Montague golf rallies late to take 2nd place at state finals; Whitehall ties program best, takes 5th

Montague and Whitehall's golf teams each spent the weekend accomplishing their goals at the Division 3 state finals at Katke Golf Course in Big Rapids, and they ended the tournament as the two top public schools in the state.

The Wildcats brought home a mitten-shaped MHSAA runner-up trophy with an impressive second-place finish and a two-day score of 374-384-758, and Whitehall tied its best team finish in school history by taking fifth place with a 380-399-779.

Montague entered the weekend knowing second place was its realistic ceiling, as top-ranked NorthPointe Christian boasted so much individual firepower that it would be hard to match. Those thoughts proved correct, as the Mustangs won the event by 37 strokes behind a third-place effort by sophomore star Izzy Duflo.

Despite weather delays that slowed down play for everyone on Friday, Montague was a close third when the round was over, five strokes behind second-place Detroit Country Day. Perhaps affected by the internal pressure to achieve their second-place goal, the Wildcats struggled early Saturday, and at one point, coach Phil Kerr said, their day-two score ranked something like 12th in the 18-team field.

Things changed for the 'Cats around the sixth hole, a tough par-3 with greens that are tough to navigate. Their No. 2 player, Brynlee Kessler, has over the years been one of many golfers to struggle on that hole. However, she exorcised those demons Saturday and made par on the hole - one of her two pars in her round.

"When Brynlee parred that hole, the girls were starting to settle in," Kerr said. "We struggled with nerves early, and it was a turning point."

Montague began climbing back up the leaderboard, and by the time they arrived at the home stretch, they were vying for the No. 2 spot with old rival Lansing Catholic, which had a terrible first day but stormed back to post a 372 on day two, easily better than everyone else in the field except NorthPointe. Because Lansing Catholic entered the day so far behind, the Wildcats weren't in their playing group, which left them in the awkward position of not knowing what they needed to do to hold off the Cougars.

Again it was Kessler whose performance proved pivotal. The 15th hole of the course, on which Kerr said a series of struggles caused the Wildcats' state title hopes to dim on the way to a fourth-place finish a year ago, proved to be the start of the redemption tour. Kessler had to take a drop on the hole, but salvaged a bogey.

"You could see the storybook ending coming the last 45 minutes," Kerr said. "Everything we needed to go right went right."

Addi Smith, who struggled all day Saturday, got her form back just in time and made bogey on her final three holes. Marguerite O'Connell, the team's best player the past few weeks, delivered a bogey and a par on her final two holes. Molly Mulder did no worse than bogey on any of her final six holes and scored a birdie on the par-4 16th hole.

And Kessler, who along with Smith and Mulder was playing her final varsity meet, brought it home, making bogey on her final two holes to maintain the Wildcats' position.

Not a single one of the Wildcats finished in the individual top 20. O'Connell topped the team with a 22nd-place finish and a score of 91-95-186. Kessler was 26th with a 95-93-188, Smith placed 29th with a 89-102-191, and Mulder finished 34th with a 99-94-193.

It's almost unheard of for a team to place so highly at state without a top-20 individual placer. But then again, the strength of its lineup one through four has been Montague's story all season long, and was fitting that it held up on the biggest stage.

"The story of this team is the depth," Kerr said. "We go four deep, and nobody else could do that. If we'd had one stud, or if Cadence (Fox, an all-state senior last year) had another year of eligibility, we'd have pushed NorthPointe. I still can't wrap my head around that they pulled that second place.

"I'm in shock that these girls did what they did. We knew they'd be good and compete in the conference, but to win regionals and take home a trophy from the state finals, I'm blown away."

It was a great ending to the three seniors' varsity careers, marking in a lot of ways the end of another Wildcat era. The 2020 and '21 state champions' graduation ended one story, and these seniors, who were freshmen on the second Wildcat team post-repeat, close out another one.

The future looks bright; Hazel Grice, one of a group of freshmen the Wildcat coaches have been monitoring for years, played as the team's No. 5 over the weekend and gained valuable experience with a 111-112-223. Many others will be part of the next era, as will O'Connell, whose impressive play over the end of the season set her up to be the cornerstone of next year's lineup when she will be a senior.

But for one last weekend, the story was about the Class of 2027, which delivered when it mattered most.

"We left last year with a lot of excuses, some of them valid, and we were looking for some redemption," Kerr said. "The seniors definitely got it. They all had to play well because of the way our team was built. We didn't have an all-state top-10 girl at the top, so there was no option for one of them to play poorly. We didn't get everyone's best every day, but we got enough."

Whitehall, meanwhile, did have one of those individual stars up top, and Riley Shafer made the difference for the Vikings' reaching the top five. She finished seventh individually with a two-day score of 90-84-174 and closed her junior season with one of her most impressive rounds Saturday, shooting bogey or better on every hole but one. She made eight pars.

Also for Whitehall, Avarie Bentz shot a 93-102-195, and Kelsie McClure shot a 98-102-200. Kadee TenBrock, a freshman, delivered solid play with a 99-111-210 to close the team scoring.

"Although we would have liked a top-4 finish, we the coaches are very proud of each and every one of the players for the time and commitment they put into the regional and state competitions," Whitehall coach Bill Borgman said. "Riley Shafer had an amazing state finals."

Viking seniors McClure and Ryleigh Hershey closed out their careers at state, but with Shafer, Bentz and TenBrock slated to return, Whitehall should be in good shape to be among the contenders again next fall.