YANKTON – Aberdeen Central senior Olivia Braun retained her spot atop the leaderboard where she has been ensconced all season long, while the Golden Eagles, who were missing two key members of the lineup, finished in fourth place in the team standings at the Yankton Invitational Friday at Hillcrest Golf Course.
Braun, who posted four bogies on the front nine, countered them with three birdies on the back nine and closed the day with a 1-over round of 73. That effort was enough to edge runner-up Vanessa Smith of Brandon Valley by two strokes and claim the individual medal.
“We kind of reassessed our goals (Thursday) night and talked about a few things,” said Central coach Kim Zimmerman. “I think we accomplished a couple things. Obviously, Olivia kept her streak alive here a little bit. That was one individual goal.”
The rest of the day was a matter of navigating the learning curve, as the Golden Eagles were missing both Emma Dohrer and Kyley Wirebaugh from the lineup.
Zimmerman said the team’s goal wasn’t so much to be measured in numbers, but in effort.
“I don’t think we set a team score as to what we wanted to accomplish, but just to go out and be respectable,” he said.
The Golden Eagles certainly did that, finishing fourth overall in the 14-team field, 11 of which fielded full lineups. Chloe Vikander clocked a top-10 finish, followed by Genevieve Golz in the top 25 and Carli Withers in the top 30 out of nearly 70 golfers.
Golz and Withers faced the unenviable challenge of learning a new course on the fly.
“It’s not a course you want to break new kids into, because it’s very challenging,” Zimmerman said.
Still, he was happy with the way the team handled the day despite its challenges.
“We came away with some positives today and going into next week, hopefully we’ll have a full week of practice,” he said. “Looking forward to getting back into things again next week. Taking the weekend off and picking things up where we left off on Monday.”
Central will not return to competition until next Friday at Mitchell, where Zimmerman said he expects to see a sizeable field.
To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:
