ESCANABA — When Jim Jessup goes into the Ontonagon school, middle schoolers ask him if he’ll still be coaching when they are old enough to join the high school golf team. 

“The history of the community is the girls play golf, and they do really well,” Jessup said. “And they know that, so they want to be part of the team.”

The Gladiators continued their tradition of excellence Wednesday at Escanaba Country Club as they won their second consecutive Upper Peninsula Division 3 title and 24th Finals championship overall.

“I was expecting good things from this group,” Jessup said. “We did well last year, and we did well this year.”

More like dominated.

The Gladiators carded a 406 to finish 60 shots ahead of runner-up Big Bay de Noc. The top three individual golfers were all from Ontonagon — medalist Summer Stites, who shot a 98; Madyson Pantti (99) and Samantha Bailey (100).

“The girls worked hard the last few months,” Jessup said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of outdoor time until tournament time, which was kind of a challenge. But they stepped up to where I thought they should be.”

The springtime weather in the lake-effect snowbelts of the Upper Peninsula can certainly make golfing a challenge. So can not being able to use your driver effectively, but it didn’t stop Stites from climbing the leaderboard Wednesday.

“I couldn’t hit my driver, so I stopped hitting it,” she said. “And I just switched to my 7-wood, and that worked pretty well. Then my chipping was pretty good.”

Jessup said she did what he teaches his golfers to do in such a situation.

“We’ve talked about it before — if you can’t hit the driver, if it’s not working, go to something else,” he said. “I’ve even told them, ‘If you have to hit irons, just hit irons.’ You can still get home in regulation if you just hit good, straight irons. It’s better to be straight than crooked any day.”

Stites is only a sophomore. She finished in a tie for fourth as a freshman last year and will be a part of continuing the tradition going forward. 

The Gladiators do lose two of their top three finishers from Wednesday, but they’re also developing more golfers through the local junior program.

“It’s going to be more of a struggle next year, but I'm determined that we’re going to try to defend,” Jessup said.

Big Bay de Noc’s Payton Pederson finished in fourth place with a 105. North Dickinson’s Aunika Lindholm won a one-hole playoff for the last spot in the top five. She carded a 109.

PHOTOS (Top) Ontonagon's Summer Stites watches a drive during Wednesday’s U.P. Division 3 Final. (Middle) Engadine's Sheyenne Nelson tees off during her championship round. (Photos by Jason Juno.)