'Baker's Dozen' Continues Rapid Rise Earning Leland's 1st Trip to Girls Golf Final
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 9, 2026
A lot has changed since Leland High School began offering girls golf just a decade ago.
Starting as a club sport with tremendous support from the Leland Country Club, the Comets began participation in MHSAA competition in 2021. These days, they are among Northern Michigan’s best Division 4 programs – and Tuesday qualified for the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final for the first time.
The Comets have done especially well considering more than 90 percent of their student-athletes had never picked up a club prior to entering high school.
Not many would have thought this rapid rise possible, but the team’s coaches – head coach Grace Keeble and assistant Kathy Wheeler, also a Leland teacher – are not among them.
“I don't think you can write a better script, really,” Keeble said. “I'm really excited for the girls. It is just so magical to be in the same sentence with Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids.”
The Comets placed second to Elk Rapids at their Regional to qualify for next week’s Final. St. Francis also qualified for the LPD4 championship tournament, which will be played at The Meadows on the campus of Grand Valley State University.
“Leland has been very fortunate to have some incredible teams go to states,” Keeble acknowledged, referring to the Comets’ successes on the volleyball court and soccer pitch. “I am honored and excited that these girls get to be added to that list. We've been riding an incredible wave, and I just want to ride it out. I want these girls to just soak it up.”
Leland’s run to the Final started at last year’s Regional, where they fell just shy of advancing.
“We were fourth, and the girls looked at me – and there were three girls who were really close to making it as individuals – and they had a smile on their faces and a determined look, and they said, ‘Coach, we're going to states next year.’ And I looked at them and I said, ‘Let's keep up with the hard work and the determination.’”
With five seniors leading the way and a total of 13 golfers on the roster, the Comets started this fall destined to reach championship weekend. Four seniors – Ariah Amin, Maya Hamelin, Elise Vann and Lillian Conner – were a part of the Comets team that nearly made the Final last year. The fifth senior, Ella Hennessey, is playing her first year of golf. All five seniors took at least a half-dozen strokes off their averages this fall.
“I wholeheartedly believed they could do it,’ said Keeble, a retired teacher and avid golfer. “It’s been kind of a mantra since the end of the season last year. I have 13 magnificent girls, and for the first time ever in this program, a representation from every class, from freshman sophomore, junior and senior.”
Keeble likes to refer to the 13-player roster as her “baker’s dozen” pointing out it took all 13 to get the team where it is today.
“When I saw the magical number 13, I told them they were my baker's dozen, and they kind of just looked at me,” Keeble recalled. “Well, there's 13, and I don't like classifying if you're the number one player or you're my 13th player – you're a member of this team. There are six going to states with five playing and four scores counting, but it took all of them, and it was these seniors leading.”
The rest of the “baker’s dozen” consists of juniors Jaelyn DeFour and Sadie Hill, sophomores Lucy Baldwin, Ella Hamelin, Bryn Waskiewicz, Flora Wengreen and Ellie Yoffy; and Penelope Shank, a freshman.
All 13 golfers will be behind the fire truck as Leland hosts a parade Thursday to send the Comets to Allendale.
Conner, finishing fourth, and Hamelin, sixth, led the way at this week’s Regional, and Amin, 11th, and Vann, 15th, rounded out the scoring. DeFour was right behind the scorers in 17th, allowing the entire team to place among the overall top 20 individuals. That success was despite weather conditions hampering the Comets after they all shot personal bests during their previous most recent tournament in Cadillac, with the team’s top four scores there all under 100 for the first time in program history.
As the Comets prepare for the Final, Keeble has them focused on the upcoming experience, rather than the result. She expects her golfers to always focus on the next hole, even if the last wasn’t so good, and let the results fall where they may.
“I'm not a big believer of putting expectations of where you're going to place,” Keeble noted. “I'd rather have the girls enjoy the experience and come off a course and say, ‘Hey, coach, I just did the best I could.’”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Leland’s Jaelyn Defour tees off on the Sundance Course during Tuesday’s Division 4 Regional at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort in Kewadin. (Middle) Elise Vann tees off during her Regional round. (Photos by Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle.)
Lumen Christi Builds a Champion, Greenhills Sophomore Repeats
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2022
ALLENDALE — There's no doubt that after 50 years of coaching, David Swartout can spin an interesting golf story or two. But his latest yarn might rank as one of the strangest.
Four years ago Swartout's Jackson Lumen Christi girls golf team was recruiting anyone who seemed to have an interest in the sport. What he never would have guessed was that diverse mix of multi-sport athletes would eventually earn a state championship.
But that's exactly the case after Lumen Christi shot a 688 to win Saturday's MHSAA Division 4 Finals at a blustery The Meadows at Grand Valley State.
Four years ago the program's only two returning letter winners began recruiting anyone who showed a interest in picking up a club. They wound up finding seven takers and the resulting nine seniors capped what Swartout can only describe as a "phenomenal."
The Titans wound up winning six of nine tournaments this season (finishing second in the other three), won their conference and last week's regional by 13 strokes. Lumen Christi won the MHSAA Finals by 23 strokes over runner-up Adrian Lenawee Christian.
Swartout can only marvel at how the program went from scrounging for players to his 17th state title in coaching both girls and boys.
"To go from there to a state title is phenomenal," said Swartout, who has coached two girls teams to titles. "The last three years we've improved by 100 shots. That's unheard of. I've never ever seen anything like that in all the teams I've had."
How did the program accomplish it? Swartout cites as example senior Ashley Hilderley, who hurt her knee playing volleyball on Wednesday and was told by doctors the only way she could participate in the state meet was if she didn't have to walk the course.
"So she limped around for two days," Swartout said of Hilderley, who finished in a tie for ninth with a 167.
Anna McClure led Lumen Christi with a 163 which put her in the sixth spot overall.
Ann Arbor Greenhills' Mia Melendez won the meet with a 149. Logan Bentley of Columbia Central was second with a 150, Grace Slocum of Traverse City St. Francis was third with a 151 while Montague had the next two placers in Mackenzie Goudreau (159) and Natalie Kellogg (162).
Hilderley said the Titans, who were the top-ranked team going into the meet, didn't let lofty expectations get in the way of performance.
"We don't think of ourselves as individuals. We're very much a team," she said. "If anyone ever has a bad day, someone will step up. We trust each other."
Hilderley said the team never considered giving in to pressure.
"I'd rather have people say we're good rather than say you aren't any good," she said.
Swartout won't go out on a limb and call this the best team he's ever coached. But there is one trait he points to in explaining the remarkable success. He said he'll see several of the kids at the driving range on his way home after practice.
"It's hard to do that after having so many teams, but this is one of my most special. I'll say that," he said. "To put in the kind of effort they put in makes them special. They work so hard, it's phenomenal."
Melendez won last year's state meet as a freshman. She said there's little doubt in the old adage that it's always harder to win the second time.
"It was. It's hard to live up to (last year's) title and it was a much different course this year," she said. "All around, I had to play better,"
Melendez finishes off an unbeaten season, including a regional title and the top spot going into Saturday.
"There was definitely a lot of pressure, but I committed myself to staying calm and just fighting hard," she said.
PHOTOS (Top) Sophomore Mia Melendez tees off at the 2022 MHSAA Division 4 Girls Golf Finals. (Middle) Jackson Lumen Christi wins the 2022 Division 4 team title. (Photos by Greg Chrapek.)