Preview: Finals Filled with Opportunity
October 19, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Five of 12 teams occupying top-three spots in this week’s Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association state polls have never won an MHSAA championship.
That fact alone sets this up to be a weekend of change. But there are other factors to consider heading into the Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Finals.
We’re guaranteed at least one new champion, with reigning Division 4 winner Macomb Lutheran North moving into Division 3 this fall. We’ve also had the same Division 3 winner for three straight seasons – Spring Lake – and a number of contenders will join Lutheran North in trying to put an end to that streak.
Divisions 1 and 2 feature four of the five teams noted above that have never won at this highest level. But in Division 2 at least, a returning champ is expected to reign again – Midland Dow is back as the favorite after claiming its first title just a year ago.
See below for golfers to watch at all four MHSAA Finals this weekend, and come back Saturday evening for coverage of all four championship tournaments on Second Half. Click for a list of all Finals qualifiers and Regional scores from last week.
LP Division 1 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University
Top-ranked: 1. Saline, 2. Brighton, 3. Northville.
Arguably the best golf in the state this fall has been played in the pocket of Livingston, Oakland and Washtenaw counties home to these contenders. Now, history could follow. Saline’s last championship came in 2010, while Brighton and Northville are seeking a first MHSAA title. Saline did finish fifth a year ago, when Brighton tied for seventh at Forest Akers East, and those two have been the top-ranked teams in Division 1 for the last month.
Saline: The Hornets were third after the first round of last year’s Final and have carried that strong play through this fall. They won their Regional last week at Lake Forest in Ann Arbor by 15 strokes ahead of Northville and third-place, No. 4-ranked Plymouth. Saline’s lineup of five seniors included four who finished among the top 13, led by medalist Catherine Loftus (76), fifth-place Molly Pribble and sixth-place Sydney Page. Those three and 13th-place Stephanie Schick were the top four during last season’s Finals weekend as well.
Brighton: The Bulldogs cleared the Regional field at Oak Pointe in Brighton by 30 strokes, shooting a 309. All five players finished among the top 17 individuals, with junior Annie Pietila first at 72, senior Heather Fortushniak second at 76, junior Autumn Blaney fourth and freshman Maggie Pietila tied for fifth. Fortushniak, Pietila, Blaney and Sophie Lowe all were part of last season’s lineup as well.
Northville: As mentioned above, Northville finished second at Lake Forest last week and with two freshmen scoring after the team missed last season’s Final by only two strokes. All five Mustangs finished among the top 28 individuals this time, and only the fifth scorer is a senior. Junior Mariella Simoncini led the way in third place and freshman Nicole Whatley came in fourth against another strong field.
Other individuals of note: Traverse City West junior Anika Dy is the reigning individual champion and also finished runner-up as a freshman, and she leads a team that also could push back into contention after winning the title in 2015. Bloomfield Hills junior Mikaela Schulz was third individually last season, only two stroke back, while Novi senior Abby Livingston is back as an individual qualifier after tying for ninth in 2016. In addition to some of the other likely contenders mentioned above, a pair of freshmen broke 80 at Regionals and could be ones to watch. Utica Eisenhower’s Ariel Chang shot a 73 to win at Twin Lakes in Oakland Township, and Dy’s sister Anci followed Anika shooting a 76 to finish second at their Regional at Sunnybrook in Grandville. Schulz and Farmington Hills Mercy junior Sophie VanderWeele also were Regional medalists last week.
LP Division 2 at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley
Top-ranked: 1. Midland Dow, 2. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, 3. St. Joseph.
Midland Dow won last season’s Division 2 Final by 48 strokes – to claim the Chargers’ first MHSAA championship in this sport – and they’ve been ranked No. 1 in every poll this fall. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer steadily has climbed over the course of the season and is seeking its first championship, as is St. Joseph – they finished eighth and fourth, respectively, in 2016.
Midland Dow: Only two of last season’s five golfers are back this fall, but they have plenty of help. Senior Alexis Carras was the Finals runner-up to her older sister Stephanie last fall and finished seventh at Dow’s Regional last week at Midland’s Currie West, and senior Giacomina Fabiano also is back after shooting the team’s third-lowest score during the 2016 title run. Junior teammate Rose Hami came in sixth at this year’s Regional, senior Tatum Matthews also tied for seventh and junior Meghan Killmaster tied for 14th as all five Chargers finished among the top 23.
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer: The Rockets have blasted into the title conversation over the last month and shot the division’s lowest Regional score, 328, in winning last week at Lincoln Golf Club in Muskegon. Reeths-Puffer edged No. 5 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern by four strokes with four players finishing among the top seven – junior Karina VanDuinen was runner-up with a 79, with senior Karlee Hallberg third, junior Avery Howard tied for fourth and sophomore Abby Fansler tied for seventh. VanDuinen was the Finals champion in 2015 as an individual qualifier. Howard was eighth individually at last year’s Final as she, VanDuinen, Hallberg and junior Emma Veihl all were part of the lineup.
St. Joseph: The Bears also were Regional champions, by 15 strokes at Stonehedge North in Augusta, with all five players finishing among the top 19 individuals. Regional medalist Cailey Rooker (76) placed fourth at last season’s Final, while seniors Maddie Wright and Katie Schmidt also were part of the lineup in 2016. Wright was seventh at this year’s Regional.
Other individuals of note: Port Huron senior Megan Randolph and Grosse Pointe North junior Meghan Gallagher tied for sixth at last season’s Final, and Birmingham Seaholm junior Hailey Roovers was ninth. Gallagher and Roovers both won Regional championships last week, as did DeWitt senior Elaina DeRose, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern freshman Lilia Henkel and Alpena senior Courtney Nunneley. South Lyon senior Elizabeth Harding was 10th at the 2015 Final and missed the top 10 last season by a stroke in leading her team to a third-place finish. Bloomfield Hills Marian freshman Shannon Kennedy shot a 78 to finish second to Roovers at their Regional last week at Huron Meadows in Brighton.
LP Division 3 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West
Top-ranked: 1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 2. Macomb Lutheran North, 3. Detroit Country Day.
Spring Lake has won the last three LPD3 championships but enters this weekend ranked only No. 8. Cranbrook Kingswood and Country Day were fifth and fourth, respectively, at last year’s Final, and this division got even stronger with reigning LPD4 champion Lutheran North joining the group this fall coming off a 36-stroke title win. Cranbrook Kingswood beat Lutheran North by a stroke in a September match.
Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes will bring back the entire lineup this weekend that finished only five strokes out of third place a year ago, including seniors Kate Cao and Carmen Chan, who placed sixth and tied for 10th individually in 2016. They tied for third and finished second, respectively, as the team won its Regional last week at West Shore in Grosse Ile. In addition, junior Katheryn Cohen tied for fifth as all five Cranbrook golfers placed among the top 14.
Lutheran North: The team’s top three Regional shooters – seniors Serena Nguyen and Grace Farquhar and junior Kaity Rittner – all were part of last season’s LPD4 championship lineup, Nguyen finishing fourth and Rittner tying for eighth individually. They’ll return to Forest Akers West, which hosted LPD4 a year ago, and after winning the Regional at Heather Hills in Romeo by four strokes ahead of No. 4 Flint Powers Catholic. Nguyen was the Regional medalist shooting a 70, and Rittner was third.
Country Day: The Yellowjackets were six strokes back of Cranbrook at West Shore with three players among the top nine and four among the top 12. Senior Lucy Liu tied for third at the Regional and junior Kristina Roberts was fifth after both competed at last season’s Final, and Liu is the only senior among the team’s top five. Liu and Roberts also were part of the lineup that finished fourth at the 2015 Final.
Other individuals of note: This is the most loaded individual field this weekend. Including returning LPD4 champion Nguyen and placer Rittner, this Final will feature eight players who were top-10 finishers in 2016. In addition to the Lutheran North pair and Cranbrook’s Cao and Chan, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep junior Danielle Staskowski won the LPD3 individual championship last season after a one-hole playoff. Grand Rapids South Christian junior Natalie Samdal was third, while Spring Lake senior Madelyn Nelson tied for eighth and junior teammate Hannah Klein tied for 10th. Klein and Nelson were first and second at their Regional last week at Katke in Big Rapids, while Samdal, Staskowski (ahead of Chan, Cao and Liu), Marshall sophomore Karlee Malone and Three Rivers senior Erin Taylor also won Regional titles.
LP Division 4 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East
Top-ranked: 1. Kalamazoo Hackett, 2. Jackson Lumen Christi, 3. Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian.
With Lutheran North moving into Division 3, there’s sure to be a new champion – and 2014-15 back-to-back winner Hackett enters as the favorite. Last season’s runner-up Livonia Ladywood also didn’t qualify as a full team, so Hackett is the highest returning placer as well after coming in third in 2016. Lumen Christi came in sixth and NorthPointe Christian was 10th; the Titans are playing for their first girls golf title since 2004, and NorthPointe is seeking its first championship in the sport having fallen two strokes shy in 2013.
Kalamazoo Hackett: Although the Irish graduated last season’s individual co-runner-up, they return the other four golfers who played on that third-place team. Hackett won its Regional at Milham Park in Kalamazoo by 14 strokes ahead of NorthPointe Christian and 17 ahead of No. 4-ranked North Muskegon, with those four returning golfers all placing among the top nine. Junior Emily Stull led the way in second, while junior Jessie Wenzel was fourth and lone senior Molly Clark tied for fifth.
Lumen Christi: Similar to Hackett, five of six players from last season’s Finals lineup (including both who split the fifth spot) are back for this weekend. Senior Geraldine Berkemeier missed the individual top 10 last year by two strokes, but she finished second to junior teammate Hillary Ziemba at last week’s Regional at The Medalist in Marshall. The Titans won by 23 strokes ahead of a field that also advanced No. 8 East Jackson and No. 10 Napoleon.
NorthPointe Christian: The Mustangs also bring back an experienced group, with four starters from last year’s Final in the lineup and joined by a standout freshman. Four NorthPointe golfers placed between fifth and ninth at the Regional at Milham Park, with junior Annelies Kraayeveld coming in fifth and freshman Sabrina Langerak next on the team in seventh.
Other individuals of note: This could be a wide-open race. With Macomb Lutheran North moving to LPD3, Livonia Ladywood senior Gabriella Scopone is the only returning top-10 finisher from last season after she tied for eighth. In addition to Lumen Christi’s Ziemba, Scopone also won a Regional last week as did Brooklyn Columbia Central junior Alissa Fish, North Muskegon junior Abby Grevel, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart senior Ayesha Mohan and Manistee senior Alice Fink-Jensen. Stull’s 82 to follow up Grevel’s 79 at Milham Park was among the five lowest Regional scores in all of LPD4, as was Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest junior Grace VanDellen’s 82 to finish second to Scopone’s 81 at Eagle Crest in Ypsilanti. Fish shot an 80 to win at Concord Hills.
PHOTO: Macomb Lutheran North's Serena Nguyen lines up a putt during last season's LPD4 Final; her team finished first and will try to win again this season in LPD3. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
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.)