BROOKINGS – A pair of Northeast Conference golfers won individual state golf championships, while the Clark-Willow Lake girls captured the team title during the Class B State Tournaments on Tuesday.
Clark-Willow Lake’s Brynn Roehrich won her third straight girls’ crown, while Hamlin’s Aiden Abraham won the boys’ individual championship.
Roehrich won by a comfortable 13 strokes, shooting a score of 67 on the final round.
The junior told herself to just keep playing her game as she headed down the stretch.
“I talk to myself a lot when I’m out on the course,” Roehrich said. “So I just told myself, I was like let’s just keep carrying on what we’re doing, and let’s just keep our mentality, and keep our pace play, and just let’s keep doing our thing.”
The back nine was not Roehrich’s friend during the opening round, but it was not problematic on Tuesday.
“(Monday) I would have had a lead like this, but I shot 4 under on the front and then I followed up with an 8 over on the back, so that was a bit rough,” Roehrich said. “And it wasn’t even like I was hitting bad shots on the back, I just got some bad breaks. One I hit the back of the green and it bounced and went in the water.”
The Cyclones improved by a whopping 21 strokes during second round to pull out the team title as well. That made Roehrich’s third state title even sweeter than the other two.
“Definitely this one’s probably at the top,” Roehrich said. “Being able to win not only an individual, but to win a team title with a great group of girls, it’s great. And having my sister (Faith) right there alongside of me.”
Roehrich, who has verbally committed to play at the University of South Dakota in the future, still has a chance to add a fourth state title next year.
“I am very excited,” Roehrich said. “I’m going to soak this one up for right now, but when it comes time, I know I’m going to be wanting to win that one just as much as I wanted to win this one.”
Abraham shot a 69 during the final round, eight strokes better than his opening round total. The senior said there was one main difference between the two rounds.
“Basically, only my putter. Today my putter was hot,” Abraham said. “(Monday) I was three putting and everything else.”
Abraham had no idea exactly where he was until the late stages of the tournament.
“I never looked at the leaderboard at all … so I didn’t really know where I was at until the last couple holes and when everyone started following our group,” Abraham said.
Abraham had a decorated career at Hamlin, also being a member state championship football and basketball teams, but this state title means a bit more.
“Golf’s probably my favorite sport,” Abraham said, “so it’s far up there on top of my bucket list.”
Abraham finished 18th at state as a sophomore and 32nd last year, so he entered the tourney without a lot of pressure or expectations.
“I haven’t really played very well in any of the state tournaments,” Abraham said, “so I was like probably just have fun, this year, senior year. But then I went out with a bang, and that was really fun.”
Bon Homme won the team title with Philip second, and Clark-Willow Lake third.
Other area girls golfers who earned top 10 finishes included Miller’s Jayce Pugh (157) in second, Frederick’s Ruby Dallmann (159) in third, Faith Roehrich (160) in sixth, Webster’s Bailee Ninke (161) tied for seventh, Selby Area’s Taryn Hettick (163) in ninth, and Miller’s Kaihlyn Anderberg (164) tied for 10th.
Other area boys golfers who earned top 10 finishes were Doland’s Kaiden Weinreis (146) in second, Webster’s Seth Lesnar (149) in third, Gavin Colson of Sully Buttes (152) tied for fifth, Faulkton’s Drake Mueller (153) tied for eighth, and Wolsey-Wessington’s Larz Tvedt (153) tied for eighth.
To see complete girls’ tournament results, click on the following link:
https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/12587463233566168898
To see complete boys’ tournament results, click on the following link:
