With its spring season entering crunch time, Saint Mary’s golf came to play in last week’s competitions. The Belles took first place in both the Albion Cascades Invitational on Wednesday and the fourth MIAA Jamboree on Thursday.
Wednesday’s event, a head-to-head competition with Albion, took place at Cascades Golf Course at Jackson, Michigan. The Belles posted a team score of 322, besting their lone opponent by 14 strokes.
Atop the leaderboard, sophomore Julia Lizak and senior Haley Angel proliferated their strong spring seasons. Lizak captured an individual first place with a round of 76, finishing one shot ahead of Angel’s second-place score of 77. Rounding out the Saint Mary’s scoring, junior Georgie Kersman tied for sixth with an 84, junior Joanna James earned eighth with an 85 and sophomore Breana Harrington took 11th with an 87.
A day later, the fourth and final MIAA Jamboree proved worth the wait for Saint Mary’s. The event had been previously rained out on both October 5 and April 11, but it finally played out in full on Thursday.
To win the jamboree, the Belles cleared Hope by 12 shots, posting a 32-over par team score of 320. Nine total teams competed in the event, which ended in the Belles’ third jamboree win of the season out of four such events.
Three different golfers finished in a tie for round medalist — Angel, freshman Colleen Hand and Morgan Yates from Alma. Each finished with a score of 78, pacing the extensive field of MIAA competitors.
Behind them, Lizak again finished well with a score of 80 that tied her for fifth place. Junior Katelyn Tokarz tied for 13th place with a round of 83, while sophomore Amanda Melling rounded out the Saint Mary’s golfers with an 84.
With the 36-hole MIAA Spring Finale up next Monday and Tuesday, the Belles have an inside track to the MIAA’s automatic bid for the national championships. The bid will go to the conference team with the lowest cumulative stroke total from the four jamborees along with the finale — remember that Saint Mary’s won three of the four jamborees.
The MIAA Spring Finale, hosted by Kalamazoo at Gull Lake View West Course, will tee off at 1 p.m. on Monday for round one and at 10 a.m. on Tuesday for the second round.
