PIERRE – The Aberdeen Central girls’ golf team earned a third-place finish and had two top ten individual finishes at the Pierre Invite on Tuesday in its final tune-up for the state tournament.

The Golden Eagles finished with a score of 324, five strokes behind runner-up Rapid City Stevens. Mitchell won the event with a 306.

Central coach Kim Zimmerman was pleased with how his team performed.

“I thought our top freshmen played really well, Emma (Dohrer) and Olivia (Braun). It was a good scoring day all the way around,” Zimmerman said. “There was little to no wind and the greens I thought were pretty receptive.”

Individually, Central had two top ten finishers, with Dohrer (74) placing fourth and Braun (75) placing fifth, respectively. Mitchell’s Maddie Childs and Allison Meyerink tied for the individual title, each finishing with a score of 72.

While the Golden Eagles performed well, Zimmerman knows it will take some improvements between now and next week’s state tourney to keep up with how well Mitchell is currently playing.

“Overall, it wasn’t too bad, but we just know we’ve got some work to do if we’re going to contend and be up there with Mitchell, because they’re playing really well right now,” Zimmerman said.

Even though Central played solid, the team was without one its key players, Kyley Wirebaugh, who fell ill. Zimmerman said the team felt the lack of the eighth-grader’s presence.

“That kind of takes away from the meet a little bit,” Zimmerman said. “I know the girls maybe lose their focus a little bit if they know she’s down there, wondering how she’s doing and stuff. Hopefully, she’ll be alright and we’ll get our team back to full strength again and kind of get after it.”

Other Central golfers included Leah Gough who finished in 15th with a score of 86, Morgan Jones who was 16th with an 89, and Chloe Vikander who finished in a tie for 18th with a 92.

Zimmerman noted that while the Eagles did not play poorly, they know that they can improve as the team looks to compete for a state title.

“It’s encouraging to have a couple of girls play as well as they did today, but in order to compete as a team we’re going to have to find another two scores or three scores in there just to solidify our round a little bit,” Zimmerman said. “But they know they can do it. The other teams showed what they can shoot on a good day in Pierre, so that’s what it’s going to be about next week.”

Central will now turn its attention to the Class AA State Tournament Monday and Tuesday on the same course in Pierre.

Zimmerman said a few adjustments need to be made before the tournament.

“Today I saw a lot of things with our short game. We just have to get better,” Zimmerman said. “We’re just throwing too many strokes around the green away, and I think that’s just one area that I think is fairly easy to improve upon, but we have to get better around the green.”

Overall, Zimmerman is confident his team will put practice into play.

“We have to go out and we have to do well what we’re practicing at, and take that into competition,” Zimmerman said.

Team Points: Mitchell 306, Rapid City Stevens 319, Aberdeen Central 324, Pierre 351.

Top 15 Individual Results: T-1, Maddie Childs, Mitchell, 72; T-1, Allison Meyerink, Mitchell, 72; 3, Tanna Phares, Rapid City Stevens, 73; 4, Emma Dohrer, Aberdeen Central, 74; 5, Olivia Braun, Aberdeen Central, 75; 6, Quinn Dannenbring, Mitchell, 79; T-7, Lauren Knapp, Rapid City Stevens, 82; T-7, Holland Post, Rapid City Stevens, 82; T-7, Reese Howard, Rapid City Stevens, 82; 10, Lara Widstrom, Mitchell, 83; 11, Andrea Mosteller, Pierre, 84; T-12, Kamryn Shull, Rapid City Stevens, 85; T-12, Hadley Hart, Pierre, 85; T-12, Madilyn Brakke, Pierre, 85; 15, Leah Gough, Aberdeen Central, 86.

Other Aberdeen Central golfers: 16, Morgan Jones, 89; T-18, Chloe Vikander, 92.