AUBURN HILLS – Playing at Fieldstone Golf Club for the second time in as many weeks, Rochester Adams looked more on Tuesday afternoon like the team that has thrived year after year in the postseason.
The No. 5 Highlanders were runners-up at the Oakland County D1 championship in Auburn Hills on Sept. 23, but paired against some of the same schools on the same course Tuesday, their play more closely resembled that of a team that’s capable of winning its sixth regional title this decade.
Adams shot a 343 at the county meet, but finished with a collective score of 311 in the most recent competition involving OAA Red and White Division programs.
“For sure,” Adams junior Saanvi Gupta responded when asked if the team had something to prove after its showing six days prior at Fieldstone. “We definitely wanted to just show that we’re here, we’re committed, and we’re here to win.”
Photo gallery of an OAA Red-White girls golf meet at Fieldstone Golf Club
Gupta finished with a 73, best on the Highlanders and 10 strokes better than her score from last week. “I think I was just out there having a fun time,” she said. “I was very comfortable with the people I was playing with, so it was honestly just a really good overall experience and I was locked in and in the moment … My drive was working really well today, and my irons were also pretty consistent, so it was pretty easy just keeping it on the green and stuff.”
There is a camaraderie — “it’s like we’re one big, happy family,” as Clarkston head coach Lezlie Hallman put it — despite the competition being fierce. The OAA Red currently has three teams in the top-10 D1 rankings (No. 4 Clarkston, Adams, No. 9 Lake Orion), with Stoney Creek, Troy and Seaholm (D2) all also receiving votes, also.
“They really want to beat each other, but after they want to hang out. We don’t say we hate Clarkston until we get home,” joked Adams head coach Jeff Kutschman, eliciting a laugh out of Hallman at the same time.
Seaholm sophomore Olivia Johnson follows a swing out of the grass Tuesday afternoon at Fieldstone Golf Club. Johnston carded an 85, helping the Maples end with the best team score of the OAA White schools present. (BRYAN EVERSON – MediaNews Group)
Gupta, who finished in second place behind individual winner Hannah Kim of Troy, wasn’t the only one rolling for Kutschman’s team Tuesday, which presented much more favorable conditions to the golfers than the week prior. Leah Blackmore and Alayna Scanlon each recorded scores of 78, tying for third. Adams freshman Sophia Yakob was also amongst the top-10 golfers, posting an 82.
Adams graduated Hannah Wang, who shot an 80 to help the program finish fourth at last year’s D1 state finals, but the other four (Gupta, Blackmore, Scanlon and Saisha Dhawan, who shot an 87 Tuesday) from that team are all back as juniors, giving Kutschman a pretty good feeling this would be yet another formidable bunch.
“Yeah, experience counts a lot,” Kutschman said. “With five juniors returning, and we added another junior this year, plus our seniors have done a good job on and off the course, all the girls are really committed this season to bettering their game and trying to find a way to the next time out of how they can improve by one stroke or hit one more green, things like that. I think one of the biggest leaps a lot of them have taken is on the mental side, how to attack the game. Not that they made bad choices before, but how to make good choices, and if something goes wrong, how to forget about it and go play the next shot.”
After beating the Highlanders by two strokes for the county title, Clarkston shot a collective 332 to take second by a good margin. Wolves seniors Ava Ebling and Lily Fishtahler tied for fifth place with an 81, and after Stoney Creek’s Megan Sypniewski and Yakob (T-7th) and Oxford junior Avery Yankee (83), Clarkston had a third golfer in the top-10 in sophomore Reese Hukka, who carded an 84.
“They had a phenomenal day, Adams,” Hallman said. “My girls, low-80s, but we couldn’t keep up with them. It is what it is. You always wish you could win them all, but share the wealth (laughs).”
Seaholm was the best of the OAA White teams there and came in third with a team score of 358. Lake Orion (363) ended in fourth, while Troy and Stoney tied for fifth place (366). They were followed by Oxford (375), Rochester (381), Troy Athens (418), Birmingham Groves (421), and Bloomfield Hills (463).
The Maples were paced by sophomore Olivia Johnston’s 85 (11th place). She was just a stroke better than teammate and junior Olivia Orcutt, whose 86 tied for 12th place with Athens senior Aanya Bansal, Lake Orion senior Olivia Connor and Clarkston senior Grace Johnston.
Other team leaders included Isha Chauhan of Rochester (87), Kara Clinkscale and Jillian Lustig of Groves (103), and Zoe Stassinopoulos of Bloomfield Hills (104).
The majority of teams present Tuesday will reconvene on Oct. 7 at the regional to be held at Greystone Golf Club in Washington.
Adams (2022-23) has been the only team able to stand in the way of Northville winning the D1 state championship going back to 2018.
“You’ve got Northville and Okemos and Brighton and Clarkston, just a bunch of schools up at the top there that are all contenders this year,” Kutschman said. “There’s a lot of us that can come out on top every single day.”