Preview: Legendary Opportunities Await
October 17, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
No doubt, this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Finals will provide unforgettable moments for everyone who takes part.
But there also are a number of storylines heading in that could prove memorable in statewide lore for seasons to come.
At least three reigning champions appear in the hunt to repeat – Traverse City West in Division 1, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in Division 2 and Harbor Springs in Division 4. But West must fend off Northville – arguably the most impressive team this regular season in any division – while Forest Hills Northern just finished second at its Regional to Muskegon Reeths-Puffer and Harbor Springs faces a Division 4 field that includes reigning Division 3 champion Macomb Lutheran North.
For sure, we’ll say good-bye to two of the most accomplished individuals in state girls golf history. West’s Anika Dy and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Danielle Staskowski will attempt to finish their high school careers with fourth MHSAA Finals individual championships – they’ve both won titles the last two years after Dy finished runner-up in Division 1 as a freshman and Staskowski began her prep run with a fourth place in Division 3 in 2015.
Only three others have won three Lower Peninsula championships since the first Finals in 1973 – Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox (2014-16), Okemos’ Elle Nichols (2011-13) and Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kate Loy (1993-95).
Play begins at 10 a.m. both Friday and Saturday. See below for golfers to watch at all four Finals, 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 Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley
Top-ranked: 1. Northville, 2. Bloomfield Hills, 3. Traverse City West.
The Division 1 field is loaded with talented teams, especially representing the southeastern part of the state – 13 of 18 qualifiers are from Livingston, Oakland, Macomb or Wayne counties. But Traverse City West is the reigning Finals champion – and has won two of the last three seasons.
Northville: The Mustangs are undefeated this season playing many of the best teams in Division 1, with an incredible 291 in August setting a program scoring record. All five starters for this weekend were part of last season’s fourth-place Finals finish. Northville tied Hartland with the lowest Regional score in LPD1 last week, shooting a 326 at Travis Pointe in Saline to finish 21 strokes ahead of runner-up and No. 5-ranked Plymouth. Mariella Simoncini is the only senior among the top five, and she was the Regional individual runner-up.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks finished second by two strokes to No. 8 Clarkston at the Regional at Clarkston’s Pine Knob, shooting a 336, and remain No. 2 in the rankings. They won their second straight Oakland County Division 1 championship earlier this fall and bring back this weekend the four scorers from last season’s seventh-place finisher. Senior Mikaela Schulz was fourth individually a year ago and won the Regional title last week with a 74, four strokes ahead of sophomore teammate and runner-up Sanju Swamy.
Traverse City West: Senior Anika Dy will lead the Titans into this weekend seeking a third straight individual championship to go with a third team title. She won last year’s Final by eight strokes, while now-sophomore sister Anci Dy tied for sixth. Senior Jillian Ellul also returns from last year’s top five, and together they finished first, second and third, respectively as West shot a 335 to win last week’s Regional at The Meadows by 23 strokes.
Other individuals of note: Seven of last season’s top 10 are back this weekend. Rochester junior Savannah Haque was last year’s runner-up and also a key contributor when her team won Division 1 in 2016. Utica Eisenhower sophomore Ariel Chang tied Anci Dy for sixth last season, and Brighton senior Annie Pietila came in eighth and will play at the Finals for the fourth time. Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore Amaya Melendez also had a big debut in 2017, tying for ninth. She joined Anika Dy and Schulz among Regional champs last week, along with Hartland senior Sydney Bradford, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek senior Domitille Chambon and Grosse Pointe South sophomore Audrey Becker. Brighton sophomore Maggie Pietila came in second to Bradford at Hartland Glen, with her 75 one of the lowest Regional scores division-wide as well.
LP Division 2 at Michigan State's Forest Akers West
Top-ranked: 1. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, 2. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 3. Bloomfield Hills Marian.
Forest Hills Northern won its first championship last fall since 1982 and was ranked No. 1 all this season until Monday. Reeths-Puffer is shooting not only for its first championship, but first top-two finish after missing the latter by just a stroke a year ago. Marian was last season’s runner-up, achieving its first top-two finish, and could take another step this weekend as well.
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer: Karina VanDuinen was third at last year’s Final and Avery Howard was sixth, and they with also-returning senior Emma Veihl and junior Abby Fansler give the Rockets one of the most tournament-tested teams in the field. Scarier yet, freshman Karlie VanDuinen led the way at the Regional with her winning 70 the second-lowest score last week in the entire division as the team shot a 310 to best Forest Hills Northern. Older sister Karina won the Division 2 individual championship as a freshman in 2015, and Howard also placed as a sophomore in 2016.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern: Senior Kay Zubkus and sophomores Lilia Henkel and Anna Fay are back from the team that won last season’s championship by 13 strokes – Henkel finishing seventh and Zubkus tying for 10th individually. The Huskies finished seventh strokes back of Reeths-Puffer last week at Grand Rapids’ Thornapple Pointe, with Zubkus second, Henkel third and Fay tied for sixth. Zubkus’ 72 was the third-lowest Regional score division-wide.
