Wykons Sweep UPD2 Boys Championships
May 30, 2019
By Adam Niemi
Special for Second Half
IRON RIVER – West Iron County defended its home turf, sweeping the boys and girls MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 2 Finals on Thursday.
The Wykons' boys carded a team score of 319 at George Young Resort, located 10 miles east of Iron River.
Norway (366) took second place, followed by Hancock (362), St. Ignace (366) and Newberry (388) to round out the top five.
Trey Bociek paced West Iron County with a first-place 74. Norway's Drew Anderson (77) was second, and teammate Jeff VanHolla (78) tied with the Wykons' Nathan Thomson for third.
The team championship was West Iron’s second straight and third in five seasons.
"Obviously No. 1, very pleased," West Iron County head coach Mark Martini said. "No. 2, I think it's overlooked how both teams (boys and girls) started poorly and fought through it like a fourth-quarter football game. They fought right back, and I'm kind of proud of that. That was really good."
West Iron County's girls team won with a 433.
Norway head coach Joby Sullivan said the UP Finals bring out the best in the team aspect of golf.
"I know that some of the boys thought they weren't playing a great round of golf. But holistically, that's what’s great about these individual-dual sports is you may not be doing so well but the overall team, the big picture of it, can come around," Sullivan said. "A couple West Iron kids might have triple-bogeyed a par-3, and then one of their other kids on 15 had a bad hole. That opened the door for us to make a push down the stretch. We didn't capitalize on that, which would've been what we needed to do to make it close.
"It's exciting. When there's something that's happening, it's like the mile relay in a track meet where one team can end up winning it based on the results of that. Down the stretch, it was going to be close for that. It would've been nice to capitalize on that stretch on 13 through 18."
Sullivan said Anderson's 77 was his personal best.
"Drew came in with a 77, which was I think that's his best round ever," Sullivan said. "He was one under all the way through until a double bogey on 16 for his back-nine score. Which was great. Jeff (VanHolla) came in and played well with a 78. He had a couple putts at the end to finish out. He really played some good golf. He and Drew really did a nice job.”
The course was personally designed by the late George Young, a millionaire and passionate golfer whose design for each hole on the Iron County course was derived from the favorite holes he played from different courses around the world.
A wet course from recent rains slowed the greens and made various parts of multiple fairways a mud hazard of sorts. But the sand traps were dry and fooled golfers who landed in bunkers from a wet fairway, causing some to anticipate a heavy sand impact and instead overshoot the green.
If that wasn't enough, the woods hug most fairways. Some tee shots resulted in the echoing sound of a ball bouncing off tree branches, trunks and a heavy sigh from golfers.
The course difficulty and conditions meant Thursday was simply about limiting mistakes.
Austin Salani placed eighth for Hancock with an 85. His brother Colton tied for 12th with a 92. Brimley's Justin Carrick and St. Ignace's Reid Marshall also carded a 92.
PHOTOS: (Top) West Iron County's Nathan Thomson fires an iron shot during Thursday's championship round. (Middle) The Wykons girls and boys championship teams. (Photos by Adam Niemi.)
Sintkowski's Final-Hole Eagle Secures UP Finals Repeat for Hancock
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
May 30, 2025
NORWAY — Hancock’s Jackson Sintkowski said he wasn’t playing the best at Friday’s Upper Peninsula Division 2 Final. His last hole, and what happened to be the team’s final one for the day, went exceedingly well, though.
His tee shot landed right down the middle of the fairway, he hit a 9-iron to within 10 feet of the hole and he drained the putt.
“I was pretty pumped up,” the senior said.
It was good for an eagle. The Bulldogs won the tournament by two strokes.
Hancock repeated as Division 2 champion, edging Painesdale Jeffers 324-326 at Oak Crest Golf Course in Norway.
“What we’ve always stressed to these kids is always play to the end,” Hancock coach Paul Sintkowski said. “You never know. I always tell them before every meet that every shot counts. Even though you’re not playing good — 87, if you would have shot an 89, we don’t win. Those kids did that today, they played till the end and I think that is part of the reason why we won again.”
He believes they were the favorites to win coming into the day. They won the Final last year and had won everything in the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference during the regular season.
“I think that’s probably why some of our scores were probably not where they should be,” Coach Sintkowski said. “I think it’s probably a little bit of the pressure.”
It all worked out in the end – thanks, in part, to the big-time eagle by Jackson Sintkowski, who finished with a score of 78, good for third place individually.
“It’s a great feeling” to repeat, he said. “We have a solid team. All of us put up pretty good scores.”
Every Hancock player shot under 90. Kirby Storm joined Sintkowski under 80 with a 79 to finish fourth. Teammate Nolan Hanner carded an 80 to finish sixth.
Four golfers among the top 11 wasn’t quite enough for Jeffers to avoid finishing runner-up as a team for the third straight year. Jets junior Griffin Heinonen finished individual runner-up himself with a 77, Max Nordstrom had an 81 to take seventh, Easton Therrian was eighth with an 82 and Benton Rajala was 11th with an 86.
Cedarville/DeTour placed third as a team with a 363, Ironwood was fourth with a 369 and Newberry rounded out the top five with a 375.
Stephenson’s Owen Kuehnau had the round of the day, carding a 71 to win the individual Finals title, with the runner-up Heinonen six strokes back.
“It feels good,” he said. “It was always a goal of mine, so it definitely feels good.”
The senior finished third at the Final last year and ninth the year before that.
It wasn’t easy to win it Friday.
“The pin positions were really tough, so you just had to go in the middle of green and hope to two-putt,” Kuehnau said.
His score was the lowest recorded by a U.P. Division 2 champion since the MHSAA created the division in 2001.
Munising’s Carter Deatsman rounded out the top five with a 79.
PHOTOS (Top) The Hancock boys golf team holds up its latest Finals championship trophy. (Middle) Painesdale Jeffers’ Benton Rajala follows his shot during Friday’s round. (Photos by Jason Juno.)