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DOWAGIAC — For the eighth consecutive year, the Dowagiac girls golf team has earned Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association Academic All-State honors.

The Chieftains were Division 4 Academic All-State two year after being Division 3 the previous five years. Dowagiac returned to Division 3 this season.

Dowagiac posted a team GPA of 3.650. The five players who competed at the regional are used to make up the team GPA. This year for the Chieftains, Rebecca Guernsey, Carlee Spagnoli, Bree Behnke, Jaden Kusch and Madison Winchester made up the team.

“Academic All State is always a big team goal,” said Dowagiac Coach Bob Turner. “It makes it easy with the great groups of players and supportive families that we have had for the last several years. We like to tell them they are student-athletes and student comes first.

It’s a really nice part of the success that we have enjoyed. We have had some pretty good golfers and most of them are better students than golfers —but only because they have been students longer.”

A team, which consists of the five players who competed at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Regional, must have a combined GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale to be considered for academic all-state. Players with a 4.0 GPA receive bonus points according to their grade level (i.e. sophomores receive 4.05, juniors receive 4.10 and seniors receive 4.15). Eighth grade transcripts are used for freshmen players.

Individual Academic All-State will be released at a later date by the MIGCA.