Work Pays Off as GR West Catholic, Elk Rapids' Springstead Claim 1st Finals Wins
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
June 6, 2026
BATTLE CREEK – The first Finals championship for the Grand Rapids West Catholic boys golf team was months in the making.
Not even a little rain during the final eight holes of Friday’s first round, nor two accidental fire alarms going off in the middle of the night at the team's hotel could deter the Falcons from achieving their goal at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final.
West Catholic fired a team score of 311 over the final 18 holes Saturday at Beford Valley Golf Course to take home the first-place trophy. The Falcons held a five-stroke lead after the first day of competition after recording a 314 and finished the two-day 36-hole tournament in first with 625 strokes.
"I know we had an individual win a state title before, but as far as I can remember this is the only time we've won state as a team,” Grand Rapids West Catholic coach Daniel Karamol said. "We started working back in November when the snow was starting to fly. ... We overcame some sickness and a couple injuries during the season, but we were able to overcome it. The kids knew they had the talent, and this meant a great deal to them after they won Regionals a couple weeks ago. I thought the most crucial factors this weekend was our steady play, avoiding critical mistakes and the boys charted and prepared very well. Understanding that every stroke counted was a big key as well."
West Catholic rode the solid play of seniors Owen Kotowski (78-75, 153), Alex Bartish (74-80, 154) and Callahan Peterson (85-79, 164) along with a career weekend from freshman Brendan Morgan (77-77, 154) and sophomore Aaden Stellini (87-86, 173).
Bartish added that the team title required him and his teammates to give of their time unselfishly.
"Many of the guys on this team have a billion things to do besides golf. It was all about playing for one another and not ourselves. This is a very positive group of guys and I'm just proud to be a Falcon. You have to play each hole individually and not get caught up in thinking you have six hours of golf that you have to play," said Bartish, who will next major in pre-law and play men's golf at Calvin College.
Kotowski, who will major in sports management and play his collegiate golf at Davenport University, stated the key has been the team's togetherness.
"All of the guys have worked hard. We support one another and this weekend everyone went insane once we knew Brendan had broken 80," Kotowski said.
Traverse City St. Francis (319-319, 638) finished as runner-up followed by Kalamazoo Christian in third (329-314, 643). Jackson Lumen Christi (325-322, 647) and Grand Rapids North Pointe Christian (334-319, 653) concluded the top five finishers.
The individual medalist honor went to Elk Rapids' sophomore Blake Springstead after he recorded back-to-back rounds of 73 and ended his first appearance at the Finals with a low total of 146.
"I missed qualifying for state my freshman year by one stroke and it kind've upset me,” Springstead said. “I used that as motivation, and I was really focused at Regionals this time and won that by seven strokes.
“I play around 10 junior tournaments each summer. I think wedges are my strongest clubs, but I've really been working on improving my drives and being more calm on the course. It feels really great to win state as a sophomore, but I hope to win it a couple more times.”
Springstead turned to his putting game to wrap up the title over the final three holes.
"On the third-to-last hole I hit my first putt too far and had a two-foot breaker and ended up making that one. Then on my second-to-last hole, I made a 15-foot putt. I had a 60-foot putt on the last hole that I hit within six feet of the cup, then I dropped it in on my next try," Springstead said.
Elk Rapids head coach Hayden Carpenter called Springstead a long-time student of the game.
"Blake's consistency from the fairway to the green is his biggest strength. He is very competitive and can grind it out and make back-to-back birdies if he needs to,” Carpenter said. “He gutted it out today with some incredible putts. He is a big leader on our team for being one of the younger guys."
Other top individual finishers included Jackson Lumen Christi’s Brandon Kulka (73-74, 147) in second place, Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Keating Holland, Lumen Chriti’s Gabe Cooper (73-77, 150) and Grandville Calvin Christian’s Will Orme (79-71, 150) all tied for third; and Kotowski (78-75, 153) and Saugatuck's Grant Schrotenboer (84-69, 153), who tied for the sixth.
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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.
Heading 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 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.