Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Carli Wurdeman,left and Payton Wise, right, hold their Western Trails Conference and Bridgeport Invitational medals they earned this past week. Payton finished runner-up in both divisions for 2nd place silver medals while Carli finished 6th in the top ten medal group of both divisions with her round of 100. By finishing in the top ten medal group both girls earned All Conference honors. The Kimball team also finished 3rd with all team members receiving medals for that accomplishment as well.
The Kimball High Girl's Golf Team took part int two tournaments this past week with both good news, and not so good results, to report. At the Ogallala Tournament on Tuesday, the Lady Longhorns finished a distant 10th in the team standings as they were in a field of several large schools. North Platte won top team honors with 351 followed by Gering with 360, Scottsbluff 367, Ogallala 371, Mitchell 388, Cozad 399, Sidney 404, Chadron 410, Alliance 430, Kimball 449, Ogallala JV 497, Dundy County/Stratton 503, Perkins County 538, Lexington 549, Creek Valley 551, Bayard 581.
Not a good day for Kimball's number one golfer Payton Wise as the talented young freshman shot a season high 112. Carli Wurdeman shot 113, Sheridan Magninie matched Payton's round with her 112 and Sam Bemis also shot 112. Raven Johnson had a round of 118. It took a round of 90 to finish in the top ten medal group and Baylee Steele of North Platte shot the low individual round of 78.
Coach Luke Maas commenting on the Ogallala Tournament said, "Overall a below average day for the most part, and definitely not what we were hoping for this close to District. With the multiple days of heat schedule at school, practices have either had to be cancelled or were very short and it showed today. A lot of mental mistakes and missed opportunities, The way we played earlier this year has really put a lot of pressure on the girls to continue to put up those types of scores and with that perceived pressure, simple mistakes amplify into big ones. Obviously the lowest scores possible is always the goal for our team, but we also need to get back to basics and remember that every shot isn't going to be perfect and the most important shot is the next one. Hopefully we can put some good rounds together for WTC and then take our week off to find ourselves again before Districts."
WTC at Bridgeport... Kimball 3rd
It certainly was a better day for the Kimball girls at the WTC Tournament hosted this year by Bridgeport. Bridgeport actually hosted not only the Western Trails Conference, but double scored it as their Bridgeport Invitational as well. Mitchell who both divisions with their round of 371 with the hosting Lady Bulldogs runner-up with 413, and Kimball was just three strokes back of Bridgeport with 416 to finish 3rd in both divisions. In WTC play Gordon-Rushville shot 513 and Bayard 593. In the Bridgeport Invite scoring, Alliance JV finished 5th behind Gordon-Rushville with 567, and Creek Valley was 6th with 583.
Mitchell's Kenzey Kanno was medalist with a very good round of 73 while Kimball's Payton Wise got back on tract to finish runner-up with a round of 84. Kimball's Carli Wurdeman finished 6th overall with 100 with the top ten individuals given All Conference Honors. Other scoring on the day for Kimball saw Sheridan Magninie and Sam Bemis both with 116 and Maddie Cook with 137.
Coach Maas said "Better day today. Attitudes were up and we looked like we enjoyed playing golf again. We had to deal with some unpredictable weather and a delay due to lightning, but I think the girls handled it well. Some of the girls started off slow but improved while other girls started well and then regressed back."
Looking at the 9 hole score, Wise went 38-46=84, Wurdeman 51-49=100, Magninie 57-59=116, Bemis 59-57=116, and Cook 64-73=137. Coach Maas went on to say "It's always a mental challenge to play a nine hole course because players naturally try to improve or replicate the holes they have already played, but regardless of the type of course, we need to work on our consistency between nines. We are looking forward to next week's break and are ready to focus as we set our sights on our goal of qualifying for State as a team."
The District Tournament is coming up this Monday, October 1, back at Ogallala, only this time all of those large schools will not be involved and the lady Horns need to have a top three team finish to qualify as a team for the State Tournament to be held in North Platte the following week. Along with the top three teams, the top 10 individuals also qualify for the state tournament. Coach Maas feels Ogallala, Mitchell and Bridgeport are the teams favored but also feels his girls can play with the teams mentioned and earn that trip they have in their list of season goals. Kimball's District team will be made up of Payton Wise, Carli Wurdeman, Sheridan Magninie, Raven Johnson and Sam Bemis.
