Prepapalooza: Final Countdown Begins

ALLENDALE – If Northville's golf team was going to capture a second straight and sixth Lower Peninsula Division 1 title over eight years, banking on experience was going to have to win out over caving to pressure.

Which is exactly how the Mustangs captured this weekend’s tournament at The Meadows at Grand Valley State.

A young but experienced Northville team completed a wonderous season with three golfers placing among the top seven en route to a 29-stroke win over runner-up Macomb Dakota.

The Mustangs turned to the experience gained from last year's title run. While some teams may bend to the pressure of trying to repeat, Northville coach Kate Schultz said it was more about a team which lost only one key golfer to graduation a year ago.

"It was basically the same team," said Schultz, who as a Northville senior in 2002 won a Finals title before going on to play at Grand Valley State. "So it was nothing better or worse for us. We're proud that we're a deep team. There may have been more pressure, but the kids didn't know any difference from last year. They know what they have to do, and I knew they would handle putting more pressure on themselves."

Northville finished with a 643 to outdistance second-place Macomb Dakota's 672. Okemos was third with a 674, and Rochester Adams fourth at 681.

Plymouth senior Annie Flavin won the individual title with a 148, including a 5-over-par 77 on Saturday following a 71 on Friday.

Northville junior Naaz Gill finished fourth with a 154, while sophomore teammates McKenzie Stevens and Cam Baker tied for seventh with 158s. That trio all finished among the top four at their Regional, with Stevens winning the qualifier.

Gill said her teammates were well-prepared to follow up a Regional team title won by 35 strokes with earning a second-straight Finals victory. The team had been ranked No. 1 in Division 1 all season while losing only once when the team was battling a team-wide illness.

"We know the difference between Regionals and state, and that state would be more competitive," she said. "We just all wanted to shoot personal bests, which would be good for the team."

Stevens said the experience of having been there, done that, was a huge reason for the repeat.

"It's hard, but we feel like we handled it well," she said. "We were excited to win last year, and we weren't nervous about being back. We took pressure as an opportunity to do better than we did last year."

Schultz said the ability to handle high expectations comes from learning to play in the moment. Looking ahead, she said, serves little benefit.

"We always tell the girls to play like we're five shots behind," she said. "We tell them not to take the pedal off the metal, that every shot counts."

While most considered Northville the favorite to win the team title, the individual crown earned by Flavin is quite another story. She was a three-time all-stater heading into the tournament. But Flavin, who may choose to focus on earning a business degree over playing golf in college, hadn't finished higher than sixth at any of her three previous Finals.

It may have been a goal to win since her days in middle school, but Flavin admitted she wasn't the most likely candidate to outdistance Saturday's field. The difference between being a solid high school golfer and Finals champion came down to annual improvements in simply "picking my way around a course," she said. Specifically, she learned how to slow the game down and trust her teammates. Most of all, she said, it was about making huge strides in mental toughness.

"I have more of a mental mindset now. It's more positive, which has helped me," she said. "I can't really pinpoint anything other than it's just mental with me."

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PHOTOS (Top) Northville's girls golf team takes a photo with its team trophy Saturday. (Middle) Plymouth's Annie Flavin begins a swing. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)