Plymouth Celebrates School's First Girls Title
October 20, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Kelsey Murphy knew Saturday afternoon who she’d call first after the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final – her grandmother Erma Murphy, who introduced her to golf when she was 12.
The Plymouth senior just wasn’t sure which bit of history-making news she would share first. She might start with how the top-ranked Wildcats won their first MHSAA girls team title. Or lead off with how she battled through wind and rain to edge Utica’s Taylor Clark by a stroke for the individual title.
Most likely, it was all going to come out in one long sentence. There's just so much good news to share.
Plymouth – after finishing third in 2011 and coming into this weekend ranked No. 1 – shot a two-round 659 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East to edge runner-up Farmington Hills Mercy by 11 strokes. Murphy shot a two-day 148, matching Clark’s 75 on Saturday to maintain a one-stroke lead from Friday’s first round.
"I’m extremely proud of my team. We worked so hard this year to get to where we are today,” Murphy said. “It’s the first state championship in Plymouth’s history in any sport, so we’re extremely proud to represent our school this way.”
All five of Plymouth’s players shot 183 or better for the weekend, with senior Sarah Thompson firing a 166 to miss the individual top 10 by five strokes. And the latter statement is all the more impressive considering seven of last season’s 10 were back for this Final.
Murphy had birdies on Nos. 11 and 16 on Saturday. Clark, who improved from tied for sixth last season to finish second, just missed a close putt on the 18th green that would’ve forced a tie-breaker.
“I knew they were going to be close because Taylor is such a great player and so is Tenley (Shield, of Grosse Pointe South, who finished fifth). So I knew we were going to have a shootout today, and we all had to play our best to see who would come out on top,” Murphy said.
Utica as a team was four strokes better than Friday and shot a 672 to finish third.
“I’m proud of where I’ve come in the last four years. But most of all, I’m proud of my team for getting here,” said Clark, who played in Utica’s top spot every year of high school. “This is our best finish in the history of our school, so I think we represented our district and our school well. A top-three finish is great here.”
Plymouth enjoyed the same last season, but wanted more – especially after how the 2011 Final finished up.
The Wildcats were in second place after that first round, but fell to third by the end of the weekend. Murphy led individually with four holes to play, but also finished third.
They also had to adjust to a quick switch right before the start of this season, after coach Chris Moore resigned after taking an assistant principal job. Dan Young, a teacher with Moore at Pioneer Middle School in Canton, stepped right in. He hadn’t coached golf before, but has plenty of experience leading teams – he’s coached boys basketball at Westland John Glenn for two decades.
Plymouth shot a 331 on Friday to lead by seven, then carded a 328 to finish the run.
“You can’t replace that (2011) experience. Obviously, we fed off that,” Young said. “We tried to keep things in perspective, tried to stay within ourselves and do our job and lay it all out there. I thought we could come back and play better than (Friday), and I think the girls felt they could play better than (Friday). So that was the goal.
“That (2011) experience grounded us the whole year. It really did.”
Holt junior Pader Her shot two strokes better to finish third individually with a 152. Brighton senior Hannah Pietila shot five strokes better to move up to fourth.
PHOTO: Plymouth's Kelsey Murphy digs a shot out of the sand during Saturday's final round of the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
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.)