PLYMOUTH — Six straight titles is a lot at any level, but in high school — given the turnover from year to year — it can be an especially daunting feat.

Only 13 teams had ever won six straight Northern Lakes Conference championships headed into Saturday’s NLC Girls Golf Tournament at Pretty Lake Golf Club. For perspective, that’s 13 programs in 53 years of the league’s existence, with six to eight sports across each of three seasons, to ever reach that bar. You can now add NorthWood girls golf to the list.

The Lady Panthers backed up another unbeaten run through the NLC dual season with the championship at Saturday’s conference finale, carding 366 to beat out Northridge’s 379 and Warsaw’s 383 in Plymouth.

“It’s been a lot of different girls involved in that, you know?” said head coach Adam Yoder of his team’s NLC championship streak. “It’s really the girls’ willingness to work hard in the spring and the summer. Our girls play in practice all spring and then they play six, eight, 10, 12 tournaments in the summer before our season even starts in July. Having that tournament experience, it makes a huge difference going into the season.”

The Panthers ran the table in conference dual meet play at 7-0 to push their unbeaten NLC dual streak to 43 straight matches. Paired with the round robin runner-up Raiders and third-place Tigers in the last grouping, the defending titleists knew the field would be gunning for them, but it didn’t make any difference as three of NorthWood’s top five — Mackenzie Weaver, Abby Slabaugh and Madison Richner — made the overall top five at the tourney to play their way onto the all-conference rolls and the Panthers went 13 strokes lower than closest competitor Northridge.

“I think on one hand it does help. There’s no question statistically you’re in the best position,” said Yoder of being the top seed at Saturday’s tourney. “That being said, we’re pretty young, and these girls weren’t exactly sure from having been through it that much on how to handle things. Having that target on your back can be hard as well. So I guess it’s half and half — it’s easy on one hand because you’re ahead, you have the advantage going in, but on the other hand you can’t make too many mistakes either going in and you know that, so that makes it challenging.”

Weaver overcame a trio of tough holes — triple bogeys on 2 and 11 and a double on 16 — on the way to an 83 score for second place in the final individual standings, three strokes behind low medalist Braedyn O’Dell of Northridge. Slabaugh and Richner turned in a pair of 91s as NorthWood crowded out three of the top five spots that guarantee an automatic All-NLC nod, which made Yoder’s job a little bit easier as he didn’t have to think quite as hard about who to nominate for the all-conference vote. Abbie Richner carded 101 to complete the Panthers’ team score, and Makenna Gall’s 105 was the team’s toss-out score.

“I’m really proud of Madison Richner and Abby Slabaugh. They both finish in the top four, and then you throw Weaver in that, so we went second, fourth and fifth individually, and that’s usually going to add up to a pretty good score,” said Yoder.

“I’m just really happy for them and their performance today. I’m not sure they were really excited about their score until they saw the leaderboard and realized, ‘Oh, well, everybody seemed to have a rough day so maybe that score is not as bad as I thought it was.’”

There were nerves aplenty on display early in the round, and occasional gusts of wind created further problems within the tight confines of Pretty Lake.

Warsaw was no exception, and the Tigers posted some high scores at the start of Saturday’s round before settling in for their eventual third-place score.

“In the first six holes we really struggled. They bounced back and showed some real grit out there, and I really love that as a coach,” said Warsaw coach Tad Nieter. “You just love gritty players, and I have five of them.”

But perhaps none showed more grit than Tigers number three Miriam Hagg, who shaved eight strokes off her front side score on the back nine for a 96 at Pretty Lake.

“I talked to her on the eighth tee, I think. I told her I wanted her to take a deep breath before every single shot

because she has a tendency to get really quick, especially in pressure situations,” said Nieter of Hagg. “I told her ‘Take a deep breath before every single shot, and visualize where it’s landing.’ She did that on the back, and she was cruising when I saw her on 12 or 13. She was doing really well, and I left her alone and let her do her thing and she did great. She got into rhythm. That’s the thing with Miriam is if she gets into a rhythm, she’s a very good player.”

Hagg was one of three Tigers to post a 96 alongside Grayson Kilburn and Delaney Wihebrink — who was named All-NLC Honorable Mention — at the conference tournament. Izzy Ray shot 95 to lead her team while twin sister Madelyn Ray had a long day with a 111 score.

The Tigers’ consistency Saturday has become their trademark late in the season, and it’s something Nieter saw as a possibility for his young squad early in the year.

“At the beginning of the year when we map out everything, I knew all five girls — even the number six at times — can all be right around 90, 95, 85 even at times. For it to actually pan out is a different story; a lot of bad things can happen during a season and especially this time of year with the girls getting fatigued or whatever it may be. They’re catching stride right now, and that’s good for us, especially in postseason work,” he said.

NorthWood, Northridge and Wawasee all finished at their seeding, and, although Wawasee and Concord were technically tied for fourth place with identical 4-3 NLC dual records headed into the tilt, after the Minutemen had dispatched the Warriors in head-to-head play in the round robin, Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone knew his team would have to play well to slot in ahead of them Saturday. The Warriors’ 411 left them in fifth place both in the tournament and final NLC standings after Concord carded a 388. All in all, it wasn’t a disappointing finish for young Wawasee at the challenging course.

“We were tied for fourth with Concord going in, but Concord beat us in the regular season so if you want to look at it that way we were really in fifth, and that’s how we finished today. So we didn’t lose our position,” explained Coverstone.

The Warriors’ brightest spot came from freshman number one Belle Brunner, who shot 95 for eighth place overall and earned All-NLC kudos. She struggled somewhat with her putting on the fast greens at Pretty Lake, but her ball striking helped her make up for the strokes she gave up in the short game.

“She really hit the ball well,” Coverstone said of Brunner. “She had a little trouble — she three-putted probably six or seven times, and, if you count from the fringe she six-putted 16 and still shot 95. Her putting was a little off today, but her ball striking was good as it usually is. It’s great to have her on the all-conference team, and for a freshman that’s outstanding.”

Lesley Tayagua and Valerie Haessig both shot 104, and Zoe White turned in a 108 for Wawasee. Jadison Rostochak shot an uncharacteristic 116 playing in the number three spot in the Warriors’ lineup.

“Jadison shot 64 on the front, and she had one of those nightmarish days,” Coverstone said. “She got in the range before the event, and the ball was going everywhere. Sometimes in golf that happens, and there’s no real rhyme or reason to it. You’re just not feeling quite right that day, and she had one of those days and to her credit came back with a 52 on the back. She kept it at least respectable.”