I think the nerves spoke to them a lot.”
So, now that Lutheran North moved up and won it all in Division 3, will the Mustangs go up to Division 2 next year?
“No,” Gill said with a laugh. “I think we are happy here or below.”
South Christian was led by junior Natalie Samdal, who had a two-day total of 158 (80-78).
“We thought we had a shot at top three, so we definitely reached our goal,” Grand Rapids South Christian coach Ben Cook said. “We are very excited. A 343 (on Saturday) is a very good score for us.”
Also producing a good score once again was Pontiac Notre Dame Prep junior Danielle Staskowski.
After winning the individual Division 3 title in a playoff last year as a sophomore, Staskowski successfully repeated by playing brilliant golf on a difficult Forest Akers West course.
Staskowski shot identical even-par scores of 72 both Friday and Saturday to finish with a total of 144, a healthy eight shots ahead of Nguyen.
“My putter was really strong,” Staskowski said. “I made a lot of putts overall this weekend.
“I was just really focusing on hitting fairways and the center of greens, and I know my putter would really help me out.”
Even better for Notre Dame Prep is that Staskowski has one more year left and a chance to become the fourth Lower Peninsula player to win three individual Finals championships.
“The girl I beat last year in the playoff (Spring Lake’s Anna Kramer), she had won states the year before,” Staskowski said. “It was in my mind that you still have to play hard because anyone can come up.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Macomb Lutheran North stands with an MHSAA championship trophy for the second season in a row. (Middle) Grand Rapids South Christian finished runner-up Saturday. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
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Murphy Closes Championship Career
October 31, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The hardest-working athlete Dan Young has coached stuck around long after practices ended, perfecting shots often by the light of nearby street lamps.
The player was motivated by the chance to win the school’s first girls championship, and an individual title too after falling just short of both the year before.
It sounds like a scene out of a high school basketball movie, and Young has coached that sport at the prep and collegiate levels for 20 years.
But this fall he coached girls golf for the first time, and from senior Kelsey Murphy saw a drive like he’d never seen from one of his athletes before.
Motivated by just-misses from the season before, Murphy willed Plymouth to its first MHSAA team championship in any girls sport and claimed the individual title as well Oct. 19-20 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East.
“That means a lot, coming from him,” Murphy said. “Our team really made the push this year.
“My main goal for my season was to win the team championship. Winning the individual with this was just a little extra. … It was a nice extra.”
And an extra-nice comeback story.
Murphy gets a Second Half High 5 after making good on her hard work heading into this fall, and sticking it out when tough weather and tough putting threatened that individual opportunity again.
She shot a first-round 73 at the Final to lead by a stroke with one round left in her high school career. But Murphy started the second 18 with five bogeys – and it was hard to not consider the 2011 Final, when Murphy led with four holes to play before finishing third.
Meanwhile, her team led by seven strokes, a nice advantage but hardly comfortable.
“It was mainly putting, and I just went back to the basics. (I learned in 2011) to always make sure you finish the round; any stroke will matter,” Murphy said. “I didn’t used to finish out. I’d give up some strokes at the end. It’s just telling yourself to focus on the next shot. You have to hit every shot.”
Murphy fought back with two birdies during her final nine holes, and finished with a second-round 75 and a two-day 178 – good for the individual win by a stroke. And her Wildcats cut their collective score by three from the first day to win the team championship by 11.
Young told his players the night before the tournament’s start that they deserved to win because of the work they’d put into this season. And at the front of that effort was Murphy.
“I’ve never had somebody who works harder than this girl,” Young said. “We’d get to the range at 2:45 and leave at 6 o’clock, and she’d be there until 7 o’clock every single night. It would be dark, and she’d be using street lights to putt and chip.
“She was grinding it out, not leaving any stone unturned. And the thing about it is all the other girls felt they needed to stay too.”
Murphy averaged 36 strokes for nine-hole matches this fall and 74 for 18-hole events. Her second-most impressive win might have been Aug. 23 at the Highland Invitational at Heather Highlands Golf Club, where she shot a 69 to finish ahead of a strong field. Murphy also shot a 74 to win the Regional at Ypsilanti’s Pine View Golf Course by four strokes as her team won that title by 19.
Keep in mind that Murphy is a relative newcomer to the sport. She’s been playing for a little more than five years, picking up the clubs for the first time after a dislocated knee ended her swimming aspirations.
But with younger sister Sydney in tow – the sophomore shot a 173 at the Final – and their grandmother Emma showing them the ropes, Kelsey picked up her new sport quickly. She’s always been a long hitter and drives the ball 240 yards consistently. Her work on pitching has paid off over the last year, and next up is a focus on longer approaches.
The last 10 days have been a lot of fun for the Wildcats, who have continued to hang out together and were recognized during the football team’s playoff game Friday. Murphy will sign to continue her career at Eastern Michigan University and is among favorites to win the statewide Miss Golf award later this month.
That would be another "nice extra" touch to a finish she'll remember most because of how she ended it.
“I was able to keep my game and get it back on track. It’s the lasting impression, to show I can get my game back,” Murphy said. “I knew through other rounds I could do it. But it was just getting back mentally on track and doing it and being able to come through.”
PHOTO: Plymouth's Kelsey Murphy prepares to tee off during the second round of this month's MHSAA Division 1 Final at Forest Akers East. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).