Logo
Julian Sinishtaj headshot

Sinishtaj Ready to End School Year by Putting Last Year's Finals Lesson into Play

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

June 4, 2026

School might be over or about to be done around the state, but Warren De La Salle Collegiate junior golfer Julian Sinishtaj hopes to heed one lesson learned a year ago at last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final. 

Greater DetroitHeading into this weekend’s championship tournament at Ferris State University’s Katke Golf Course, Sinishtaj reflected on the biggest thing he learned at last year’s Final after completing a 2-under-par round of 69 in a Regional at Twin Lakes on May 27 to qualify for this year’s event individually. 

“Just that you’re really never out of it,” Sinishtaj said. “In the beginning of both rounds, I was a couple over (par) through five, six holes. Then I was able to shoot three and one-under. Kind of battled through. This year, I’ve got to get off to a hotter start. I think everybody’s having a good year so far, so (I’m) going to have to go low at states.’”

Sinishtaj is correct that several golfers competing at the event are having good years, but he also is having a strong spring and on the short list of individual contenders.

Named to the all-state Super Team last year as a sophomore, Sinishtaj finished third individually at last year’s Division 1 tournament, just two shots behind champion Ian Masih of Okemos, who was a freshman this year at Grand Valley State.

Sinishtaj hasn’t slumped at all this season, producing four rounds below 70 and winning the title at the Macomb County Championship. 

De La Salle head coach Dennis Koch, an alumnus of the school who has coached basketball, football, baseball and golf throughout the Detroit area over the past 21 years, said Sinishtaj measures up to any athlete he’s coached in any of those sports.

“It’s very simple; he has one of the best work ethics I’ve seen in my 21 years of coaching,” Koch said of Sinishtaj, who also is a 3.9-GPA student. “That goes across football, basketball and baseball. He just puts in that much time. There’s not really a formula for it.”

Sinishtaj said since last year’s tournament, he made a change with his putting, and it’s made a world of difference to complement his length off the tee and steady iron play.

“At the end of last year, I changed to a spider (putter), like Scottie Scheffler’s putter,” he said. “I switched to left-hand low. I was right-hand low last year. It’s a little more comfortable.”

Sinishtaj said the golf bug bit him when he was young, as his father introduced him to the game when he was 5 years old, and then he “started taking it seriously around 8 or 9 years old.” 

As he grew, his game took off.

“I was pretty small my whole life and never really hit it far,” Sinishtaj said. “I just kind of grew at like 12, 13. I started playing good. I’ve gained probably 20, 30 yards each year consistently from probably age 13 to now.”

As a result, Sinishtaj can regularly move the ball 280-290 yards off the tee, something Koch said was also a priority over the offseason for Sinishtaj in addition to enhancing his putting. 

“He said that his emphasis was on ball speed,” Koch said. “He’s been trying to improve his swing speed and hit the ball farther. And if you can hit the ball a little further as a golfer, that makes life a little easier. Think of all the best golfers that hit the ball a mile. Their scores are a little better because they have shorter approaches.”

Sinishtaj will be busy this summer with junior tournaments and likely figuring out college opportunities as he enters his senior year in the fall. 

In the meantime, he hopes he can take what he learned at last year’s season-concluding tournament and complete what’s been a little unfinished business on a Katke course with which he’s familiar.

“I don’t think the greens are hard,” Sinishtaj said. “They’re pretty flat and wide. But off of the tee there are a lot of blind shots. Being able to find the right target and commit to those swings will be key.”

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

High 5s - 5/1/12

May 1, 2012

Each week, Second Half gives "High 5s" to multiple athletes and a team that have performed exceptionally on the field or made a notable impact off of it.

Please offer your suggestions by e-mail to editor Geoff Kimmerly at [email protected]. Below are this week's honorees:

Sarita Dotson

Battle Creek Lakeview junior

Girls Track and Field

For the second straight season, Dotson was named the Most Valuable Female Athlete at the Eldon Draime/Al Geisler Memorial All-City Meet held at Battle Creek Harper Creek (she shared the award in 2011). Dotson won the 100-meter dash (12.5 seconds), the 200 (25.5) and the long jump (16 feet, 3.5 inches) and was on the winning 800 relay (1:48.11) as Lakeview scored 250 points as a team to win the meet by 102.83. Dotson qualified for the MHSAA Division 1 Final last spring as a sophomore, but just missed making the championship races in the 100 and 200. She focuses solely on track, but was a cheerleader as both a freshman and a sophomore.

100 is my No. 1: "It's just so much fun. It's really exciting. You've got it or you don't. After a while, everyone is at the same level. Whoever is on her game that day, prepared the hardest, it's going to show in the 100 meters."

I learned the most about track from: Dotson said a number of coaches, and that her first youth coaches -- including Larry Caper -- could tell right away what she should be running. "Immediately, the first day of practice, one of them said, 'She's a sprinter.' I didn't know what a sprinter was."

A few words to run by: "I always start off with a prayer, or at least try, to remember why I do this and to get my mind straight. My pastor was my coach when I started in third grade, and the first thing he taught us to do when we get on the track is pray."

Favorite formula: Dotson's favorite school subject is chemistry -- and she is considering a career in cosmetic science with a focus on the engineering and creation of make-up.

Cullen Prena

Walled Lake Central junior

Boys Track and Field

Prena has blasted onto the throwing scene this spring and especially the last few weeks after twice throwing the discus more than 180 feet -- and according to an Oakland Press report, broke both school and Oakland County records that had each stood for at least 29 seasons. He threw the discus 187 feet, seven inches, to win the event at Saturday's Oxford Invitational, and he also won the shot put with a toss of 52-1. Prena's best discus throw last season was 159 feet -- and his toss Saturday would've won every MHSAA Final dating back to 2003. Prena finished fifth in discus at last season's Division 1 championship meet. He's not the only thrower in his family -- older sisters Kari (University of Michigan) and Kelsey (Michigan State) throw in the Big Ten.

I learned the most about throwing from: "Definitely Coach (Nebojsa Stojkovic). And it helps to have my sisters now in college. They can give me advice all the time."

Be like Ryan (Crouser): The University of Texas freshman owns the national high school discus record of 237-6, and "is definitely a model (for me). That's quite a mark."

My dream scenario: "... after this would be college, then to train for the Olympics after that, and win gold in the Olympics. Realistically, I don't know if that's out there or not. But it's a great place to aim."

Major decision: Prena hasn't picked his college or what he'll study some day, but "I'm thinking some kind of marketing or business, or something in the communications field. I do like working with people, and I also like talking. Potentially a sports broadcaster or a marketing engineer."

Muskegon Mona Shores boys golf

Mona Shores didn't finish first during either round of this weekend's Traverse City Central Invitational. But the Sailors, ranked No. 2 in the Division 1 state poll, finished second both at Spruce Run (309) and the Wolverine (297) for a combined score of 606 -- good for a one-stroke win over top-ranked Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and two strokes ahead of then No. 5 Traverse City West. Three more teams from that field have since joined the Division 1 top 10.

Reed Hrynewich shot a 69 to finish second at the Wolverine and a 75 to finish fifth at Spruce Run, while teammate Andrew Van Aels finished eight overall at both courses. Those two, Joel Maire and Eric Kastelic also were among the team's top five when it finished fifth at last season's MHSAA Division 1 Final.

This spring's previous honorees