Cedarville's Trojans Make Another Championship Memory
By
Todd Rose
Special for Second Half
June 4, 2021
GLADSTONE – The Cedarville Trojans went out with a bang for their school and the 2021 season Thursday afternoon in Gladstone, taking the overall team championship and placing first and second individually at the MHSAA Upper Peninsula Division 3 Finals at the Oaks Caddyshack Club in Gladstone.
The Trojans, beginning this fall, will merge athletic programs with nearby DeTour and become the Islanders.
Cedarville carded a 403 to finish ahead of Engadine at 475 and Cooks Big Bay de Noc at 484.
Trojans teammates Zoe Autore (92) and Lauren Miller (97) finished first and second, respectively, in the individual standings.
“I knew we had a good shot with our girls team because all five of our girls are pretty solid players,” Cedarville coach Rob Freel said. “I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I knew we would have a good shot at it, and I think they all played really well today.”
Cedarville's girls golf program won three Finals championships and finished runner-up three times, including in 2019.
For both Autore and Miller, it was their best outing ever.
“It’s pretty decent because that’s never happened before,” said Autore. “I did a lot of firsts today, so that was good. (The 92) was my best. Even on nine, I’ve never shot that low before.”
“My last nine could have been a little better, but it’s better than I’ve ever shot before,” Miller added.
Freel said both Autore and Miller stepped up to the occasion for the U.P. Finals.
“Zoe puts in a lot of extra work. She takes some private lessons ... and she’s always putting in extra time on the course,” Freel said. “Lauren plays a lot, too. They’re pretty solid players.”
Carney-Nadeau's Heidi Kirschner finished third individually with a score of 99.
“This is the best round of golf I’ve had in my entire life,” Kirschner said.
When the tournament began, Kirschner said she did not think third place was even a possibility.
“I haven’t been driving well the whole season, and today my drives were just on point and so were my irons, so it just kind of worked out,” she said.
Sarah Snyder of Powers North Central shot 100 and Cedarville’s Hayley Kohlmann 106 to round out the top five.
Also making the top 10 were Taylor Williams (Cedarville) and Madyson Permit (Ontonagon), tied for sixth at 108; Grace VanWormer (Cooks Big Bay de Noc) in eighth at 110, Emmy Bobula (Ontonagon) in ninth at 112 and Rayven Jacobsen (Crystal Falls Forest Park) 10th at 113.
PHOTOS: (Top) Cedarville’s Zoe Autore tees off on No. 4 during Thursday’s Upper Peninsula Division 3 Final. (Middle) Teammate Lauren Miller sends an approach on the way to her individual runner-up finish. (Photos by Todd Rose.)
After String of Second Places, Big Bay Takes Big Step to Top Finals Field
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
May 28, 2026
WATERSMEET — Big Bay de Noc’s girls golf team has finished runner-up the past three years at the Upper Peninsula Division 3 Final.
First, the Black Bears finished second to a Cedarville team in the last season of a three-year championship run. Then the last two years, they took second behind traditional U.P. power Ontonagon.
Wednesday, it was finally their turn.
Big Bay de Noc won at Lac Vieux Desert Golf Course in Watersmeet, breezing past the second-place Gladiators 475-532 to win its first Finals title since 2005.
“Ontonagon’s been a great golf team,” Big Bay de Noc coach Alex Ranguette said. “They’ve actually beaten us the past two years for U.P. Finals, so it feels good to finally get one.”
The Black Bears did it with four golfers placing among the top 10 compared to two for Ontonagon. Junior Payton Pederson placed second with a 108, senior Caragan Thill tied for third with a 110, eighth grader Ivy Gates carded a 121 to finish seventh and another eighth grader, Karlee Kuehl, was 10th with a 136.
“The girls came out, started slow,” Ranguette said. “It was a little shaky to begin with, but they really turned it around. I got five girls — two eighth graders this year that just joined who have been very strong for me, two seniors who have been wonderful all year, a junior who placed second. My senior Carrigan placed third.”
Pederson and Thill alternated as Big Bay de Noc’s lowest-scoring golfer all year.
“They both shot well,” Ranguette said. “They just played unreal. They started slow, but they held it together and it was pretty awesome to watch them finish strong.”
Ontonagon graduated important seniors last year, but so did his team. Ranguette said it then came down to the younger golfers – and the results speak for themselves.
“I was fortunate enough to have two young kids that really played well,” he said.
The Gladiators, of course, still went home with a couple of trophies. Besides the runner-up hardware, junior Summer Stites repeated as a U.P. champion.
She shot a 103, which was five strokes better than Pederson.
“It’s exciting, it’s fun,” Stites said.
She was expected to win this year after being a bit of a surprise winner emerging from a strong competition with her own teammates last year.
“I feel like there’s more pressure on me to play better than I did last year. But I didn’t meet that goal,” said Stites, who won with a 98 a year ago.
Ontonagon coach Jim Jessup is excited she has a chance to make it a three-peat.
“She deserves it, she works really hard,” he said. “She’s improved, unfortunately not to where she wants to be, but she can play really well. We have some more stuff to work on. We got another year for her, so we can do a three-peat, if we’re lucky, if she keeps working on it.”
PHOTOS (Top) Big Bay de Noc’s Caragan Thill lines up a putt during the Upper Peninsula Division 3 Final on Wednesday. (Middle) Ontonagon’s Summer Stites follows her shot. (Photos by Jason Juno.)