MHSAA 2024 Golf Championships

Award Winners

Boys Low Individual

1. Ryder St. Laurent – Gabrielle Roy  72*
2. Payne Wood – St. Paul’s  72
3. Ty Brewster – Steinbach Regional  74

Girls Low Individual

1. Jewel Lafleche – Jeanne Sauve  87
2. Erin Nowicki – Jeanne Sauve 88
3. Madison Karpowicz – St. Mary’s Academy 94

Team Results:

Girls:
1. Collège Jeanne-Sauvé – 304
2. St. Mary’s Academy – 305
3. Portage Collegiate – 329
4. Morden – 339
5. Hamiota – 356
6. Stonewall – 356
7. Miles Macdonell – 364
8. Dauphin – 411
9. Virden – 462

Boys:
1. Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School – 233
2. St. Paul’s – 237*
3. Steinbach Regional – 237
4. JH Bruns – 246
5. Roseau Valley (Dominion City) – 248
6. River East – 250
7. Vincent Massey (Bdn) – 263
8. Pilot Mound – 264
9. Stonewall – 264
10. Birtle – 269
11. Virden – 270
12. Morden – 273
13. Neepawa – 305
14. R.D. Parker (Thompson) – 323

*Winner based on tie breaker

CJS girls’ win provincial golf tourney

By: Simon Fuller

The Collège Jeanne-Sauvé girls’ golf team has a collective swing in its step.

The St. Vital-based team recently took first place at the provincial high school golf championships on Sept. 20 at Minnewasta Golf & Country Club in Morden, Man.

CJS finished the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association tournament on 304 strokes, pipping St. Mary’s Academy in second (305), and Portage Collegiate in third (329).

Coach Dominic Courcelles said the win means the girls’ team — which consists of Jewel Lafleche, Dayna Marriott, Erin Nowicki, and Celeste Pelletier — has registered back-to-back victories in the event.

The win was also impressive due to that fact only three of the four players were available to compete at the tournament; Marriott had work commitments.

“It feels pretty great,” Courcelles said. “As we only had three of the four girls, we had to count all of the scores, and we knew every score counted.”

In MHSAA tournament plays, only the best three scores count toward a school’s official total.

“It was great to be able to shoot such a low score in what were pretty tough conditions,” Courcelles said.

“There was lots of wind, and the ground was saturated, so we weren’t getting lots of roll. We’re all pretty proud of our performance.”

“I just think our girls are super-great athletes … whatever the sport they’re playing. They’re very athletic, and also very strong academically. Each of them is easy to coach,” he added.

When asked about their achievement, the golfers were modest, but were happy about their success on the greens, a sentiment echoed by Lafleche.

“It’s a good accomplishment,” said the 14-year-old, who’s in Grade 10.

A consensus among team members was that a significant feature of tournament play is that “you can’t see how everyone else is playing, so you’re focused on your own play.”

Asked what advice she might have for upcoming golfers or youngsters considering trying the sport, Marriott — a 17-year-old Grade 12 student — said it’s important to keep at it, move forward and don’t look in the rear view mirror.

“If you have a bad shot, don’t dwell on it. Put it out of your mind, and move forward,” she said.

“We’re very proud to win back-to-back provincial championships, and we’re excited to defend it again next year,” Courcelles said.

“We’re losing Dayna to graduation, but hopefully we can find a new fourth player and go from there.”