The girls golf team has begun their big tournaments for the year, one of those being the Metropolitan championships that was held on Tuesday at Elmwood course. The girls placed second with a score of 318 right behind Omaha Marian who had 297. Senior Sophia Martin placed third individually tying with other competitors with a score of 75. She explained how she felt about her overall performance
“I feel like I played really well at metros,” Martin said. “It felt good to post a good enough score to tie for third.”
Freshman Kendall Lauritzen recently said her goal was to consistently stay in the 70’s throughout the season. At this tournament she had a personal best with a score of 77 which placed her eighth among the other competitors. Right behind her was teammate Chloe DiPrima with a score of 79. Lauritzen shared how she felt overall about her performance.
“I felt as if I had only left a couple shots out on the course which I haven’t felt in awhile,” Lauritzen said. “I was hitting the shots I wanted to hit and making the putts that were needed.”
Head coach Jered Hellman has been along their side this whole season. He expressed how he felt about the overall performance of the team at this tournament.
“Getting second place in the largest conference in the State is a huge accomplishment for our program,” Hellman said. “As competitors we would have loved to win Metro, but we are pleased with our overall performance. We only missed out on beating the school team scoring record by two strokes, and in the historic records our team score of 318 would have won metro all but four years in its over 50 year history.”
Martin is involved in many sports but also strives in academics. She discusses how to handle pressure on big stages and Martin shared how she handled the pressure in this tournament.
“The pressure of these events doesn’t really get to me anymore,” Martin said. “Because of playing travel tournaments and state twice.”
Lauritzen made her varsity debut earlier in the season, and is a younger new addition to the team, so it is her first time at this tournament. She explained how she handled the pressure in this tournament.
“At the beginning of the season it was much more nerve-racking,” Lauritzen said. “But now I go in with a confident mindset and get in a good headspace before I even arrive at the course.”
This tournament is one of the first big tests that the girls have been working all season toward. Coach Hellman explained what aspects of the team’s game he thought was really successful.
“We managed the ups and downs of our emotions really well,” Hellman said. “Metro adds extra pressure as this is the biggest event thus far and the pressure is high to complete at the highest level. Elmwoods green complexes are difficult, our short game and putting is improving and it showed at Metro.”
There are only two tournaments left in the season, which are districts and state. These are the biggest tournaments and last year the girls won the district title. Martin expressed what her plans are so she can do better at these final two tournaments, which will also be the last tournaments of her high school golfing career
“I want to stay focused,” Martin said. “And also work on playing well the whole day.”
Lauritzen has many seasons ahead of her. She also shared her plans so she can do better at these final two tournaments which she will be going to for the first time.
“I want to go out on the course and play the most aggressive I can and go for the pin every time,” Lauritzen said. “I want to make sure this is one of the seasons I remember.”
The girls golf team is the first team to go to districts out of all of the other fall sports that are currently in practice. Coach Hellman expressed the future plans of the team regarding the rest of the season.
“Our next event is districts. These girls will travel to Norfolk Sunday the 6th, play a practice round as a team, have a wonderful team dinner with parents and compete for a district title Monday the 7th at Norfolk Country Club,” Hellman said. “We are the favorites to win our district and we will be focused and ready to win back to back district titles which would be a first for our storied program. The following week is the two day State Tournament at Riverside Country Club in Grand Island. We will leave Sunday the 13th for a practice round, stay in hotels and get ready for the first day on Monday. These girls have a very good chance to have our highest finish at the State Tournament since the 1990 team that won it all.”
