Page 10 — Thursday, June 3, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Vikings win program’s first regional championship
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Southwest Michigan’s Division 3 varsity
boys’ golf teams were no match for the
Lakewood Vikings.
Lakewood had two regional medalists,
including the regional champion, and cap-
tured the program’s first regional champion-
ship by winning the Division 3 Regional
Tournament at HawksHead links in South
Haven Wednesday (June 2).
It was a good day from the start as
Lakewood sophomore Drew Marquoit, play-
ing in the number five spot for the Vikings,
birdied number 17, his first hole – a 517-yard
par-5. Marquoit finished the day with an 83,
tied for fourth place.
“This is the group where we had the full
compliment to our number one, which basi-
cally is our depth,” Lakewood head coach
Carl Kutch said. “These kids are all real good
friends, and yet they are just as competitive as
they are a good group of friends, so they feed
off of each other. That is the biggest thing, not
having to worry about where you’re going to
get that fourth score. You hear coaches say
that all the time.”
Lakewood junior Trevor Simon, the team’s
number one, won the individual regional
championship shooting a 75. He was five
strokes ahead of the runner-up, Buchanan’s
Ethan Valentine who shot an 80. The
Lakewood team shot a 331 and was 36 strokes
ahead of second-place Schoolcraft (367) and
41 ahead of third-place Parchment (372).
The Vikings certainly expected to be in the
running for a state qualifying spot Wednesday,
and to have a shot at a regional title, but did
not expect to be that far ahead of the field on
a tough, unfamiliar course. Coach Kutch said
he thought his guys were even better at the
regional than they were in winning the Greater
Lansing Activities Conference Championship
at Forest Akers East last week despite a high-
er score.
Simon was great on the tee nearly all day
long, at least once the competition started. He
hit his drive about 340 yards on the par-5,
number 14 and then fired a five-iron from
nearly 200 yards out to within a foot of the
cup. He tapped in the putt for eagle and then
parred the next three holes.
“I just found the grooves on my driver and
it just really opened the rest of the course up
for me,” Simon said.
He struggled on the range the morning
before the regional and tweaked his grip,
loosening it up a bit.
“I was getting too strong, so I moved it over
a little bit,” Simon said.
He said he tries not to fiddle with his swing
and grip too much, but he decided he had to
do something with how things were going on
the range. Simon did his best to avoid looking
at the scores on the front nine, but with about
eight holes to go he knew the team was in
goodshape and checked in on the phone app that
the players use to keep score to see where he
stood individually.
Seeing his name at the top of the leader-
board gave him a boost of confidence that he
said helped in going after the eagle on 14.
Simon knew he could have been even bet-
ter though. He missed birdie putts he would
have liked to have had on 16 and 17 and then
had a rough seven on the par-4 18th to close
out his round.
“We all really enjoy playing golf,” Simon
said. “We play a lot after practice and stuff.
We’ll go out a couple hours after practice
some nights and just play or practice.”
Junior Liam Cavanaugh shot an 86 for the
Vikings and senior Jakeb Jackson scored an- Owen Richmond was right behind with an
Kutch said he thought the start that
Marquoit had was pretty significant in him
being one of the five regional medalists.
“When you go one-under and have another
birdie putt on 18, and you’re one over through
seven holes. Right there, I thought ‘wow,’ that
was big for our team score and obviously for
Drew,” Kutch said. “And he held on. As a
first-year varsity player, to complete the round
of 18, and to hang on and finish in the top five
is impressive.”
Hillsdale was fourth in the day’s team
standings with a score of 374, ahead of
Hopkins 380, Watervliet 390, Coloma 396,
Quincy 397, Olivet 399, Dowagiac 417, South
Haven 417, Buchanan 434, Constantine 437,
Delton Kellogg/Martin 441 and Niles
Brandywine 546.
The DK/Martin team was led by a 94 from
Javier Guevara. Karter Ribble shot a 106,
Zachary Hale a 110 and Alyssa Smith a 131.
Guevara picked up his game late in the
season according to coach Jim Hogoboom.
“He said he felt better over the ball today,”
Hogoboom said. “He has had almost a month-
long struggle with his string.”
“It has been a year of growth, and it is good
to have 15 kids, and they’re all back except
for three or four of the senior girls,” the DK
coach added.
The top three teams and top three players
not on those teams at the regional earned
spots in the Division 3 Lower Peninsula State
Finals which will be held on the campus of
Grand Valley State University June 11-12.
Valentine earned a spot in the finals individu-
ally, as did and Hillsdale’s Corbyn Beach and
Buchanan’s John Gartland who survived a
three-player, tiebreaker for the final two state
qualifying spots – beating out South Haven’s
Parker Williamson in a playoff.Area Locations to purchase the Hastings Banner!
Hastings:
One Stop Shop (Marathon)
(M-43 North)
Superette
Family Fare
Tom's Market
Hastings Johnny's
The General Store
Marathon
Mega Bev
Hastings Pharmacy
Marathon Gas Station
(M-37 West)
Marathon Gas Station
(M-37 South)
Family Fare Gas Station
WalgreensMiddleville:
Speedway
Harding's
Greg’s Get-It-N-Go
Middleville Johnny'sGun Lake:
Sam’s Gourmet FoodsOrangeville:
Orangeville Fast StopPine Lake:
Doster Country StorePrairieville:
Prairieville Fast StopCloverdale:
Cloverdale General
Brown’s Cedar Creek GroceryShelbyville:
Town & CountryDelton:
Family Fare
Delton Johnny'sBanfield:
Banfield General StoreDowling:
GoldsworthysWoodland:
Woodland ExpressNashville:
Trading Post
Little’s Country Store
Nashville Johnny's
MV Pharmacy
Nashville C Store
Carl’sLake Odessa:
Lake-O-Express
Lake-O-Mart
Lake Odessa Johnny's
Carl’sFreeport:
L & J’sCity of Hastings
Request for Bids
City Hall Custodial Services
The City of Hastings is accepting sealed bid pro-
posals for custodial services for Hastings City Hall.