Bloomfield Hills Marian: Reigning Finals individual champion Shannon Kennedy leads four players back from last season’s second-place finisher as they look to make program history. She shot a two-round 146 last season as a freshman to clear the field by three strokes, and she was the Regional medalist at Huron Meadows in Brighton last week by two strokes with a 77. Zink, a senior, and Hudson, a junior, took fifth and tied for sixth, respectively, at the Regional, and sophomore Lauren Sass had the second-best score among the team’s returnees at last year’s Final.
More individuals of note: St. Joseph senior Cailey Rooker finished ninth last season and fourth as a sophomore, and won last week’s Regional at Coldwater Golf Course by seven strokes shooting an 80. Okemos freshman Allison Cui is shooting under par for the season and won last week’s Regional at The Emerald in St. Johns with a 69, 13 strokes ahead of the field. Petoskey junior Ashley Lamb and South Lyon senior Julia Vess also earned Regional championships.
LP Division 3 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East
Top-ranked: 1. Flint Powers Catholic, 2. Grand Rapids South Christian, 3. Freeland.
Powers is playing for its first championship since 2008, South Christian for its first since 2009, and Freeland for its first title and first top-two finish ever. Last season’s champion, Macomb Lutheran North, is in Division 4 this fall after finishing three strokes better than the Sailors in 2017. Unranked Spring Lake – third last season but champion for three straight from 2014-16 – shot the division’s lowest Regional score last week, 356.
Flint Powers Catholic: The Chargers finished third in 2016 and fifth last season, and return this weekend with four of their top five from a year ago plus a standout freshman. Sophomore Jolie Brochu tied for eighth at last season’s final and junior Maggie Knight missed the individual top 10 by a stroke in 2016. They led Powers to last week’s Regional title at Owosso Country Club, won with a tie-breaker against Freeland. Brochu finished first individually, Knight was third, with senior Gina Canavesio seventh, freshman Allie Sexton ninth and junior Olivia Canaday 10th.
Grand Rapids South Christian: The Sailors are headed to the Finals for the 23rd straight season and just missed another title a year ago as now-senior Natalie Samdal finished fourth individually to lead the way. Junior Maddie Wieringa and senior Ashley Keen also were part of that runner-up Finals effort, and all three finished among the top 10 as South Christian won last week’s Regional at Pigeon Creek in West Olive with a 363.
Freeland: Senior Olivia Pumford took 10th at last season’s Final as an individual qualifier and will be joined this weekend by the rest of the Falcons, who just missed winning the Regional (see above) but still shot what tied for the second-lowest score in the division last week. Pumford took first at the Regional as all five Freeland golfers finished among the top 12; senior Alyssa Argyle was fifth, senior Lily Beyer sixth and sophomore Lydia Beck eighth.
Other individuals of note: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior Danielle Staskowski has won the last two Division 3 championships, by eight strokes last fall and in a playoff hole as a sophomore. She shot a 75 last week at Pontiac Country Club to win her Regional by a stroke over Goodrich senior Elizabeth Gibbs. Senior Hannah Klein tied for sixth at the Final last season in leading Spring Lake to its third-place team finish, and she tied for 10th as a sophomore in 2016. She too was a Regional champion last week, as was Hastings junior Rayna Honsowitz, Marshall junior Karlee Malone and Carleton Airport sophomore Kristen Reed.
LP Division 4 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State
Top-ranked: 1. North Muskegon, 2. Harbor Springs, 3. Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian.
Harbor Springs is coming off last season’s first MHSAA girls golf championship, an 11-stroke victory. North Muskegon and NorthPointe Christian both are playing for their first titles – NorthPointe finished runner-up in 2013, while North Muskegon is seeking to place among the top two for the first time. Macomb Lutheran North is unranked but won in 2016 and then took first in 2017 in Division 3 – with three players from that team coming back this weekend.
North Muskegon: The Norsemen finished sixth in 2015, 11th in 2016 and fourth a year ago, and will go after their first title with all five scorers back from last season’s team. Senior Abby Grevel tied for eighth individually at the 2017 Final, and she’s joined by three more seniors and a sophomore. They won last week’s Regional at The Mines in Grand Rapids with a 344, 11 strokes better than the field, with Grevel second, senior Lindsay Bliss third and sophomore Georgie Kersman seventh.
