#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.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central Extends Title Streak, O'Grady Reigns Again
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2025
EAST LANSING — Successful title defenses from the Grand Rapids area sure were the themes of the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Girls Golf Final this weekend at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
From a team perspective, Grand Rapids Catholic Central fulfilled a season with sky-high expectations, easily winning its third-straight championship with a score of 682.
The Cougars were the team to chase all season with four golfers back after winning last year’s Final by 65 strokes.
Ultimately though, there wasn’t a team in Division 3 that could catch and dethrone them.
“There definitely was a target,” Catholic Central coach Kim Napieralski said. “The expectations weren’t anything new or different. They just leveled up to it.”
Catholic Central had three golfers earn top-7 individual finishes, led by senior Kelsey Preston (81-78-159), who took third. Senior Margaret Deimel finished with a 166 (80-86) to place sixth, while senior Sofia Piccione added a 167 (81-86) to finish in a tie for seventh.
“All of them are super competitive,” Napieralski said of her team. “They are grinders. If they have a bad hole or two, they get right back into it. That’s the biggest strength of our team, is our mental ability to get through the round comfortably even when there is bad stuff happening.”
There was also a repeat winner individually, with Grand Rapids Christian senior Lillian O’Grady reigning again after winning last year at Bedford Valley in Battle Creek.
After birdieing five holes to shoot 72 in Friday’s first round, O’Grady birdied six more holes during her second round Saturday, finishing with a 1-under par score of 71 for a two-day total of 143.
“This course, you can kind of be more aggressive with it and really hit it to good spots on the greens,” said O’Grady, who will play next at the University of Findlay. “I would say it was a lot of good wedge shots into the greens and making some pretty good putts. In some moments, my driver was off but my irons were really good, and I was making the putts. And then other times my irons were off but my short game was really good. All combined together, it was really good.”
O’Grady did have a different dynamic winning the title this year, as her closest pursuer was sister Eleanor, a freshman who finished runner-up with a score of 156 (78-78) in what could be a passing of the baton within the family.
“It was so special to have my sister on the team and experience this with her,” Lillian said of Eleanor. “Hopefully she can do what I’ve done these years.”
Making its first appearance as a team at an MHSAA Final since 2021, Grand Rapids Christian finished runner-up, surging ahead of Detroit Country Day with a strong second-day-total of 353 to finish at 711.
Country Day was third at 731 (356-375), Grand Rapids South Christian was fourth at 734, and Goodrich rounded out the top five with a score of 745.
“I thought we played about as well as we could today,” Grand Rapids Christian coach Seth Davis said. “This course is tough and was set up really tough. You play that first day and you kind of get over that first tournament-day thoughts of, ‘What does this place look like?’ But the second day, you just feel a bit more confident and you are hitting your stride. We played more like we could.”
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Margaret Deimel chips toward the green Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Golf Final. (Middle) Grand Rapids Christian’s Lillian O’Grady follows a drive at Forest Akers West. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)