Tiny Oakland Christian hopes to give Brother Rice a challenge at D-I Oakland County golf tourney

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

WATERFORD — In most years, a state-ranked school emerges as the team champion at the Oakland County Division I boys golf tournament.

The annual 25-school championship features seven ranked teams, plus several others with high hopes of contending at the prestigious tourney, which essentially kicks off the championship season with districts and regional looming the next two weeks. Chances are the same will occur Wednesday when the annual tournament commences at Pontiac Country Club.

Birmingham Brother Rice is the top-ranked team in Division 1, while Novi Detroit Catholic Central is ranked sixth and North Farmington seventh, also in D-1. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood holds down the No. 3 slot in Division 2, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (No. 5) and Birmingham Detroit Country Day No. 6) are both ranked in Division 3 and Auburn Hills Oakland Christian is second in Division 4. All expect to be in the top 10 at the Wednesday’s annual Oakland County Division I tournament.

But one team, although still ranked, that may be one of the leaders is also the smallest in the prestigious tournament: Oakland Christian.

With three straight top-10 finishes at the Division 4 state finals, the Lancers are a program on the rise. Last year the 197-student high school finished 10th at the County D-I tourney and is even better this year.

“The guys have the goal of finishing in the top five, and a few of the guys were wondering why they couldn’t’ win it?” said veteran coach Randy Johnson, whose team has climbed all the way to the No. 2 spot in D-4. “I know Brother Rice has already shot a 292 team score and they are always very good, as is Catholic Central. But we have played in a lot of tournaments with bigger schools and finished in the top 10 all three times.”

Oakland Christian, which brought in two transfers, two freshmen and also returns five of its top six players from last season, shot a D-4 best of 303 last weekend at a tournament in Gaylord. A similar score would vault them towards the top at the county tournament.

Brother Rice won the county crown last May with the exact same 303 score.

“I have several guys that have broke 80 this season and I have a kid who shot a 76 at a tournament this season who won’t be at the county,” noted Johnson, who has just one senior in his top eight. “I think this is going to be a special year for us. I’m hoping we can have a great day at the county. We feel we can compete against the big schools this year.”

Outside of all of the ranked teams, Lake Orion, Rochester Adams, Clarkston and Rochester, all from the OAA Red Division, along with Milford and Novi of the KLAA, all have capable teams of sneaking into the top five.

Brother Rice is still considered the heavy favorite.

“I would have to say they are. I don’t think anybody will argue that,” said John Getzan, veteran head coach at Troy, which will be among the 25 schools at the tournament. “Catholic Central is really good. After that, it’s just going to be who shows up. There are a lot of good teams.”

At the play-five, count-four county tournament last season, Brother Rice won by seven strokes over Clarkston and Milford, which both posted 310 team scores. Catholic Central (314), Novi (318), Birmingham Groves (319), Farmington (320), Troy (321), Walled Lake Northern (321) and Oakland Christian (322) rounding out the top 10.

Milford’s Chris Cunningham, last year’s medalist, graduated, leaving the door wide open for a new champion this season.

FLASHBACK TO 2010

OAKLAND COUNTY DIVISION I TOURNAMENT

(May 19, 2010, at Pontiac Country Club)

TEAM SCORES — 1. Birmingham Brother Rice, 303; 2. Clarkston, 310; 3. Milford, 310; 4. Novi Detroit Catholic Central, 314; 5. Novi, 318; 6. Birmingham Groves, 319; 7. Farmington, 320; 8. Troy, 321; 9. Walled Lake Northern, 321; 10. Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, 322; 11. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 322; 12. North Farmington 323; 13. White Lake Lakeland, 324; 14. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 325; 15. Lake Orion, 326; 16. Rochester Adams, 326; 17. Walled Lake Western, 328; 18. South Lyon, 331; 19. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, 331; 20. Walled Lake Central, 335; 21. West Bloomfield, 336; 22. Ortonville Brandon, 337; 23. Bloomfield Hills Andover, 339; 24. Oxford, 341; 25. Waterford Kettering, 349.

TOP 20 MEDALISTS — 1. Chris Cunningham (Milford) 72; 2. (tie) Max Kollin (North Farmington) 73; Tyler Manning (Novi) 73; 4. (tie) Nick Dennis (Birmingham Brother Rice) 74; Lucas Belanger (Birmingham Brother Rice) 74; Gregg Bussell (Farmington) 74; Aaron Knutson (Pontiac Notre Dame Prep) 74; Joe Parker (Walled Lake Northern) 74; 9. (tie) John Gordy (Birmingham Brother Rice) 75; Jimmy Delnick (Clarkston) 75; Corbin Rainey (Lake Orion) 75; 12. (tie) Brad Ferguson (White Lake Lakeland) 76; Parker Millington (Milford) 76; 14. (tie) Taylor Walker (Clarkston) 77; Alex Waelchli (Lake Orion) 77; Mike Panek (Novi Detroit Catholic Central) 77; Brendan Gres (Auburn Hills Oakland Christian) 77; Sean Hickey (Orchard Lake St. Mary’s) 77; 19. (tie) Nick Robeson (Clarkston) 78; Shane Kesthely (Farmington) 78; Alex Wiese (White Lake Lakeland) 78; Jake Sakkinen (Milford) 78; Charlie Green (Novi Detroit Catholic Central) 78; Tyler Coyne (Auburn Hills Oakland Christian) 78; Jeff Holmes (Troy) 78; Blake Hunter (Walled Lake Western) 78; Wayne Glessner (Walled Lake Western) 78.

TEAM RESULTS

BIRMINGHAM BROTHER RICE (303): Nick Dennis, 74; Lucas Belanger, 74; John Gordy, 75; Doug Cubbin, 80; Sean Friel, 82.

CLARKSTON (310): Jimmy Delnick, 75; Taylor Walker, 77; Nick Robeson, 78; 80. Andrew Lange, 80; Chad Wotton, 81.

MILFORD (310): Chris Cunningham, 72; Parker Millington, 76; Jake Sakkinen, 78; Zach Munce, 84; Brendan Pigott, 85.

NOVI DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL (314): Mike Panek, 77; Charlie Green, 78; Kory Kiefer, 79; Blake Tschirhart, 80; Conner Street, 81.

NOVI (318): Tyler Manning, 73; Sam Palmer, 81; Johnny Walker, 82; Brad Kozinski, 82; Jason Carless, 89.

BIRMINGHAM GROVES (319): Andrew Wegert, 79; Matt Smith, 79; Brian Turner, 80; Brian Hittson, 81; Graham Cemko, 82;

FARMINGTON (320): Gregg Bussell, 74; Shane Kesthely, 78; Steve Murphy, 84; Kevin Daihl, 84; Austin Le Gault, 85.

TROY (321): Jeff Holmes, 78; J.R. Graham, 79; James Heichel, 83; Anthony D’Amico, 81; Brett St. Cyr, 90.

WALLED LAKE NORTHERN (321): Joe Parker, 74; Andrew Schwartz, 79; Scott Trent, 84; Zach Roemer, 84; Mike Simmons, 88.

A.H. OAKLAND CHRISTIAN (322): Brandan Gres,77; Tyler Coyne, 78; Nick VanBiesbrouck, 81; Brandon Delekta, 86; Paul Klemme, 91.

PONTIAC NOTRE DAME PREP (322): Aaron Knutson, 74; Eric Beaudet, 82; Andrew Wallace, 83; John Bommarito, 83; DanVarsamik, 85.

NORTH FARMINGTON (323): Max Kollin, 73; Nick Williams, 83; Matt Doursen, 83; John Keller, 84; Jeremy Burstein, 87.

WHITE LAKE LAKELAND (324): Brad Ferguson, 76; Alex Wiese, 78; Brady Hess, 84;   Ty Bouwens, 86; Stefan Kegebein, 93.

B.H. CRANBROOK KINGSWOOD (325): Conner Dolven, 79; Michael Ray, 80; Griffin Smith, 82; Richie VanVoorhis, 84; Mike Pawelkowski, 85.

LAKE ORION (326): Corbin Rainey, 75; Alex Welchli, 77; Mason Gorris, 86; Tyler Draggoo, 88; Eric Wandschneider, 90.

ROCHESTER ADAMS (326): Matt Werner, 79; Nick Kurtenbach, 80; Marcus Robinson,  81; Ben Van Orman, 86; Julian Prosser, 88.

WALLED LAKE WESTERN (328): Blake Hunter, 78; Wayne Glessner, 78; Shelby Rothenberg, 83; Erik Morgan, 89; Andrew Garcia, 90.

SOUTH LYON (321): Derek Knauss, 82; Alex Whybra, 82; Sam Lebowski, 83; Cody Tubbs, 84; Lucas Copp, 85.

ORCHARD LAKE ST. MARY’S (331): Sean Hickey, 77; Josh Royal, 83; Kyle Rybicki, 84; Mike Haase, 87; Luke Ottinger, 91.

WALLED LAKE CENTRAL (336): David Arnold, 80; Shawn Catto, 81; Armili Van Czarnowski, 81; Mitch Klotz, 93; Drew Kocoves, 100.

WEST BLOOMFIELD (337): Austin Ruby, 82; Bruce Cousin, 84; Ari Siegel, 84; Steven Neville, 86; Steve Henderschot, 88.

ORTONVILLE BRANDON (337): Tyler Lewis, 82; Ben Stowers, 83; Thomas Soave, 84; Matt Clark, 88; Bruce Bayley, 95.

BLOOMFIELD HILS ANDOVER (339): Jacob Abraham, 83; Matt Fellows, 84; Adam Joseph, 85; Abrar Wazir, 87; Zafar Wazir, 91.

OXFORD (341): Nick Hocker, 83; Josh Hosking, 84; Doug Piesko, 87; Nolan Chapman, 87; Dean Couwler, 93.

WATERFORD KETTERING (349): Ryan Decovich, 81; Matt Brisson, 87; Alec Spurlock, 90; Robert Wood, 91; Zack Simmerman, 96.

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Tags: Prep Boys Golf, Preview for Oakland County Division I Boys Golf Tournament

Category: Auburn Hills Avondale, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, Clarkston, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Oxford, Prep Wraps, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Rochester Stoney Creek, Troy, Troy Athens