ALLENDALE – The Bath High School sports community will never forget this fall’s girls golf team, which capped the program’s sixth season Saturday by winning its first MHSAA Finals championship.

And coach Chad Vietzke will remember the pivotal details. 

“That they go play golf all the time together, they love being together as a group, and just how close they are,” he said. “Last February, six of these girls met up in stocking caps, and there was snow, and they were hitting range balls at a heated area. And I knew then that we had something special.”

And this weekend, unstoppable. 

The Bees carded a two-round 739 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State University, holding off runner-up Kalamazoo Christian as a 19-stroke first-day lead faded to only 14 by the end of the second round. Bath also celebrated sophomore Addilyn Duflo’s 14-stroke individual victory as she carded 152 strokes over 36 holes.

Sophomore Hattie Lalonde tied for 10^th individually at 183, while senior Sophia Perales tied for 25^th and juniors Mya Vietzke and Brooke Kares rounded out the scoring, contributing one round apiece over the two days.

Bath’s girls golf team has reached the Finals all six seasons of its existence, with the Bees’ previous high finish fifth in 2023. They officially began making their move on this championship Oct. 7 when they claimed a Regional title for the first time. But they’d been building toward this weekend for much longer. 

“We’ve grown so much. We were out there working in the winter, out there working in the summer. Every day it’s always drive, drive, drive,” Perales said. “We started (this season) great, and we just got better throughout the year. It just kept getting better and better.” 

Duflo is doing the same after a magnificent high school debut. She finished second at the LPD4 Final last season as a freshman, and continued to surge this season. She was medalist at the Regional two weeks ago and entered Saturday’s final round with a nine-stroke lead. 

She was the only golfer to break 80 on the weekend – doing so both rounds – and her first-round 73 and two-round score fell just outside the top 10 all-time in LPD4 Finals history.

“I didn’t really think about it, like I could do this sophomore year,” Duflo said. “Knowing last year what happened, it was like yeah, maybe I could do it. But I didn’t think it would be this year.” 

Elk Rapids sophomore Piper Smith, Fowler senior Noelle Krepps and Byron junior Adalen Brown all tied for second in the individual standings, carding matching scores of 166. 

Elk Rapids as a team finished third, followed by Millington among those that broke 800. 

Click for full results. 

(Photos by High School Sports Scene.)