Harbor Springs: Four of last season’s top five are back seeking a repeat run, with senior Madi Bezilla leading after tying for third individually a year ago. The team’s top four last season all shot within 10 strokes of one another at the Final, and that balance reigns as the Rams shot the division’s lowest Regional score last week, 353, with all four scorers between 80-90. Bezilla was first, junior Evie Garver was second, sophomore Jacque O’Neill was third and senior Callie O’Neill came in eighth.
Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian: The Mustangs are looking to make a jump from 13th last season and third at last week’s Regional, which also included No. 5 Kalamazoo Hackett in the runner-up spot after North Muskegon. Three of last season’s top five lead the way, with sophomore Sabrina Langerak coming in fourth and junior Lauren Slottke fifth at the Regional.
Other individuals of note: Six of last season’s top 10 will be back this weekend, led by reigning champion Alissa Fish of Brooklyn Columbia Central. She won by two strokes last year as a junior, and claimed last week’s Regional title at Concord Hills by eight strokes. Jackson Lumen Christi senior Hillary Ziemba tied for third last year, Shepherd senior Morgan Yates tied for sixth, and Kalamazoo Hackett senior Emily Stull was 10th. All three won Regional titles last week, as did Macomb Lutheran North senior Kaity Rittner – who finished fifth in LPD3 in 2017.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City West’s Anika Dy unloads a drive during last season’s LPD1 Final. (Middle) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Danielle Staskowski stands at the front of the line of top individual finishers in LPD3 in 2017. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Saline Looks Forward to Finals - and Beyond
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
October 7, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – The future is now for the Saline girls golf team.
The Hornets, ranked No. 3 in the Lower Peninsula Division 1 state poll, do not have a senior among their top four players. It's easy to look ahead to next year with hope and anticipation.
However, coach Debbie Williams-Hoak and her players are not looking past next week, when they will go to Forest Akers East on the campus of Michigan State University as a Regional champion and legitimate threat to win their first MHSAA Finals championship since 2010.
“It would mean the world,” said junior Catherine Loftus, the Regional medalist after shooting 76 on Wednesday at Washtenaw Golf Club in Ypsilanti. “If we could win the state, it would be awesome, and I think we can do it.”
Top 'Cat'
Saline finished sixth in Division 1 a year ago. The Hornets were 12 strokes behind champion Traverse City West, and they graduated their No. 1 player, Samantha Kellstrom. That vaulted Loftus to No. 1, and the transformation was not easy.
Loftus, called “Cat” by her teammates, struggled at first with her new status.
“It was tough for her this summer because she knew that she had big shoes to fill,” Williams-Hoak said. “She put a lot of pressure on herself, and she didn't have the summer that she had hoped for.
“The start of this season was tough, too. She came out and she was trying to be a great leader and shoot the low scores, and it ended up being a lot of pressure. She finally ended up being able to relax and let herself play, and when she started doing that, it was just one great score after another.”
Loftus established a personal 9-hole record of 34 at Brookside Golf Course in Saline, and in the Southeastern Conference tournament at Calderone Farms in Grass Lake she shot a personal-best 73 for 18 holes to win medalist honors.
Loftus shot 84-88 at the MHSAA Final last year, and she expects to do better this month. In the Regional, she showed that she also can overcome a rough start and still finish strong.
“I started off a little bit shaky, but I stayed in there and made some key putts,” she said. “I did have a few three-putts, but my tee ball helped me a lot, too. I wasn't feeling super-great with my swing coming into it, but I figured it out, and I feel much better about it.”
Loftus shot 39-37, and her 76 earned her the Regional title by three strokes.
“Catherine has done a great job as our No. 1 player, and she has really been playing awesome,” Williams-Hoak said.
Coach Debbie
It is doubtful that anyone challenges the credibility of Williams-Hoak, but if they do, her resume will show them otherwise.
If it's not enough that she was a Hall of Fame track & field performer at the University of Michigan and a six-time performer in the U.S. Olympic Festivals (five in track and one in softball), she also has rich golf credentials. She spent one year on the LPGA Tour and paired with superstar Annika Sorenstam in the 2000 Jamie Farr Classic in Toledo.
But to the Hornets, she is simply Coach Debbie, a leader and mentor who can lay down the law one minute and dance and be “funky” the next.
“She's kind of strict,” junior Stephanie Schick said. “She really wants us to do well, and she wants us to work hard, but she has her moments when she gets a little funky sometimes. She can be silly, too, and it's cool to have a Tour player as our coach.”
