Photos courtesy of Polly Schlaff
Forest Akers West is a tough golf course and the MHSAA state finals can be a challenging test for a high school golfer.
All things considered, Manistee’s boys golf team feels pretty good about its performance on day one of the Division 3 state championships Friday.
After the first of two 18-hole rounds on the more difficult of Michigan State University’s adjacent golf courses, the Chippewas sit in second place after firing a team score of 327.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central leads the pack of 18 teams at the Division 3 finals with 306. Saginaw Swan Valley is third (329), followed by Lansing Catholic fourth (333) and Jackson Lumen Christi and Tawas tied for fifth (both with 334).
Junior Jacob Scharp was the top Manistee scorer Friday with a 4-over 76. GRCC’s Matthew Sokorai sits atop the leaderboard at 1-under 71.
Manistee is the lone West Michigan Conference team represented at any of the boys golf state finals tournaments.
“Yeah, there are 16 other teams that struggled out there and some of our boys struggled on some of the holes, but overall it was a good effort,” Manistee coach Mike Swanson said about Friday’s first round at Forest Akers West.
“Jacob was hoping to knock a couple strokes off that (score). I think everybody right now is thinking, ‘Oh, boy, I left a few out there,’ and if we can clean those up, we’ll see what happens.”
Manistee senior Jordan Bladzik shot 83 Friday, while junior Braydon Sorenson and freshman Max Scharp both carded 84s. Senior Ben Schlaff shot 98 for the Chippewas.
GRCC, which captured the Division 3 state title two years ago, saw all five of its golfers shot 85 and its top four were 82 or better. Cougars junior Will Preston shot even-par 72.
“They’re very good and they’re tough to beat. We can’t expect them to come back to us – it’s almost what it would take for us to catch them. What we’ll do is go out and play, try to do our part and see where the scores end up,” said Swanson, whose team will wrap up the Division 3 state finals with 18 more holes on Saturday.
“We’ll come out tomorrow, try to do everything right – put them in a position to be successful.”
