Shores Core 4 wins Fourth MHSAA Title
October 20, 2012
By Greg Chrapek
Special to Second Half
ALLENDALE – Repeating was the theme of the weekend at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Girls Golf Final.
Not only was Muskegon Mona Shores looking for a fourth straight team championship, but Okemos junior Elle Nichols had her sights set on repeating as the individual medalist at The Meadows Golf Course on the campus of Grand Valley State University.
In the end, both the Sailors and Nichols accomplished their goals, but not without plenty of thrills along the way. On the team front, Mona Shores became the first girls golf team to win four straight Lower Peninsula championships. The Sailors also came full circle as their two-day total of 666 matched the score they shot in winning the 2009 title with four of the same players.
Mona Shores led the tournament at the end of the first day with a 341 and came back on Saturday to shoot a 325. Battle Creek Lakeview finished second with a score of 707 while Okemos took third with a 711.
“We talked about the butterflies after the first day,” Mona Shores coach John Brainard said. “We talked Saturday morning about getting rid of the butterflies. About getting a fire in our bellies instead and going out after it.”
That was exactly what the Sailors did, as seniors Hailey Hrynewich and Morgan Smith led the way with scores of 79 while fellow seniors Britni Gielow and Kelsey McKinley shot rounds of 83 and 84, respectively. All four have been among the team’s top five for all four championships.
“It feels so great to win it again,” Hrynewich said. “That was our goal from day one this season, to win a fourth state title. There was a lot more pressure on us this year. Everyone knew we were going for our fourth in a row, but we knew we had to do it."
The title was bittersweet for Brainard, who will say goodbye to his special senior class.
“I’m so proud of these girls,” Brainard said. “These four seniors are very special. They set the state record that no other team has done before.”
With a fourth title heading to the trophy case, Brainard is already looking ahead to a possible fifth next year.
“That’s my job,” Brainard said. “I’ve already started looking ahead. I started last summer getting some girls out for the junior varsity team, and we’re going to work on getting some more golfers out.”
While the Sailors won by 14 strokes, Nichols had a much closer margin of victory as she had to go to a three-person playoff to repeat as champion by one stroke.
Nichols was in third place, three strokes out of first as she carded an 81 on Friday. She came back Saturday and fired a 77 to finish with a 36-hole total of 158. Hrynewich came in with scores of 79 on both days to also finish with a 158, while East Lansing senior Kristyn Crippen, who was the Division 2 runner-up last fall, shot a 76 on Saturday to go with Friday’s round of 82.
The three golfers then played the treacherous 18th hole. Nichols’ second shot landed short of the green in the tall grass that was even more of a hazard due to the heavy rain from the previous two days. However, she was up to the challenge as she blasted a shot out of the tall grass and mud and onto the green some 40 feet beyond the hole. From there, it was a 40-foot, downhill put for par. Nichols sent the ball on a smooth line to the hole, but once it arrived at its destination the ball jumped just over the lip.
After her opponents missed their bogey putts, Nichols sank her next to edge Hrynewich and Crippen by a stroke and win the playoff.
“I knew somehow I had to get out of the gunk,” Nichols said. “I knew if I could get out of that I had a chance. My first putt lipped out, but then I got my second putt to go in.”
Nichols saved her best putts until the end, according to her coach Dan Stolz.
“Elle didn’t play her best,” Stolz said. “She struggled with her putting some, but then she almost holed that 40-footer that went around the lip. She had eight or nine three-putts, and if she made some of those it wouldn’t have been as close.”
Or as dramatic.
“It was really exciting,” Nichols said. “I was not sure it was going to happen, but I had been there before so I had confidence that I could do it again. I won state last year and knew that I could get it done.”
For Hrynewich, who was on the green in two, the sting of losing the playoff was soothed by the thought of being a four-time team champion with her classmates.
“I thought I had it, but then I missed that putt,” Hrynewich said. “It was disappointing to lose in the playoff, but we won the team championship, and that was the big thing. Winning our fourth team title was what we I really wanted more then anything.”
PHOTO: (Top) Muskegon Mona Shores' Hailey Hrynewich, East Lansing's Kristyn Crippen and Okemos' Elle Nichols shake hands after their playoff hole ended with Nichols winning her second MHSAA championship. (Middle) Mona Shores receives the Division 2 team trophy for the fourth straight season. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Work Begins Again for Reigning Champ West
August 18, 2016
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Kristen Nolan is trying to avoid putting undue pressure on her Traverse City West golf team.
