Cass City's Langenburg Rolling Into Final Focused on Her Game, Not Her Finish
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2026
Lindsey Langenburg knew she was in the middle of a great round during the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Girls Golf Regional at Twin Brooks Golf Club in Chesaning.
But in order to keep it going, she tried as hard as she could to block out how great she was playing.
“It gets a little nerve-racking,” the Cass City senior said. “I remember the whole round, I wouldn’t check the scoreboard. The girls I was playing with were like, ‘Lindsey, you’re in first.’ I was like, ‘Don’t tell me that.’ Going into it, my mom and dad and coach were like, you know what you’re doing, just go out there and give it your best.”
Langenburg shot an 81 on Oct. 6, winning the Regional and leading Cass City to a second-place finish as a team, qualifying for the Division 4 Final which takes place Friday and Saturday at The Meadows in Allendale.
It was the best round of Langenburg’s life and tied for the third-best regional round in all of Division 4.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Langenburg said. “I was just trying to focus on not overthinking and taking it one stroke at a time. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I just wanted to play each hole by itself. My short game (was working). My chips were right up close to the pin, so I had some pretty good one-putts. My putting was definitely there, too.”
Langenburg’s Regional breakout was a crowning achievement during an already strong senior season. She finished first, or tied for first, in six of the eight Big Thumb Conference Jamborees this fall, and tied for first in the Big Thumb Conference Tournament.
“Last year, I was shooting in the high 40s, low 50s,” Langenburg said. “This year, I dropped down to the low 40s. I had a lot of practice all summer. I was out every day, hitting the range, hitting the course. I was just a lot more focused this year with it.”
Cass City coach Eric Tamlyn said Langenburg took her game to a new level this season, something he knew was right there all along.
“Lindsey always had the ability to bounce back and not let an early bogey or double get in her head,” Tamlyn said. “I think Lindsey kind of put together the round at Regionals we all knew she could. She had been shooting some mid and low 40s. From a fundamental standpoint, she’s just very solid.”
One major change Langenburg made this season was with the club she’s using near the green, switching from a pitching wedge to a sand wedge for her chip shots.
“Last year, I couldn’t get on the green to save my life,” she said. “I had a lot of three-putts and four-putts. I think it was that I hadn’t worked on it so much, because last year I was more focused on working on my irons. (Short game) is a lot of feel, and I think I just got more of a feel for it this year. The sand wedge around the green definitely changed a lot, because it has a higher loft to get it up there. Confidence, especially with pitching, is big. So many times you can get up to the ball and be like, ‘I hope I don’t hit the ground and duff this shot.’ Especially during Regionals, I would tell myself, ‘You know how to chip. Just get up there and trust yourself.’”
Langenburg plans to take her Regional mindset into the Final, and she’s already blocking out the fact her 81 makes her a serious all-state contender, or better, in her third Finals trip.
“Honestly, I’m just focusing on being relaxed,” Langenburg said. “I don’t want to get out there and worry about every shot or try to kill the ball. I’m really focused on tempo and keeping a rhythm.”
Having her teammates with her for the second-straight year will also help Langenburg relax, as classmates Lexi Tamlyn and Lily Jaworski, as well as junior Jaidyn Vanvliet and sophomore Nevaeh Stevens were all part of the Red Hawks’ runner-up finish at the Regional.
“Going alone (as a sophomore), it was my first year playing, so it was a little scary,” Langenburg said. “It was nice knowing my teammates were out there playing the same course – and also, being able to talk to them between days about the course.”
It’s a repayment, of sorts, as Langenburg’s presence was massive this season, not only for scores, but in helping get the younger players ready for this part of the season.
“This year was a little bit different, because Lindsey’s level raised so much, and she was either winning league matches or coming in second,” Eric Tamlyn said. “Lexi had herself a really good year, as well, so we were able to have some of our sophomores, juniors and one of our seniors, usually, step up. That all kind of materialized into a team that was competitive in the league, but we usually ran up against a Millington team that was really talented. We gave them a good run at Regionals; we only lost by six strokes.”
Tamlyn’s outlook on the Final is much like Langenburg’s, as he’s hoping she and her teammates can relax and play their game, and from there the scores will take care of themselves.
“I think that, culturally speaking, making the Finals is usually the goal,” he said. “Winning the Regionals and making the Finals is usually the goal. A lot of what we’re going to stress this week is trying to make the most of this moment and enjoy it. The girls get to go have fun on a world-class golf course. Let’s try to compete, try to have fun and soak up the moment.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Cass City’s Lindsey Langenburg tees off during a match this season. (Middle) Langenburg lines up a putt. (Below) The Red Hawks have advanced to this season’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final as a team after finishing runner-up at their Regional. (Photos by Danielle Laming/Cass City Schools.)
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- MHSAA News
Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.