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.)
In 2nd Season, Martians Golf Takes Off
October 14, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
GOODRICH — The team to beat in this year's regional had been the runner-up in the MHSAA Division 3 girls golf tournament the last three seasons.
Another contender had five championships and 25 top-10 finishes at the MHSAA Finals on its resumé.
And Goodrich?
Well, a year ago, while Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and Flint Powers Catholic already had early-season tournaments under their belts as they prepared for another run to the finals, all Goodrich's program had was a single piece of paper sitting in the school office. Goodrich never had a girls golf team, but had two talented sisters in the school who hoped there was enough interest to form a club team in 2014.
"We just put a sign-up sheet in the office," Goodrich junior Sydni Harding said. "They made daily announcements. Finally, we had six. Once I saw that, it was like, 'Sweet, we've got a team.'"
Time was of the essence, because school had already started and the highly compressed girls golf season had already been going for several weeks. Before Jason Bescoe was hired as coach, sisters Sydni and Taylor Harding took their new teammates out to the Flint Elks Club to introduce them to a sport that most of them had never played.
"We were like, 'OK, just get hitting, we'll work on the swing mechanics later,'" Sydni said. "We needed to get ready and be prepared. We practiced like that for a few weeks. (Bescoe) brought in a couple of swing pros and really worked with us. They just practiced. Practice makes you better. They got the rhythm down and everything."
By season's end, Goodrich finished a respectable fifth of 14 teams in the MHSAA Regional at The Emerald in St. Johns, with Taylor Harding qualifying individually for the finals.
It was a great start for a team that didn't exist when the season started.
But there would be much more in store for the Martians in 2015.
In its first full season, Goodrich entered the postseason ranked No. 7 in Lower Peninsula Division 3 and qualified for this weekend’s MHSAA Final in East Lansing by placing second in a tough regional tournament at Holly Meadows Golf Course in Capac.
Goodrich finished only two shots behind third-ranked Cranbrook Kingswood, the Division 3 runner-up the last three years, and 29 shots ahead of ninth-ranked Powers, which failed to qualify for only the third time in the last 25 years.
"Going from nowhere to top 10 in the state is phenomenal," Sydni said. "We have a tough division. It's smaller, but you've got a lot of good girls who can compete. When we saw that we were ranked, we said, 'This is something special. Let's take advantage of it.'"
The Martians have exceeded all reasonable expectations for such a fledgling program, but they aren't settling for just showing up at Forest Akers West Golf Course.
"I think it's awesome we're going as a team," senior Taylor said. "We have one of the best teams. I'm so excited. I want to win so badly. I think we could definitely win; I really do believe that. If everyone's on their game and everyone puts in enough time and effort, we really could."
The Harding sisters led Goodrich to the finals, tying for first place with 78s in the regional before Taylor won a one-hole playoff.
"I definitely wanted to win," Taylor said. "If I had to come in second to anybody, I would gladly have it be her — and vice versa."
"At first, it was nerve-racking," Sydni said. "Then we got up to the first tee and we were like, 'Whatever happens, happens. I'm happy if I win; I'm happy if you win. So let's just go out and play, pretend it's just us messing around.'"
Having two outstanding golfers at the top of the lineup certainly helps, but the Martians wouldn't be going to Forest Akers West as a team this weekend without massive improvement by girls who had little to no golf experience before last fall.
"The reason for our success this year isn't because of Sydni and Taylor; they've always been good," Bescoe said. "It's the work ethic of the rest of the team, the way they strove to bring themselves to what Sydni and Taylor are. They're close. Sydni and Taylor improved by a few strokes, but the other ones improved by dozens of strokes. I'm so proud of them."
The most notable success story is senior Megan Reimel. Reimel shot in the 140s last year, but worked on her game and shot 83 to finish 11th in the regional and third on Goodrich's team. Senior Aaron Monroe shot 91 to place 17th in the regional. Freshman Elizabeth Gibbs' 94 didn't count in the team score, but she was still in the top half of the field, placing 24th out of 54 players.
"We started last year, and we were just happy to have five players, to be totally honest," Taylor said. "This year, I'm so happy that our third and fourth golfers have really picked it up. Really, everyone's improved. We're the only ones who played golf. We recruited softball players and volleyball players."
The only Goodrich player with high school golf experience before the formation of the team was Taylor Harding, who spent her freshman and sophomore years on the boys golf team. She made the Martians' varsity lineup for districts and regionals as a sophomore.
"I was younger and the boys were definitely intimidating," she said. "The distance helped me coming to the girls team. I think I'm better with the rules. That was a big thing for boys season."
Taylor Harding is also the only Goodrich player with experience in the MHSAA Finals. She finished eighth individually last year, rebounding from a first-round 86 to close with a 78.
"I was very nervous, but it ended up being really well worth it," Taylor said. "I learned a lot about myself and my golf game. I definitely improved. Just being there with all the girls who are your skill level is extremely helpful. It's always better when you play with someone better than yourself. I really wasn't expecting anything out of it. I just wanted to play the best I could, go out there and play."
Bescoe isn't concerned that his other four golfers have no experience in finals.
"I don't think it matters," he said. "They're fearless. I think the other schools who haven't been there may be at a disadvantage, but our girls have the head for it. They're fearless. They go get it."
Perhaps Goodrich's rapid rise shouldn't be such a surprise. Goodrich is a golfing community, with a public course and country club within the school district's borders. Boys golf has been a strong sport at the school for years, as the Martians won the 1977 MHSAA Class C championship and have finished in the top 10 on 24 occasions.
As an athletic program, Goodrich has won seven MHSAA championships across three girls sports since the start of the 2002-03 school year.
The goal for Bescoe is to keep the program growing after the Harding sisters graduate. Goodrich has 10 players on its team.
"It's always a goal to build and grow," he said. "Our objective this year is to grow the program. We have to get younger kids involved in order to keep this success going. Our going to the state tournament will hopefully inspire some of the other kids to jump on board."
Regardless of how the Martians perform this weekend, Bescoe has reasons to be proud of his players beyond their talent on the golf course.
"My favorite part about the girls is how nice and polite they are," he said. "After every tournament, as a group they go up and thank the other coach, thank the staff in the pro shop. That really is what makes me most proud of them. They realize that every golf course they play on, someone is letting them play on it for free. I'm glad they realize that."
Bill Khan served as a sportswriter at The Flint Journal from 1981-2011 and currently contributes to the State Champs! Sports Network. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTO: Goodrich’s players stand together in front of the scoreboard after last week’s MHSAA Regional, from left – junior Sydni Harding, senior Megan Reimel, senior Taylor Harding, senior Aaron Monroe and freshman Elizabeth Gibbs. (Photo courtesy of Renae Reimel.)