Sealed bids will be received at the Office of the
City Clerk/Treasurer, 201 East State Street, Hast-
ings, Michigan until 9:00 AM on Friday, June
25, 2021 at which time they will be opened and
publicly read aloud.
The City reserves the right to reject any and all bids
and to award the bid in a manner which it believes
to be in its own best interest, price and other fac-
tors considered.
Bid specifications are available at the office of the
City Clerk. Perspective bidders will be required to
provide satisfactory evidence of successful com-
pletion of work similar to that contained within the
bid package to be considered eligible to perform
this work. All bids must be clearly marked on the
outside of the submittal package “Sealed Bid –
City Hall Custodial Services”.
Travis Tate
Director of Public Services161824
City of HastingsRequest For Bids
City Property Grounds
Maintenance
The City of Hastings is accepting sealed bid pro-
posals for grounds maintenance services for city
property. Sealed bids will be received at the Office
of the City Clerk/Treasurer, 201 East State Street,
Hastings, Michigan until 9:00 AM on Friday,
June 25, 2021 at which time they will be opened
and publicly read aloud.
The City reserves the right to reject any and all bids
and to award the bid in a manner which it believes
to be in its own best interest, price and other fac-
tors considered.
Bid specifications are available at the office of the
City Clerk. Perspective bidders will be required to
provide satisfactory evidence of successful com-
pletion of work similar to that contained within the
bid package to be considered eligible to perform
this work. All bids must be clearly marked on the
outside of the submittal package “Sealed Bid –
City Property Grounds Maintenance”.
Travis Tate
Director of Public Services161825Health board approves
$90,000 for restaurants
Taylor Owens
Staff Writer
The Barry-Eaton District Board of Health
will reimburse $90,000 in licensing fees for
Barry County businesses due to the COVID-
19 pandemic and state shutdown orders.
During a virtual meeting last Thursday, the
board voted unanimously to accept the fund-
ing from the Barry County Board of
Commissioners and redistribute it to Barry
County restaurants that had paid their fees.
“My board still felt they wanted to do
something for businesses in Barry County,”
Barry County Commissioner and Board of
Health Chairman Ben Geiger said to his fel-
low members. “We, as a county board, would
be very, very happy and appreciative if the
health department would send out checks to
Barry County businesses, it wouldn’t cost the
health department anything.”
“You’re asking the health department to be
a passthrough, but I’m wondering why you
picked winners,” Eaton County Commissioner
Joe Brehler said. “What about the other orga-
nizations that are also inspected by the health
department? We just tell them ‘Sorry?’ ”
He pointed to child and elder care facilities
and tattoo parlors.
Barry County Commissioner Jon Smelker
said the action taken by his board, and on the
board of health’s agenda, was only for the
restaurants.
The Barry County commissioners have a
list of restaurants, and the total of their fees
for the year, which came to $89,509.
The money for the reimbursements will
come from the county’s 100-percent tax pay-
ment fund.
Originally, Smelker had proposed provid-
ing the funds for local restaurants from the
American Rescue Plan Act, which is the
COVID-19 economic stimulus package that
governmental units across the country are
expecting to receive this year. But several
members of the public urged the county totake action now, and not wait until the ARP
funds are distributed.
In other business:
Smelker asked Health Officer Colette
Scrimger if COVID-19 work had pulled the
environmental health staff away from their
duties. He said he has heard complaints from
many contractors who have been waiting on
permits from the health department to start
work.
“This is prime building time, and my phone
is ringing quite regular from builders,”
Smelker said.
Scrimger said environmental health staff
have worked on some COVID-19 issues, but
that has mostly taken place during overtime
hours.
The real challenge is staffing, she said. A
supervisor and two employee positions in the
environmental health division have been
vacant since the start of the year, and another
employee has been out on medical leave.
“That has been a bigger contributor to the
log jam to the permit process,” Scrimger said.
Some staff have been coming over to help
from Eaton County to help out a couple of
days a week, but she has had difficult finding
employees. Scrimger reached out to other
health departments for help, but found they
had the same issues. She also said it is a par-
ticularly difficult position to find help for,
since the building codes are specific to Barry
County.
“We have not identified a solution at this
time,” Scrimger said.
Smelker asked the Eaton County
Commissioners if they are experiencing the
same issues in their area.
“Yes, we’re having the same problem,”
Eaton County Commissioner Jeremy Whittum
said.
“Sorry, Jeremy, but I’m glad to hear it,”
Smelker replied.
He asked Scrimger to continue looking at
other options, such as contract work.The Lakewood varsity boys’ golf team celebrates its first regional championship after winning the Division 3 Regional Tournament
hosted by South Haven Wednesday, June 2, at HawksHead Links. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Delton Kellogg’s Javier Guevera hits
his tee shot on number ten at HawksHead
Links during the Division 3 Regional
Tournament hosted by South Haven June- (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Lakewood junior Trevor Simon chips
his ball up onto the green on number 17
at HawksHead Links in South Haven
during the Division 3 Regional Tournament.
Simon was the day’s medalist, shooting a
75 and leading the Vikings to the team
regional title as well. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)