NorthWood Golf: The Belle Of The Links
NAPPANEE — Summer Stillson is ringing in the spring season by becoming a Belle. The NorthWood senior signed on with St. Mary’s College Wednesday afternoon to continue her decorated college career.
“I’ve grown up going to Notre Dame games and being in South Bend in general,” Stillson explained. “I fell in love with that campus first. More recently I’ve become familiar with St. Mary’s. My mom actually went there. I love the aspect of having the best of both worlds.
“St. Mary’s gives me that small campus to go study at and to have that nice, secluded feeling. It’s a great school. Then, to have Notre Dame across the street, it’s a place I’ve grown up loving and I have that campus at my fingertips as well. I can take classes there, go to the football and basketball games that I already love going to. I just really love having the best of both worlds.”
While Stillson will be getting the best of both worlds as a “SMC chick”, St. Mary’s will be getting one of the area’s best golfers.
During her senior season Stillson had a nine-hole average of 39.9 and an 18-hole average of 79.3. She won the Lake Central Invitational title and was the Northern Lakes Conference champion as well. Stillson also earned medalist honors in eight dual matches this past fall. Stillson was named the IHSGCA Mitchel Winger Courage Award recipient in addition to All-State and Academic All-State honors.
She will leave NorthWood with her name inked all over the Panthers record book. In addition to matching six program records, Stillson holds the school record for putting average in nine-hole matches (13.8), eagles in a career (four), and All-NLC first team medals (four).
Stillson will forever be known for her golf prowess, but she still has one season left on the softball field for NorthWood and she has been enjoying every minute of it so far.
“It’s all about the fun this year,” said Stillson. “I grew up playing with the girls that graduated last year, so this is an entirely new team to me. We have four freshman starting for us and to have their energy has really been awesome, it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve only played two games so far but they’ve both been fun and I’m really excited to see what we can do in the conference this year.”
Stillson said she is looking into St. Mary’s student design major in hopes of getting into either a sports broadcasting of sports analytics field.