Spring Lake Can't Be Caught in 3-Peat
October 15, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – Only one team could beat Spring Lake at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls golf tournament Saturday at Bedford Valley Golf Course.
That team was Spring Lake.
The Lakers fired a 343 on the first day to take a 13-stroke lead into the final round Saturday. In that final round, four of Spring Lake’s five players bettered their first-day score and another tied her Friday round as the Lakers sliced 24 strokes off their first-day score with a 319 to finish with a two-day total of 662.
Spring Lake’s winning margin was 35 strokes fewer than Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (697) but not nearly the rout of a year ago when the Lakers edged the runner-up team by 70 strokes.
It was the third consecutive title for Spring Lake, which became the first Division 3 team in MHSAA history to win three straight championships. The MHSAA Lower Peninsula tournament moved to four divisions from two classes in 1999, and prior to that, Grosse Ile won three in a row from 1996-98 in the Class B-C-D meet.
“Spring Lake has had only one other team win a state championship, and that was girls cross country, so to be a part of a team that won three consecutive state titles is something special,” said Spring Lake senior Anna Kramer, who tied for medalist honors but lost in a playoff to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep sophomore Danielle Staskowski.
Kramer, the reigning Division 3 individual champion, led Spring Lake with rounds of 78 and 75 for a two-day total of 153. Junior Madelyn Nelson was next with rounds of 89 and 79 for a 168 total. Her 10-shot improvement from the first day was the largest for Spring Lake.
“I think it was just first-day nerves,” Nelson said, “and my putting was a lot better (Saturday).”
Sophomore Hannah Klein, who had an eight-stroke improvement over the first round and finished 89-81 for a 170, echoed the feeling about first-day nerves.
“There were a lot of people watching, and I had to get used to it,” said Klein, the only sophomore on the team. “We were really focused on winning, and every shot counted. I felt like every shot had to be amazing to be able to pull out the win.”
Two other seniors rounded out the five players who took the course for Spring Lake. Jackie Olszewski duplicated rounds of 87 but did it in a strange fashion. She had 39 on the first nine and 48 on the second nine the first day and then flipped them on the second day with 48 on the front and 39 on the back.
“I went through a bad streak both days,” Olszewski said. “I had five or six terrible holes, and then I had to make it up. I just told myself to forget about it and do my best because I couldn’t change what had happened.”
While Olszewski’s 87 counted the first day, it wasn’t needed the second day as fellow senior Jaedyn Shelton went from 93 on Friday to 84 on Saturday.
“I’ve worked really hard over the years to get to this point, and it feels really good,” she said. “We all didn’t have great rounds on Friday, but we all improved, and that is what we were looking to do.
“For me, there were a lot of nerves, because it was my first time at states, so I was worked up, and I think that’s how everybody felt.”
Everybody, including coach George Bitner, whose extensive background brings plenty of experience while his grandfatherly nature brings comfort and confidence.
“This is like having six daughters,” said Bitner, who has coached girls golf at Spring Lake since 1980 and also coaches boys golf. He also has coached junior high football, track & field and wrestling, and he said it all adds up to 87 seasons.
“To win a state title, you have to have the talent,” Bitner said. “The results are what I like. It shows that I am getting through to them. The girls listen better than the boys, they drink more water than the boys, and they stick together and do things together. They are an unbelievable group of girls.”
Bitner calls Kramer “The Franchise” for obvious reasons.
“Anna is a practice-aholic,” he said. “She will come out of the clubhouse and go to the putting green for 30 minutes, go to the chipping area and sand for 20, go up for an hour on the driving range and then go back to the clubhouse, but first she spends another 30 or 40 minutes on the putting green. That’s her routine every day, and the other girls follow it.”
Although the Lakers won their third MHSAA Finals title, the day finished on a disappointing ending for Kramer. On the first playoff hole, Kramer ran a long putt well past the hole and three-putted as Staskowski parred the hole for the individual title.
“It’s tough to three-putt in a playoff,” Kramer said. “I read the putt fine. One of my friends came up to me after and said she had that putt Friday and you can’t tell how fast it is, and it just flew by the hole.”
Staskowski, who opened with an 80 on Friday, improved to 73 on Saturday to force the playoff. She was in the same pairing as Kramer, and they were tied after 12 holes and matched each other the rest of the way to set up the playoff on the par-5 No. 16.
“I love playoffs,” Staskowski said. “All my life when I have practice putting I will say to myself, ‘This is for the state championship,’ and then, there I was, standing over a putt that was for the state championship.”
Staskowski, who finished fourth last year, drilled the 4-foot putt right into the hole, and she said she knew she had it the moment she hit it. She chipped just short of the green with her third shot, while Kramer was on the green but was facing a very long putt.
“I felt like I could get the chip up there and then get it to the hole so I would have an easy putt,” Staskowski said. “I hit that putt maybe 50 times on the putting green, so when I stood over it, I was like, ‘You made 50 of these. You’ve got it,’ and then I hit the putt.”