So talk about defending an MHSAA Division 1 championship has been kept to a minimum during the preseason.
“I don’t want my girls going into (the season) too confident because that can also be a negative,” the seventh-year coach said. “I want them focusing on individual goals instead of that full team goal of winning states again. As long as each player is working on their personal goals, the rest (will take care of itself).”
The unranked Titans pulled a surprise a year ago, edging first-day leader and tournament favorite Rochester in a tiebreaker to claim the Lower Peninsula D1 title.
Ironically, neither team had a senior in the lineup.
West returns its core group of Anika Dy, Hunter Kehoe, Grace Ellul, Madison McCall and Grace Warren. Dy, now a sophomore, finished runner-up for the individual title. She was one stroke back of medalist Julia Dean of Brighton.
Dy competed in an American Junior Golf Association tournament at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club this week and missed the Titans’ season-opening tournament, the Bob Lober Classic at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.
Dy missed a couple early tournaments last year as well, but when she returned to the lineup the Titans went on a roll, cruising to Big North Conference and Regional crowns en route to the MHSAA Finals championship.
“We got into a groove,” Ellul, a senior co-captain, said. “Hopefully, we can do the same this year.”
Most of the Titans spent considerable time on the links this summer, taking lessons and playing in several tournaments, notably in the Traverse City Junior Golf Association program.
“I highly encourage it,” Nolan said. “The girls love playing in it. It’s a little more low-key, not as competitive as high school golf, but it prepares them.”
Kehoe, also a senior co-captain, agreed.
“It allows us to focus and work on our games,” she said. “It’s a huge advantage coming into the fall.”
That focus has not shifted now that the high school campaign has arrived.
“We all have personal goals” Kehoe said. “Kristen does not want us to worry about going back to states and repeating what we did. She just wants us to work on our own games each and every tournament throughout the season.”
For Kehoe, who shot the Titans’ second-lowest score at the Finals last season, that means improving her approach to the game.
“I’m working on course management, really dialing in on target control,” the 17-year-old said. “I consistently shot 80 or low 80s last year. My goal is to be consistently in the 70s this year.”
Ellul, the Titans’ third-lowest scorer at the Finals, is stressing her mental outlook on the course.
“I get down on myself, get nervous, and it can ruin my game,” she said. “I need to learn to stay positive when I’m playing, not put myself down.”
Nobody was putting the Titans down last October when they rallied to win at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University.
West was in fourth place, five shots behind Rochester, after the opening day. But all five Titans golfers came back with lower rounds on the second day to give the school its first MHSAA girls golf title.
“Going into states our goal was top five,” Kehoe said. “We obviously knew there were a lot of good teams there. We did not expect to win it all. That was a huge surprise. It was amazing.”
After finishing their rounds, the Titans gathered in the clubhouse, away from the hubbub outside.
“We knew it was close,” Kehoe said. “All the parents were outside watching the scoreboard. We sat inside, too excited, too scared, to go outside and look.”
“It was nerve-wracking,” Ellul added. “We were trying to not get our hopes up, but we had to. When we found out we had won, it was crazy.”
Kehoe’s younger brother, Murphy, is the one who informed the team of its triumph.
“We walked out and immediately started crying and hugging our parents,” Kehoe recalled. “It was super surreal.”
How close was it? West and Rochester tied at 685, forcing officials to go to each team’s fifth golfer’s score over the tournament. Warren’s two-day 193 beat her rival’s to give West the title.
It kicked off a celebration that spilled over into the weekend and the following Monday at school when all of West’s sports teams held a reception for the champs in the school’s common area.
The team later custom-designed their own championship rings, which were presented at halftime of a boys basketball game.
“Thinking back on it, you forget how crazy it is to win the Division 1 state finals,” Ellul said. “Our school, and town, were so proud and supportive of us. They made it such a big deal. That was really nice.”
The Titans know they will not be able to take any team by surprise this season.
“Obviously, all eyes are on us,” Kehoe said. “We’ve been working hard this summer trying to improve our games. Our confidence is through the roof, but we’re all trying to maintain a calm, steady mindset so we don’t get too excited.”
Nolan likes what she has seen thus far.
“They definitely have that drive to try and win back-to back-state championships,” she said. “They’re definitely more eager. They’ve been putting in quite a bit of effort to get there.”
First things first, however.
“We can’t worry about an end-of-the-season result right now,” Kehoe said.
There’s work to be done.
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City West hoists for the first time Oct. 17 its first MHSAA girls golf championship trophy. (Middle) Anika Dy lines up a putt during last season's Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)