Marquette's Tyler Bergwall scopes out a putt on a green at Terrace Bluff Golf and Country Club in Gladstone during a Great Northern Conference high school golf meet held Friday, May 3, 2019. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Justin St. Ours)

By JUSTIN

ST. OURS

Escanaba

Daily Press

GLADSTONE — Two girls reprised their top-three finish from the opener in the second Great Northern Conference match at the Terrace Bluff Golf and Country Club here Friday.

Escanaba’s Paxton Johnson took the girls’ medalist spot by shooting a 43. Menominee took the second and third spots as Emma Hofer finished second at 45, and Josie Hofer, who tied for second Thursday at Escanaba, took third at 47.

Matt Solda of Kingsford earned the boys’ medalist spot with a 38. Nathan Rousseau of Escanaba and Joe Luke of Marquette tied for second at 39.

Despite her success, Johnson felt her game was off.

“I wasn’t swinging very well today,” she said. “I was inconsistent, and that’s something I’ll need to work on. I was just trying to make the best of every shot, even if I wasn’t in the best position. I think I was just having an off day.”

The Escanaba boys took the top spot at 163, and Marquette finished second at 170 to reverse their positions from Thursday.

“From the boys’ standpoint, this was huge for us,” Esky coach Brian Robinette said. “Going to Marquette (this) Monday and having lost to Marquette on our main course, we had to get them here…. If Marquette played better, they played better, but we couldn’t just lay an egg. And we didn’t. We played solid all around.”

Robinette also identified a few things they could work on.

“I like that low 160s (team) round a lot. Keeping it in the low 40s is great, but what we’re seeing now with some of these scores, is that they can be cleaned up a little bit,” he said. “We got some double bogeys, so there’s some things we can still clean up. I love where we’re at though.”

Kingsford took third at 185, followed by Menominee (204) and Gladstone (205).

For the girls, Menominee repeated its first place finish at 190, and Escanaba came in second at 201.

“Coming into Gladstone, this hasn’t typically been our top venue. Some of my top players seemed to have a few troubles in the past. However, I’m looking at the full body of work today, and the girls posted a number that I wasn’t sure they were capable of posting,” Robinette said. “Granted, Menominee still beat us by 11, but Menominee probably played their best round collectively since they’ve been a team in the last five years. Any time you’re around that 200 mark for girls, that’s a strong a mark to set. If someone beats that, then they beat you, you didn’t beat yourself.”

Robinette also highlighted the improvement of the individual players.

“(Angie) Wilson shot her best competitive round, both (Macie) Carlson and (Macy) Leisenring, that’s a real deal score we got out of them,” he said. “They know they were kind of under the gun because Menominee’s playing so well, and they responded awesomely.”

Marquette was third at 251, while Gladstone and Kingsford didn’t receive a team score due to a lack of players.

The GNC teams meet again Monday in Marquette.