WATERTOWN – Aberdeen Central has put itself in prime position to defend its State AA girls’ golf championship.
The Golden Eagles shot a 295 on Monday during the opening day of the state tournament and have a nine-stroke lead heading into today’s final round at Cattail Crossing.
“The girls played great today,” said Central coach Kim Zimmerman. “It’s kind of what I expected in terms of the golf course allowing the girls to post some good scores, not only for us, but for other teams. There were some good individual performances as well as team scores today.”
O’Gorman’s Ari Jacobs shot a 70 to lead defending state champion Olivia Braun of Central by two strokes.
The Golden Eagles have four players among the top 10 players. Emma Dohrer and Kyley Wirebaugh are in a group that is tied for fourth with rounds of 74. Chloe Vikander is tied for eighth following a round of 75.
“The upperclassmen girls, they just really stepped up and played well today, pretty steady for the most part,” Zimmerman said. “Glad to be where we’re at.”
Geneieve Golz is tied for 16th.
“Geneieve kind of picked up where she left off with ESD,” Zimmerman said. “She shot 80 today.”
While Central owns a solid lead, Zimmerman said his golfers need to play like they don’t own that type of a cushion.
“We’ve just got to go in with the right mindset that it’s a new day. … Just kind of have to have that mentally that we’re not ahead by that many strokes,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman said the race for the individual championship looks to be wide open.
“Individually, there’s a lot of girls that are in the running right now,” he said.
While Central has a number of golfers who could potentially win medalist honors, Zimmerman wants the focus to be on winning the team championship.
“I think if we take care of our own business. worry about our own scores and take care of what we can take care of, we’ll be fine,” Zimmerman said. “That would be a bonus if we happen to get lucky enough to have the medalist, a state champion. If not, that team thing comes first in my opinion, so that’s what we’re looking at.”
Now, the Golden Eagles will try to finish what they started.
“We set ourselves up in a pretty good position. You hope you’re there,” Zimmerman said. “It doesn’t always work out that way, but you like to have a little cushion going into day two, and we’ll see if we can just build on that (Tuesday).”
To see complete first day results, click on the following link:
