Aberdeen Central used a total team effort to produce a convincing team victory Tuesday at Moccasin Creek Country Club.
The Golden Eagles placed all six players among the top 11 golfers on the way to winning their second straight Eastern South Dakota Conference golf championship. Central finished with a team total of 301, 17 strokes better than Mitchell.
“I think we got all of our team all-conference, top 15,” said Central coach Kim Zimmerman. “When you’re talking about the two eighth-graders doing as well as they did, I think we even used one of their scores. You couldn’t ask for anything more than what they gave today as far as effort and the scores they posted.”
The pressure was squarely on the defending State AA champions playing on their home course, and the Golden Eagles responded in a big way.
“It’s a good feeling. A lot of seniors on this team this year,” said Central junior Kyley Wirebaugh, who finished runner-up with a 71. “We know that this is another good year and a lot of people are gunning for us. We like the pressure and I just think we showed that. We played great as a team.”
Central has had a stellar season so far, but the players took nothing for granted heading into the conference tournament.
“We’ve been playing well throughout the season, but we knew that none of that mattered if we didn’t carry it over to our tournament play,” said Central senior Emma Dohrer. “We felt very prepared and ready. It’s our home course. We knew we had an advantage, so we just used that to our advantage and went out and played well.”
The tourney marked the first time this season that Central did not have the medalist. That distinction went to Mitchell senior Maddie Childs, who also won the event as a sophomore.
Childs was locked in a tight battle before recording an eagle on the 15th hole to gain the separation she needed.
“It was crazy. I had a chip-in on 15,” Childs said. “I was like 30 yards out from the green and I chipped in. It was fun. It was my first tournament eagle, so that was really special.”
That shot helped Childs to finished with a career best round of 69.
“It’s always a grind and just taking it one shot at a time, just because you never know what can happen,” Childs said. “Like I would have never thought that I would have an eagle on 15, that’s just a true testament to play each hole as it comes, and keep grinding out there.”
Central’s Olivia Braun finished third with a 73, followed by teammates Dohrer in fourth with a 77, Genevieve Golz tied for fifth with an 80, and Carli Withers and Chloe Vikander tied for 10th with rounds of 84.
Last week Central had a tourney where it did not finish first despite having all of its team members. While there was nothing wrong with the score, it served as motivation for the players to not let that happen again.
“It was a good reality check, not that we were doing anything wrong, just to keep our heads level and not let our heads get too big,” Dohrer said. “It was good momentum for us to come into today and have that little fire under our butts, and just go and play well like we know how to.”
Central will now set its attention on next week’s state tournament Monday and Tuesday at Cattail Crossing in Watertown.
“We just have to keep our focus for two days and not get ahead of ourselves,” Zimmerman said, “and stay the course.”
Wirebaugh talked about the team when asked about goals for the upcoming state tourney.
“I personally, and I think this goes for a lot of people on our team, we don’t think about individual goals,” Wirebaugh said. “It is hard to not think about where you want to end up as an individual, but I think for us as a team it’s way more important how the team does … compared to individuals. I think that’s what makes us a really good team.”
And while the Golden Eagles will once again have targets on their backs during the tourney, they have the confidence that comes from having a complete team and knowing what it takes to win a state championship.
“We know Watertown, we know the course. So we’re prepared. We’re ready,” Dohrer said. “We have to trust ourselves. I think once you get to tournament play it can be easy to just kind of be uptight, and not be relaxed. We just need to know that we’ve got the ball in our field Monday and Tuesday, and that we’re going to be fine no matter what.”
To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:
