BOYS GOLF: Oakland Christian wins fourth straight regional crown
Lutheran Northwest, Everest’s Smith also make the cut
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
OAKLAND TWP. — By his estimates, Randy Johnson feels that Auburn Hills Oakland Christian took its mulligan Thursday on the golf course.
The Lancers “didn’t have their best round of golf,” according to the veteran boys golf coach. It was still enough to win a regional championship by a sizeable margin.
Oakland Christian, the defending Division 4 boys golf state champions and the fourth-ranked team in the state, cruised to its fourth straight regional crown on the links of Westwynd Golf Course with a play-five, count-four team score of 327.
Ann Arbor Greenhills and host Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest both shot 359 to tie for second place and grab the other two qualifying spots for the Lower Peninsula Division 4 state finals June 15-16 at Forest Akers West Golf Course in East Lansing.
Grosse Pointe Woods-University-Liggett (360), Clarkston Everest Collegiate-Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes Unified (361) and Southfield Christian (362) all barely missed the cut. Plymouth Christian (370), Sterling Heights Parkway Christian (378), Addison (380), Allen Park Inter-City Baptist (385), Sand Creek (387) and Jackson Christian (457) rounded out the 12-team field.
“We didn’t play the way we have been playing, but the scores were still good enough,” said Johnson, who believes his team will be in the running for the state title once again this weekend. “This was not an easy course at all and most of the team struggled here.
SAILING AWAY: Auburn Hills Oakland Christian's Tyler Coyne and the Lancers defended their Division 4 regional title Thursday at Westwynd Golf Course. File Photo.
“It was a very difficult regional for Division 4 because there were five ranked teams here,” added Johnson. “I think with us winning by 32 strokes over a group of teams where there were that many state-ranked teams shows that we are one of the best in Division 4. I know there are a couple of really good scores out there, but we’ll try to go out there and defend our title next weekend.”
Oakland Christian still had three of the top 10 medalists and had all five golfers finish in the top 15 at the end of the day. The 327 team score was still the third-best regional score in D-4 statewide.
Zach Preuss was fourth with a 79 and John VanNoord (81) and Brandon Deletka (81) were tied for seventh at 81 to lead Oakland Christian. Tyler Coyne grabbed 11th with an 86, as all scores were extremely high on the day, and Spencer Haupert finished 14th (87) even though his score didn’t count towards the team total.
“The course was very unforgiving,” admitted Johnson. “The pin placements were difficult and there are several holes that are very difficult in general. I think everyone struggled some. We were fortunate enough to have played this course in the past. It’s not too far from the school.
“Tyler Coyne reminded me that we have done really well at the regional the past couple of years. I’ll trust him,” laughed Johnson, whose team is going after its fourth straight top-10 state finals finish. “I knew that even if we didn’t play our best, that we should still win the regional or at least qualify based on that we have beaten many of these teams by large margins this season. It’s only about advancing to the state tournament. You can’t win it if you’re not there.”
In the medalist standings, Travis Hindle of Greenhills, David Smith of Everest Collegiate and Wyatt Spalding of Petersburg-Summerfield all fired a four-over round of 76 to claim medalist honors.
Liggett’s Stephen Compeau tied for fourth (79), Parkway Christian’s Jared Line was sixth (80) and both Novi Franklin Road Christian’s Josh Ward (85) and Southfield Christian’s Frank Holecek (85) tied for ninth to wrap up the individual standings.
Smith, Spalding and Compeau all qualified for the state finals as individuals, as the top three finishers not on qualifying teams also advance to the state finals form each region.
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