Williams-Hoak said she doesn't have to lay down the law often with this group, however.
“We have rules, but with these girls it's never a big deal because they adhere to them,” she said. “There's not a whole lot that I do when it comes to being a disciplinarian because they are all so good with it.”
Therefore, Williams is able to relax and have a little fun with her girls.
“We all love Coach Debbie,” junior Sydney Page said. “She has the biggest heart ever. Whenever I hit a good shot, she does a little dance.”
Williams-Hoak does more than a little dance. Last year, she began calling Page “Mini Me,” and the endearing term means a lot to the junior.
“It shows that she cares about me and how much potential that I have,” Page said. “Or maybe it's the hair, and I think it's my personality. I relate a lot to her.”
Williams-Hoak does see a little of herself in her “Mini Me.”
“That started because she had aspirations to try and play on the Tour,” Williams-Hoak said. “We have baby pictures, and we look a lot alike and we think a lot alike. We're similar.”
Junior Molly Pribble said Williams-Hoak has helped her with her mental game and given advice that Pribble can use in her everyday life.
“In the Regional I didn't play my best, and she was calming me down,” Pribble said. “She has this air about her that helps me to calm down and refocus.
“She told me that people in general, when they are sad or upset, they will walk faster or walk slower, or slouch over or stand up straight. She said when you are upset, try not to do those things. She said I walk faster when (I am) upset, so I know to slow down and take my time when I'm upset.”
Golfing family
It is obvious that Saline has some talented golfers, but to a girl they say talent isn't the only reason why they are successful.
“We're all really great friends, and we love each other,” Schick said.
Schick, Page and Loftus all became friends in middle school, and in the ninth grade, Pribble came to Saline. Quickly, they became a foursome.
“Since our freshman year, we've all been super-close,” Page said. “It's cool to know that you have your closest friends there with you, and we have a friendly competition. At the end of the day, you want everybody to do well, but inside, you want to be the best.”
For Pribble, joining the golf team was as much about getting to know some of her new classmates as much as it was the game itself.
“I joined golf to get to know some girls before school started because in the fall it starts before school begins,” she said. “On our first day of qualifying, Samantha (Kellstrom) and I were the only ones on the range, and she was hitting her drives so well. I was like, 'Oh no, I'm not even going to make the team,' because she was so good, and she was the nicest person ever.”
The player on the team who has shown the most improvement from last year is Schick, who shot a 110 in her one MHSAA Finals round last season, but came back with a 91 in Wednesday’s Regional to tie for 16th. She made the jump with a lot of practice and hard work.
“I played in a bunch of summer tournaments and really got into the groove of things and started to love it more, so I worked really hard,” Schick said.
Schick also works with Rocky Mullendore, the pro at Travis Point Country Club, and previously her coach was Patrick Wilkes-Krier, an assistant coach for the men's golf team at the University of Michigan. She said having multiple coaches has not been a problem.
“My coaches like having multiple opinions on things because they think it helps my swing and they can collaborate with each other about things,” she said.
Williams-Hoak simplified Schick's improvement.
“She works hard, so if you work hard and allow yourself to do that, you reap the rewards and good things will happen,” she said.
The two seniors on the team are Margaret Wood and Danielle Bunney. On Wednesday, Wood figured into the scoring as the fifth player when Saline and Novi finished in a tie for the Regional championship. The tie-breaker is the fifth-best score on the team, and Wood's 102 beat the Novi player’s by four strokes.
“When I learned that it was up to me, I got nervous, and then afterwards it was a huge feeling of relief and happiness,” she said. “Just knowing that I could contribute in this way was really cool.”
Although Saline has been successful for years, the Regional title has eluded the Hornets recently. Saline was second in four of the previous five Regionals and took third in 2014.
“It feels great to finally get first place, and it is making everything great for my senior year,” Wood said.
One tournament remains, and it is the big one. Nobody wants to think about the potential of next year's team at a time like this, but the promise and potential is hard to overlook, too.
Williams-Hoak looks at it diplomatically.
“I hope they keep the passion going, and depending on what happens this year, either build on that or repeat,” she said. “We have a lot of goals to accomplish this year and next year yet.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Saline junior Molly Pribble watches her practice shot at the driving range during Wednesday's Regional at Washtenaw Golf Club. (Middle) From left: Coach Debbie Williams-Hoak, Pribble, senior Danielle Bunney, senior Marge Wood, junior Sydney Page, junior Stephanie Schick and junior Catherine Loftus. (Below) Loftus follows through on a putt at No. 18. (Photos by Chip Mundy.)