LocalSportsJournal.com

EAST LANSING–The Whitehall Vikings girls golf team capped off the 2022 season with a 12th-place finish at the 2022 MHSAA Division 3 girls golf finals.

The two-day meet was played at Forest Akers East in East Lansing on the campus of Michigan State University.

Whitehall finished the two days at 748. Macomb Lutheran North won the state title with a total of 668. Local teams included Spring Lake in eighth place and Ludington in ninth.

Junior Ava Garcia led Whitehall with a score of 174. She was followed by senior Lizbeth Bentz, who finished with a 190. Sophomore Grace McDowell and junior Allie Van Antwerp both shot 192. Even though their scores did not count, junior Jersey Pierson shot a round of 105 on Saturday and sophomore Felicity Dingman shot a round of 108.

“The Whitehall girls’ team was feeling very comfortable going into the state tournament,” said Whitehall coach Bill Borgman. “We knew as a team we were not going to win, but we wanted to finish in the top 10.
 
“On day 1, we finished with a team score of 370,” Borgman said. “This is one of our best rounds all season.”
 
The Vikings received personal-best scores from Lizbeth Bentz with a 90, Allie Van Antwerp with a 97 and Jersey Pierson with a 105. 
 
“On day 2, we felt like we could achieve our goal of top 10,” Borgman said. “Allie set another personal best with a 95, but the team came up 10 strokes short of our goal.”
 
Despite the outcome, the Vikings were pleased with their season.
 
“Our season this year was really amazing,” Borgman said. “We improved our teams score by 40 strokes from the first event to the last.  All of our players set their personal bests, learned so much about this game of golf and what the possibilities could be for 2023.”