Brighton girls' golf 3-peats in prestigious season-opening tournament
The first championship won by a Livingston County team in the 2023-24 school year belongs to Brighton girls’ golf.
Again.
The Bulldogs three-peated in the Lober Classic, a season-opening 33-team tournament at Crystal Mountain Resort that features many of the top teams in Michigan.
It was by far the most dominant of Brighton's three consecutive championships. The Bulldogs shot a two-round total of 629, a whopping 43 shots lower than last year's winning score.
Brighton won by 29 strokes over Grand Rapids Catholic Central, the fifth-place team in the state Division 3 tournament last season. The top five teams are coming off top-five finishes in 2022 state tournaments.
The Bulldogs won by nine shots over Troy Athens in 2021 and by four shots over Rockford in 2022.
It's the first step in what Brighton hopes will be the program's first state championship. The Bulldogs return four of the five golfers who were on a Division 1 runner-up team last fall.
Brighton followed a first-round score of 318 with a 311 in the final round, the Bulldogs' lowest score in the Lober Classic.
The Bulldogs placed six golfers in the top 30 from a field of 185 players who competed in both rounds.
Seniors Maddy Martens and Abbie Pietila tied for fifth with scores of 154 on the Betsie Valley Course. Martens shot 79 and 75, while Pietila shot 73 and 81.
Senior Lauren Forcier shot 156 to tie for eighth, following an opening 82 with a 74 that was the second-lowest score of the day. Martens, Pietila and Forcier were also in the top 10 in the Lober Classic last season.
Junior Anelise Gatti tied for 15th by shooting 84-81—165, junior Sydney Rauh tied for 22nd by shooting 84-84—168 and sophomore Elle Krill tied for 30th by shooting 86-89—175.
Rockford senior Jessica Jolly was the medalist, shooting 6-under-par 138. Jolly, who tied for third in the Division 1 finals last season, shot 66 in the first round and 72 in the second.
Highest Honors
Hartland finished 16th with a 421 and Howell was 20th with a 441 at Huron Meadows Metropark.
Hartland senior Brooklyn Daniels tied for 25th out of 98 golfers with an 87. Howell sophomore Brooke Keller tied for 34th with a 90.
Tennis
Fowlerville 7, Ionia 0
Singles: Mason Munsel (F) d. Cole Petersen 6-3, 6-2; Cole Sova (F) d. Owen Shippey 6-1, 6-2; Ryder Lukasik (F) d. Christian Miller 6-1, 6-2; Ethan Way (F) d. Harper Duell 6-1, 6-2.
Doubles: Oliver Farmer-Ben Durbin (F) d. Jude Gregory-Ryan Lee 6-3, 6-2; Grant Wilkinson-Lon Pringle (F) d. Riley Yokum-Palmer Jaxon 6-2, 6-1; Drake Cook-Matt Jeffrey (F) d. Riley McClintock-Mason Clark 6-0, 6-0.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton girls' golf 3-peats in prestigious Lober Classic