Staskowski had parred the hole Friday and birdied it Saturday prior to the playoff.
“I started my round off with four bogeys (Saturday), and then I didn’t have a single bogey coming in,” she said. “I made three birdies, and once I got to the place where I felt like I was playing well, it just didn’t go away.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Spring Lake's golfers and coach hold up their third straight MHSAA championship trophy. (Middle) Plainwell's Madison Tran watches one of her approach shots. (Below) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep's Danielle Staskowski. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
To Close Season Full of Highlights, Cheboygan Sends Maybank to Pursue 1 More
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 20, 2023
For the second straight year, Cheboygan finished one slot away from qualifying for the Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Division 3 Final as a team.
However, the Chiefs finished the year with so much hardware, records and intangibles they really won’t miss competing this weekend at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University.
And they’ll be there in spirit, supporting senior Katie Maybank, who qualified as an individual. She’ll be competing in the Finals for the fourth straight year. She did so twice with her team and last season on her own.
Cheboygan is walking away from this season with six trophies – two more than the previous three years combined. And they tied and the broke school records along the way.
After carding a school-record 374 at their 2022 Regional, they matched that score to win the Alpena Invitational in mid-September, and they went to on to break the record with a 365 to win their own invitational the following week – that victory at their home event also a first.
The season ended for the team in miserable fall weather Oct. 10 in the Regional at St. Ives in Stanwood, as Cheboygan scored a 411 to finish sixth and 19 strokes out of qualification.
Maybank – who set the individual program record of 74 in leading that 2022 Regional effort – would prefer to have her teammates with her as she did her first two years at the Final. She’s hoping to break the individual top 10 this time.
“I am obviously bummed we didn’t make it as a team,” she said. “We all know we could have done it.
“We all know it was very possible with the team we had this year,” she continued. “I know they’re all supporting me and rooting for me when I go into states – I am very excited.”
Maybank had a practice round Thursday at The Meadows, which is the same course her brother PJ Maybank III played when he became the first – and still only – golfer in Cheboygan’s history to win a Finals championship.
PJ was only a sophomore when he won, and he did not compete for Cheboygan his remaining two years of high school. He is now playing golf for the University of Oklahoma.
Katie Maybank is hoping to play college golf as well after growing up in a golfing family and not starting to compete until her freshman year.
“My brother has played since he could walk, and it has always been his thing,” she recalled. “Then I started during COVID, and we just played a lot together and our whole family golfs.”
Cheboygan coach Sean McNeil went with Maybank to the Final knowing it will be tough next season without her and other seniors Emily Clark, Ella Kosanke, Emerson Eustice and Taten Lake. Clark and Kosanke also competed at the Final two years ago along with Lilly Wright, now a junior.
Wright will likely be the only senior on the team next year with the Chiefs also counting on sophomore Bea Schultz and freshmen Elise Markham and Gabriel Melonas to return.
“This is going to be a tough year to watch these five girls leave,” McNeil admitted in the presence of his seniors. “I was basically learning how to be a coach as they were learning how to golf.
“It is really going to be a tough year to let go.”
This is McNeil’s second year as the team’s head coach. He succeeded Nate King, who is still helping out. McNiel was an assistant coach previously at Cheboygan along with current swing coach and father of both PJ and Katie, Pete Maybank.
The record-setting, hardware-accumulating season was in their sights before it started, according to Markham. The team bonded right away with an overnight stay at Crystal Mountain for the Bob Lober Invite hosted by Traverse City Central.
“Our first meet I feel like is where we really clicked,” Markham said. “We started to get to know each other and knew we were going to have a good season.”
Just getting to the Lober Invite became the consensus favorite part of the season, aside from the success. Long van rides from Michigan’s east coast with their coach at the wheel led to team bonds the girls say should last a lifetime.
“All the car rides were really fun,” Eustice offered enthusiastically. “We listen to music and play games – it’s just really fun.”
Those trips provide a bonus, according to Clark.
“The car rides definitely helped with positive vibes before the meets,” she said. “We go in and we’re already happy because we leave at 5 in the morning.”
Kosanke agreed. “We did a lot of bonding in our car rides,” she said.
The Chiefs believe they will be friends for life with golf a big part of their lives. Jenna Weber, a 2022 graduate of Cheboygan, was a junior on the team during Maybank’s freshman year. They had never met before. They are best friends today.
“You definitely can make lifelong friends through golf,” Maybank stated as her teammates nodded and smiled in agreement.
Weber summed up this year’s team.
“They’re all so funny,” the graduate said. “They are always laughing.
“Even if they play bad, afterwards they are laughing and they are so positive.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Cheboygan shows off the hardware the team earned this season. Back row, from left: Emily Clark, Ella Kosanke, Coach Sean McNiel, Emerson Eustice and Taten Lake. Front row, from left: Gabrielle Melonas, Katie Maybank and Elise Markham. (Middle) Maybank will play in her fourth Final this weekend. (Photos by Tom Spencer.)