Girls golf: Northville wins third consecutive state D1 title, Marian repeats in D3

Northville was consistent across the board in a second-place effort against Plymouth in the Regional 2 finals in Ann Arbor on Oct. 7, and brought the same energy — with better results — in Friday’s Division 1 girls' golf final at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East course.

Samantha Coleman led the way with a 75 as all five Northville players shot within six strokes of each other to topple Rochester Adams by nine shots for Northville’s third consecutive Division 1 championship.

We talked about the fact(three-peating) that it was going to take all five girls playing disciplined, focused golf to win, and we got that on Friday," Northville coach Chris Cronin said. "I think the craziest stat from Friday is that over their last four holes, this team shot (collectively) 2 under par. That's simply amazing. That's willing yourself to finish."

Avi Gill and Haesol Park shot 79, Katelyn Tokarz 80 and Megha Vallabhaneni 81 for a final team score of 313. Adams finished second with 322 and Grand Blanc (328) edged out top-ranked Plymouth (330) for third place.

Grand Blanc Sophomore Kate Brody was the event’s first-place individual finisher, shooting a 70 (-2) to top Utica Eisenhower’s Ariel Change and Ann Arbor Skyline’s Adie Maki by three strokes each. 

Division 2

South Lyon avenged a second-place finish to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in 2019 by defeating Northern by three strokes on Friday in a tightly contested Division 2 Final at Forest Akers West.

Senior Katherine Potter led the way with a 73, good enough for a second-place individual finish, Gabriella Tapp — last year’s first-place individual — shot 80, Isabella Campbell 85, Sophia Joseph 97 and Logan Foust 101. 

Okemos junior Allison Cui, the reigning Miss Golf in Michigan, shot a tournament-best 70 to take the first-place individual title for the second time in three years. Forest Hills Northern’s Lilia Henkel and Haslett’s Oliva Stoll each shot 77 to tie for third place behind Potter.

Division 3

Birmingham Marian repeated as Division 3 champions at the State Finals on Saturday, as senior Shannon Kennedy took home a first-place individual finish after beating Grand Rapids Christian’s Ryann Breslin in a one-hole playoff at Forest Akers East.

“Every time she tees it up, she wants to win,” head coach David Sass said of Kennedy. “That comes with a certain mentality, and she has an amazing work ethic. You pair that together, it’s pretty easy to see why she’s had such an illustrious high school career.”

Kennedy shot 70, Lauren Sass 79, Sarah Kuredijan 81, Ashley Carroll 82 and Laura Emerson 91 to combine for 312 — a team tournament-high across all four divisions this weekend — and defeat Macomb Lutheran North (327) and Grand Rapids South Christian (330).

“To shoot 312 on that golf course, on these conditions,” Sass said, “the grit that these girls showed was amazing.”

Lutheran North’s Lauren Timpf finished in third place behind Kennedy and Breslin with a 71. 

Division 4

Montague continued its impressive run down the stretch and defeated Lansing Catholic by a wide margin to earn its first girls' golf state championship in school history at Forest Akers West on Saturday. 

Orianna Bylsma led the way with 81, but her teammates weren’t far behind her. Megan Brown shot 84, Katie Unger 88, and Mackenzie Goodreau and Gabriella Moreau each rounded things out with a 90. The combined score of 343 topped Lansing Catholic (370) and Michigan Center (371).

Michigan Center junior Kamryn Shannon shot a 74 to earn a first-place individual finish, Harbor Springs senior Jacquelyn O’Neill took second with 75 and Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian senior Sabrina Langerak finished third with a score of 79.