#TBT: Marquette's Palmer Begins Title Run
August 17, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This photo of Marquette’s 1996 Upper Peninsula Class A-B champion team is like most stuffed into our archives from publications past – and at the same time, includes a player starting on one of the most historic runs in MHSAA girls golf history.
Third from left is then-freshman Kendra Palmer, who won the individual title that day at Marquette Golf & Country Club with a score of 93. She also went on to win individual championships the next three seasons, becoming the first Michigan high school female golfer to win four Finals total.
Palmer shot a first-place 89 in 1997 at Gladstone Golf Club as her team finished third, and then a winning 89 at Escanaba Country Club as Marquette finished third again in 1998. Palmer capped her career firing an 85 to lead her team back to the top of the standings in 1999 at Riverside Country Club in Menominee.
Palmer went on to play at Loyola University in Chicago and was named Horizon League Player of the Year as a senior in 2003. This past summer Palmer won the Upper Peninsula Ladies Golf Association championship – click for more on that event from the Marquette Mining Journal.
Only one other golfer has won four MHSAA girls championships – Marquette’s Carley Saint-Onge from 2008-2011. Seven have won three Finals titles – Menominee’s Jenny Mellinger (1984-86), L’Anse’s Jennifer Kangas (1990-92), Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kate Loy (1993-95), Ontonagon’s Halley Borseth (2009-11), Ishpeming Westwood’s Megan Manninen (2009, 2011-12), Okemos’ Elle Nichols (2011-13) and Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox (2014-16).
PHOTO: Marquette's 1996 girls golf team, from left: Jill Zorza, Emily Downs, Kendra Palmer, Jenny Shaffer, Katie Crotty and Elizabeth Koski.
Dexter Follows Manning to Team Championship, McCollum Makes Jump to Medalist
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – Dexter’s Avery Manning, an all-state Dream Team selection last year, entered this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final at Bedford Valley Golf Course as the reigning individual champ on a team that finished runner-up last fall.
The script flipped this year.
Manning led the Dreadnaughts to the Division 2 team championship, while she took third individually with a 154 score.
“We came into this so strong and so ready to do it, and I’m so proud,” she said. “I’m a little sad knowing we say goodbye, but I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to high school golf.
“I was very disappointed in what I did (in Friday’s first round),” she added about shooting a 79 to open in seventh place, “but I grinded out my last six holes and so it put me into a better position and headspace to go into (Saturday) where I was just trying to stay as steady as possible and keep my position and try to keep the lead for my team. I’m proud that I stayed content, even if something went wrong.”
Dexter’s team win helped make up for last year’s runner-up finish to Farmington Hills Mercy, which placed sixth this time with a team total of 718.
The Dreadnaughts’ two-round total of 643 placed ahead of No. 1-ranked Bloomfield Cranbrook Kingswood at 659. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and Lowell tied for third at 684 each.
“The girls played amazing today,” Dexter coach Greg Palkowski. “They really brought it to the course. We played aggressive all day long. We told them don’t hold anything back today. Just go get it done and play our style of golf. This is what we’re accustomed to, and they did it today.
“With this group, being in either first or second going into today’s final round, I’m happy with it. It would have been the same mindset (if trailing). Just come out aggressively, get off to a good start, and they did today. That really propelled us through the first nine holes, and they just played steady golf on the whole back nine.”
Palkowski had plenty of reasons to credit a total team effort.
“All five of our girls are capable of shooting the scores they got here,” he said. So, for them to come through and do what they did, especially the seniors today, Avery, Ellie (Anderson) and Millie (Truesdell) played really well. Maddy (Manning) did really well today, and our number 5, Morgan (Pomerantz), played an awesome round today. They knew they could do it; they just needed to prove it today, and they did.”
Sophia McCollum, a junior at Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, was the individual medalist, leading wire-to-wire. Yet that’s not how she would have scripted it.
“I really didn’t want to be leading after the first day,” she said. “I feel like that’s more pressure, to stay at the top. So I definitely felt a lot of pressure, but it got a lot better as it went along.”
McCollum, who tied for 17th last year, said knowing both Saturday playing partners from summer golf helped ease her mind some – as did her start on each hole.
“I got off the tee box well, and I hit almost every green in regulation,” she said. “My putting wasn’t as great. I putted fine, just not my best. But definitely, my irons and my driving were good.”
She kept the pace with a two-round total of 148 to finish ahead of runner-up Sixtine Charnelet of Kingswood (152), with Avery Manning in third. Chaille Payne of Forest Hills Northen and Megan Guerrera of Mercy tied at 155 for fourth place.
PHOTOS (Top) Dexter’s Avery Manning tees off during Saturday’s second round at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley. (Middle) Muskegon Reeths-Puffer’s Sophia McCollum tees off. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)