Glads rule home course

By ZACH KUKKONEN, DMG Sports Writer
ONTONAGON — Home was where the wins were for the Ontonagon golf teams Monday, as both the boys and girls took home victories at the Ontonagon Invitational. The girls — aided by a lack of team score from a tough Jeffers team — smoked the competition, winning by 35 strokes while the boys eked out a victory over Chassell.

The Gladiator girls were impressively consistent, as their lowest score was better than any of the players on four of the teams competing. Halley Borseth medaled, shooting a 44 and tying her career high. She also passed Kalyn Isaacson for the best average among conference players that have participated in every meet. But Borseth was quick to defer the praise to her team of Anye Bonzell, Kirsty Maloney, Meredith Cleary and Lauren Siren, who all had 49s or 50s.

“They’re amazing,” Borseth said.

Ontonagon coach Jim Bobula was happy for his team, which extended its lead in the conference to five over second-place Ewen-Trout Creek and nine over Jeffers. Still, Bobula knows the competition will only get tougher from here on out.

“The girls are doing very well and scoring really well,” Bobula said, “but we have the other teams in the conference that are also shooting really well. That pushes everybody in the conference to do better.”

If the Jets had brought their entire team, however, things may have turned out differently. Jeffers’ team of Kayla Semmens (45), Amber Outinen (48) and Chelsie Stevens (48) averaged a lower score than Ontonagon, but did not have a fourth player to notch a team score. Coach Darren Niemi remains happy with his team, however.

“The girls have been playing great, a big improvement from the first meet,” Niemi said. “Not having a team score hurts, but I guess now we got past that ... we look at winning our meet and the U.P. (finals) next Friday.”

Baraga’s Ashtin Koski (46) and Isaacson (48) put up nice scores. Dollar Bay’s Kate Zerbst had the other sub-50 round with a 49.

The boys’ competition came down to the bitter end, but the Gladiators pulled out a five-stroke victory over the Panthers of Chassell. Cameron Menigoz led the team with a medal performance of 75, which ended up being the difference maker.

“I’m extremely happy for Cameron,” Bobula said. “He shoots well, and today was his day.”

Matt Strong (82), Melvin Majurin (84) and Nick Soumis (85) rounded out the scoring for Ontonagon, who overtook Baraga for the conference lead with the win.

Jesse Larson attempted to get Chassell the win with a 78, but the Panthers fell just short despite also getting an 80 from Joel Kangas. The Panthers showed vast improvement in the meet, as they were in fourth in the Copper Country Conference heading into the meet and had to work out some kinks in their swings earlier in the week.

“Some of the kids were having problems hitting the ball straight, to be honest,” Chassell coach Gregg Bjorn said. “Through their effort on the practice range they worked out some things.”

Baraga was not far behind on the backs of strong performances from Paul Tahtinen, who shot a par on the back nine for a 77, and Joe Mattfolk’s 78. Tahtinen maintained his No. 1 spot on top of the conference standings among players having competed in every meet, as he is averaging a 77.2 in four meets. Ewen-Trout Creek’s Colin Ahlskog solidified his grip on second place by matching Tahtinen with a 77 despite a tough putting surface.

“The course was good today, but the greens were kind of fast, it seemed,” Ahlskog said.

Bessemer’s Andrew Drier actually had the low round of the day with a 72, but did not get the medal due to the Speedboys not being a CCC member and participating in a CCC meet.



Zach Kukkonen can be reached at zkukkonen@mininggazette.com



Girls

ONTONAGON (191) — Halley Borseth 44, Anye Bonzell 49, Kirsty Maloney 49, Meredith Cleary 49. EWEN-TROUT CREEK (226) — Jackie Miskovich 55, Kourtney Luokka 56, Megan Olson 56, Kelsey Byrne 59. WATERSMEET (277) — Jordan McGeshick 56, Marissa Burke 56, Courtney Hoffman 79. LAKE LINDEN-HUBBELL (285) — Abbie Beauchamp 62, Ellen Englund 68, Sara Thomas 76, Elissa Harju 79. BESSEMER (305) — Brianna Mykkanen 72, Chanel Revoyr 73, Amanda Balduc 80, Taylor Pellisarro 80. JEFFERS (NTS) — Kayla Semmens 45, Amber Outinen 48, Chelsie Stevens 48. BARAGA (NTS) — Ashtin Koski 46, Kalyn Isaacson 48, Megan LaPlante 65. DOLLAR BAY (NTS) — Kate Zerbst 49, Dawn Engman 93, Steph LeClaire 99.



Boys

ONTONAGON (326) — Cameron Menigoz 75, Matt Strong 82, Melvin Majurin 84, Nick Soumis 85. CHASSELL (331) — Jesse Larson 78, Joel Kangas 80, Joe Larson 84, Troy Rynnanen 89. BARAGA (335) — Paul Tahtinen 77, Joe Mattfolk 78, Jordan Koskinen 90, Alan Takalo 90. EWEN-TROUT CREEK (344) — Colin Ahlskog 77, Jeff Lindberg 82, Matt Polkky 90, Shane Johnson 95. JEFFERS (368) — David Wesa 87, Kyle Smith 89, Steven Dorsey 94, Scott Wesa 98. WATERSMEET (398) — Jordan Peterson 88, Justin Hartzog 95, Ryan McNamara 98, David Baldwin 121. BESSEMER (401) — Andrew Drier 72, Tony Giackino 85, Pat Kapugia 120, William Westeen 124. DOLLAR BAY (410) — Mike Stevens 85, Josh Gerbig 95, Jim Makinen 102, Miiko Karstu 128. LAKE LINDEN-HUBBELL (416) — Allen Klutts 83, Ross DuMonthier 98, Mike Goldsworthy 112, Dan Goldsworthy 123.