Longhorn Payton Wise Takes Third In Her 2nd State Tourney
Congrats going out to Kimball High sophomore Payton Wise for her awesome play in the Nebraska State Class C Girl's State Golf Tournament that concluded this past Tuesday afternoon in North Platte.
From field of 94 golfers, Miss Wise finished third to earn her second state medal in her second season of high school golf. In Monday's first day play Payton shot a round of 43-35=78 leaving her in a tie for the lead with a young lady from Boone Central. According to coach Katie Culek the weather was "perfect with no wind". Payton had 23 putts on the front nine but came roaring back to shoot 1 under on the back nine.
In the two day play Tuesday, Payton was leading after the first 4 holes, had slipped into second place after 9 holes, and then ended up 3rd by the conclusion of day two play after her round of 40-45=85 for a two day total of 163. A young lady from Cozad took home the individual gold with her round of 80-76=156 and the Boone Central golfer was runner-up with her 78-82=160.
Katie Heeg, also a sophomore at Kimball High, took up the sport just this year and had a great experience in her rookie season by qualifying for the state with a top ten finish at the District Tournament. Katie tied for the 67th place from the field of 94 with rounds of 114-106=220, and with the progress she showed this year, her future looks very bright. Wise can now become a four time state qualifier and a four time state medalist.
This is a quick and abbreviated report as we hurried to beat our press deadlines that haunt a weekly paper. We will expound more on the outstanding season of golf that Payton Wise and her teammates had in next week's Observer sports. A thank you to Coach Culek and Coach Chad Wise for their reports, along with others who kept me updated from North Platte.