Banner Day For Lutheran North Golfers
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2022
EAST LANSING - With his team tied with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood after the first round of the MHSAA Division 3 Girls Golf Finals, Macomb Lutheran North coach Alex Schlump didn’t need to deliver a big pep talk to his team going into the second and last day.
Instead, it was just a simple message he’s preached to his team all year.
“The focus was to play your own game,” Schlump said of what he told his girls. “We had to be mentally stronger than everybody else and we knew we were. That’s been our strength all season long, whether it’s been playing in the rain or playing in 40-degree weather.”
That mental strength was the difference for Lutheran North, which captured its first state title since 2017 on a chilly and windy day at Forest Akers East.
After Cranbrook and Lutheran North shot identical scores of 336 on the first day, Lutheran North was six shots better on the second day, shooting a 332 to finish with a final total of 668.
Cranbrook finished as the runner-up with a final score of 674, while Grosse Ile, which entered the day three shots back, took third with a 677.
Grand Rapids South Christian (682) and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (695) rounded out the top-5.
Leading the way for Lutheran North was junior Lauren Timpf, who followed up a first round score of 70 with a 72 in the second round to finish as the medalist with a 2-under par score of 142.
“I have played this course many times, and just coming into the week, I tried to give myself as many birdie opportunities as I could,” Timpf said. “Just take advantage of the short par-5 and getting there in two. Just really playing aggressive to get those birdie opportunities.”
Flanking Timpf was sophomore Saige Rothey, who tied for 13th with a two-day total of 163 (78-85).
Grosse Ile senior Lily Bargamian was the individual runner-up, finishing seven shots behind Timpf with a 149 (75-74).
Charlotte senior Hannah Robinson was third with a 150 (75-75), while Grand Rapids Catholic Central sophomore Ava Wisinski and Grand Rapids Christian freshman Lillian O’Grady tied for fourth at 153.
The highest finisher for runner-up Cranbrook was junior Mackenzie Behnke, who tied for ninth at 160.
Cranbrook was the defending state champion, but head coach John Minnich wasn’t unhappy at all to at least come away with a runner-up trophy given he called it a rebuilding year for his squad with no seniors.
“We play in the same conference in the Catholic League that Lutheran North plays in, and we’ve played them several times this year,” Minnich said. “Every match and every tournament we’ve played with them has been neck-and-neck. To be honest, they’ve had more firepower than we’ve had all year. Our players were more consistent though. We didn’t make the big numbers. We didn’t avoid them this tournament. We made a few too many big numbers.”
In the end, that proved costly for a Lutheran North team that beat out several larger schools to win the Macomb County championship earlier in the year, and now has another state championship trophy to add to its case.
“We knew we had so many good players and talent coming back,” Schlump said. “We have a team that’s mentally strong,” he said. “That is something we knew we could do with the group of girls we had.
PHOTOS (Top) Lauren Timpf wins her second consecutive MHSAA medalist honors. (Middle) Division 3 team champions, Macomb Lutheran North. (Photos by James Traynor.)
Northville Turns to Experience in Repeat, Flavin Finishes All-State Career as No. 1
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2025
ALLENDALE – If Northville's golf team was going to capture a second straight and sixth Lower Peninsula Division 1 title over eight years, banking on experience was going to have to win out over caving to pressure.
Which is exactly how the Mustangs captured this weekend’s tournament at The Meadows at Grand Valley State.
A young but experienced Northville team completed a wonderous season with three golfers placing among the top seven en route to a 29-stroke win over runner-up Macomb Dakota.
The Mustangs turned to the experience gained from last year's title run. While some teams may bend to the pressure of trying to repeat, Northville coach Kate Schultz said it was more about a team which lost only one key golfer to graduation a year ago.
"It was basically the same team," said Schultz, who as a Northville senior in 2002 won a Finals title before going on to play at Grand Valley State. "So it was nothing better or worse for us. We're proud that we're a deep team. There may have been more pressure, but the kids didn't know any difference from last year. They know what they have to do, and I knew they would handle putting more pressure on themselves."
Northville finished with a 643 to outdistance second-place Macomb Dakota's 672. Okemos was third with a 674, and Rochester Adams fourth at 681.
Plymouth senior Annie Flavin won the individual title with a 148, including a 5-over-par 77 on Saturday following a 71 on Friday.
Northville junior Naaz Gill finished fourth with a 154, while sophomore teammates McKenzie Stevens and Cam Baker tied for seventh with 158s. That trio all finished among the top four at their Regional, with Stevens winning the qualifier.
Gill said her teammates were well-prepared to follow up a Regional team title won by 35 strokes with earning a second-straight Finals victory. The team had been ranked No. 1 in Division 1 all season while losing only once when the team was battling a team-wide illness.
"We know the difference between Regionals and state, and that state would be more competitive," she said. "We just all wanted to shoot personal bests, which would be good for the team."
Stevens said the experience of having been there, done that, was a huge reason for the repeat.
"It's hard, but we feel like we handled it well," she said. "We were excited to win last year, and we weren't nervous about being back. We took pressure as an opportunity to do better than we did last year."
Schultz said the ability to handle high expectations comes from learning to play in the moment. Looking ahead, she said, serves little benefit.
"We always tell the girls to play like we're five shots behind," she said. "We tell them not to take the pedal off the metal, that every shot counts."
While most considered Northville the favorite to win the team title, the individual crown earned by Flavin is quite another story. She was a three-time all-stater heading into the tournament. But Flavin, who may choose to focus on earning a business degree over playing golf in college, hadn't finished higher than sixth at any of her three previous Finals.
It may have been a goal to win since her days in middle school, but Flavin admitted she wasn't the most likely candidate to outdistance Saturday's field. The difference between being a solid high school golfer and Finals champion came down to annual improvements in simply "picking my way around a course," she said. Specifically, she learned how to slow the game down and trust her teammates. Most of all, she said, it was about making huge strides in mental toughness.
"I have more of a mental mindset now. It's more positive, which has helped me," she said. "I can't really pinpoint anything other than it's just mental with me."
PHOTOS (Top) Northville's girls golf team takes a photo with its team trophy Saturday. (Middle) Plymouth's Annie Flavin begins a swing. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)