LocalSportsJournal.com
EAST LANSING–The Spring Lake Lakers girls golf team fresh off a Division 3 regional championship were looking to continue their hot streak at the MHSAA Division 3 girls golf state finals on Friday and Saturday but had to settle for a eighth place place finish.
The finals were held at Forest Akers East in East Lansing on the campus of Michigan State University.
In the opening round on Friday Spring Lake finished with a team round of 363 which was 27 shots from the top of the leaderboard by eventual state champion Macomb Lutheran North.
The Lakers shot a team round of 367 on Saturday and finished the finals with an overall two day score of 730.
Spring Lake was paced by sophomore Zoe Dull who shot 160. She was followed by junior Clara Saunders who finished the weekend shooting 183 while junior Evie McDonald shot 185. Seniors Clare Stempky and Kayden Fritsche shot rounds of 186 and 188 respectively.
“Overall we had a very successful season and state tournament,” said Spring Lake golf coach Alec Lininger.
“The weather is always a challenge to overcome at the state tournament with the wind and the cold.”
“The tournament showed how deep our team is as everyone contributed and our individual overall scores were very similar. We were able to remain in eighth after day two even after the wind picked up,” commented Lininger.
“It was impressive and I was proud to see the team’s resilience to find good stretches of golf during the tournament even after tough holes.”
“We had a goal early in the year of winning conference, winning regionals, and finishing top ten in the state.”
“After this weekend we accomplished all three goals. Looking ahead to next year our top three scorers all return, and we have a very deep JV team that will contend for the final spots on varsity next year,” said Lininger.
