Ontonagon Tradition Continues as Super Sophomore Leads Latest Title Triumph
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
May 28, 2025
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.)
Divine Child Completes 4-Year Drive for 1st Championship
October 16, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – Dearborn Divine Child’s first steps toward Saturday began in 2018 when three freshmen helped the girls golf team return to the MHSAA Finals and finish 13th in Lower Peninsula Division 3.
A year later, that trio helped the Falcons move up to ninth. Then came last season, and plenty of adjustments, including a move to Division 2 – but Divine Child kept moving up the leaderboard, tying for fifth with Zeinab Saad, Julia Lizak and Madina Saad again leading the way.
All of that set the stage for this weekend at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley, and especially the final round. Those three seniors, along with junior Mary Ronayne – who joined the Finals lineup in 2020 – posted the best score of Saturday to overtake first-round leader South Lyon and lock up the first girls golf championship in program history.
Divine Child’s 344 made up for a six-stroke deficit after Friday and kept the Falcons ahead of eventual runner-up Byron Center with a two-day 691, good for a nine-stroke win.
“It’s kinda unbelievable, but my team worked so hard for this and it’s been our goal since freshman year – and it feels good to finally complete our goal,” Lizak said. “We’ve been doing so good this year as a team, and we just had a feeling – especially last week talking about it. We came in thinking we could place really well.
“They’re my best friends, and I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else. I love them all.”
Lizak cut five strokes from her first-round score to finish with a two-day 157, good for seventh individually, and Zeinab Saad shot matching 82s to tie for ninth. Leila Saad was three strokes better Saturday to finish with a 173, and Ronayne carded a 197.
Zeinab Saad and Lizak had missed the top-10 individual list in 2020 by two and three strokes, respectively, when the Finals were just one round because of COVID-19 precautions.
“After last year, when we tied for fifth, I knew all we needed was just a little bit more,” Divine Child coach Dan Berry said, “and with the possibility that if it all came together and they played the way I knew they could play, we could get there. And they did, and we pulled through."
A year ago it was South Lyon celebrating its first team Finals title, and the Lions finished a solid third this time with a lineup of two seniors and three juniors – including a standout who picked up her second individual championship.
Junior Gabriella Tapp shot a two-round 144 to finish four strokes ahead of runner-up KT Leinwand of Portage Northern and add to the individual title she won as a freshman. Tapp tied for sixth a year ago.
“When I came here I was hoping our team would be able to win, and I was just rooting for them all day. Myself was a secondary thought,” Tapp said. “We have a lot of strong players on our team, and I think next year we’ll definitely have a shot too.”
Following Leinwand, a sophomore, in the individual standings was Byron Center sophomore Macie Elzinga, who cut two strokes from her Friday score to finish the weekend at 152. Her team was tied for fourth after the first day and cut eight strokes during the second to finish at 700.
Byron Center will graduate only one from its Finals lineup.
“At the start of the season, no one on our team thought we’d even make it here. I played really well and a lot of people on our team played well, so we’re really happy about it,” Elzinga said. “I’m not going to stop working hard at this. I want this one bad. There’s all the best players in the state here, and to be able to compete against them is pretty cool. I learned a lot about my game and how I can handle pressure, and I’m proud of how I played.”
PHOTOS (Top) Dearborn Divine Child’s Julia Lizak powers through a drive during Friday’s first round at Bedford Valley. (Middle) South Lyon’s Gabriella Tapp putts Friday; she finished the weekend with her second individual championship. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)