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.)
TC West Ace Finishing Dy-namite Finals Run
October 19, 2018
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY — Anika Dy already has cemented her legacy as one of the greatest female high school golfers in state history.
Still, she continues to add to that decorated career as she winds down her senior season at Traverse City West.
Dy, the winner of the state coaches association’s Miss Golf Award the last two years, is the two-time reigning MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 medalist and has been the Titans’ top performer on two team state title runs. She caps off her last season for West this weekend at Bedford Valley Golf Course in Battle Creek when she and the Titans look to sweep the team and individual championships for the second straight year.
“I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet. It doesn’t feel like it’s ending, that’s for sure,” said Dy. ““I think I’ll be on a high of emotions. I’m going to come home and probably realize that it’s all over and start reflecting on these four years.”
What a four years it’s been, too.
Dy announced her arrival on a statewide level her freshman year when she was one of only three golfers to break 80 on the first day of action at the 2015 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at The Meadows at Grand Valley State. But her chance to finish first was dashed when she three-putted the last hole and closed with a two-day total of 156 — one shot behind Brighton’s Julia Dean, who came from five strokes back over the last 18 holes.
“That really, really stung,” said Dy. “I came back that next year wanting it really bad.”
Since then she’s been unbeatable on the state’s biggest stage, shooting a 143 (72-71) to redeem herself and card the low score by two strokes over Clarkston’s Meghan Deardorff at the 2016 Final at Forest Akers East. She repeated in resounding fashion last year at The Meadows course when her 141 (69-72) put her eight shots in front of Rochester’s Savannah Haque.
As satisfying as those individual victories have been, Dy has been more fulfilled by the team success the Titans have enjoyed. She calls West’s championship her freshman year her most vivid memory from the past four.
“Just because it was so unexpected,” she said of a title the Titans won over Rochester that came down to a fifth counter tiebreaker. “There is a difference for me (between individual and team success). It’s so much more fun when it’s with the team.”
Dy started playing golf at age 6 and surged to an elite level as a model of consistency and with an unequivocal work ethic.
“She has a love for the game and works very hard,” said Scott Wilson, the club pro at Bay Meadows Golf Course in Traverse City who has coached Dy for the past eight years. “She’s always been very consistent. She’s been consistent in her ball striking, and she has a great short game.”
Dy honed her game through Wilson’s junior elite program, first at Crystal Mountain and then at Bay Meadows. She’s maintained a challenging summer tournament schedule as well, taking part in a number of high-caliber events, including the Michigan Women’s Amateur, the Michigan Women’s Open and several USGA qualifiers.
“We’ve always tried to set her up in tournaments that would be challenging to her, almost a little over her head even,” said Wilson. “She’s excelled at every level.”
Dy also has helped spur increased interest in the sport within her school as the Titans’ roster ballooned to 17 players this year on the heels of last year’s Division 1 title.
“She’s put Traverse City West on the map,” said West head coach Karl Gagnon. “She’s helped influence a lot of kids to take up golf. Success breeds success. Kids want to be around programs that are successful.”
Dy has emerged as one of the leaders of that squad, along with fellow seniors Jillian Ellul, Hope Aspenleiter and Evelyn Krueger.
“This year it’s definitely been a challenge to be that leader,” she said. “I’ve had great seniors to look up to my past three years. It was a little tricky at first because we doubled the size of our team from last year. There were a lot more new girls who needed a lot of direction, but it’s been fun getting to know them and watching them grow into better players.”
Those new responsibilities haven’t had a negative affect on Dy’s game. She’s been regularly shooting in the upper 60s and near 70 and has finished as the medalist at every meet this season except one — when her younger sister Anci, a sophomore, beat her at an invitational in Alpena. Anci Dy, a tremendous golfer in her own right, was the Regional runner-up last week after finishing seven strokes behind her sister.
Anci admits it’s bittersweet to see her sister finishing out her high school career.
“It’s going to be our last high school tournament together, and I really want all of us to succeed,” Anci said. “I’m really excited to play on the team with her one last time.”
Next year Anika Dy will head to the University of Michigan for the next stage of her playing career.
“She’s going to a great school,” said Gagnon. “The coaches at Michigan are excited to have her. She’s going to be an asset for them from the very beginning. It’s a progression. She’s accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in high school. It’s time to see what she can do at a different level.”
As for where golf could take Dy into the future, Wilson said the sky is the limit for his star pupil.
“She’s going to continue to try and put her skills to the test and see where it goes from there,” said Wilson. “It’s all up to her how far she wants to take it.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. 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’s Anika Dy watches a drive during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals. (Middle) Dy leaves the green after finishing a hole during her 2016 championship run. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)