MADISON – Claire Crawford finished in the runner-up position, while the Aberdeen Roncalli girls’ golf team moved up one position to finish third at the Class A girls’ golf state tournament, which wrapped up Tuesday at the Madison Golf and Country Club.
Crawford, who led after Monday’s opening round, slipped into the second position early in Tuesday’s round, but held on to record a second place finish.
“I played good the first day,” Crawford said. “I felt good about that. Today I didn’t play as loose, I guess. Struggled on the front nine. It wasn’t really that bad, looking back at it, just putts weren’t falling for me. I got to the back nine and turned my mindset around and started putting together some pars and turned my round around on the back nine.”
Crawford notched an 84 on Tuesday and finished with a two-day score of 160, just three strokes back of Rylan Horning of St. Thomas More’s 157. Horning’s effort got a massive boost after she eagled the par-4 14th hole.
“(Crawford) played great,” said Roncalli coach Jon Murdy. “She kind of got on the bogey train to start the round, but she did a pretty good job of staying in position and not doing too many mistakes. Then on the backside doing pretty well. That STM girl making an eagle on a par 4 kind of hurts a bit, but (Crawford) still played great start to finish. I don’t think there’s much she would do or I would do to change things. She played great the last couple days.”
Crawford’s effort helped propel the Cavaliers into third after sitting fourth in a four-way battle for the lead after Monday. Roncalli finished with a two-day score of 700 behind team champion St. Thomas More (680) and runner-up Sioux Falls Christian (685). Vermillion was fourth with a 712.
“It was really exciting to do well as a team,” Crawford said. “Obviously, it’s more fun when everybody plays well and not just yourself. There’s a fun team aspect to it.”
Grace Seyer finished in a tie for 15th with a 175, while Mackenzie Wegehaupt was 19th with her score of 178. Those efforts secured All-Tournament status for the Cavalier golfers. Ava Danielson finished just outside the top 25 with her score of 187, good for 28th.
“I’ve been saying for the last couple years, this is a good group of girls,” Murdy said. “They want to keep getting better. It’s been very easy for me as a coach to help out and make little adjustments to where they’re doing the majority of the work and I’m just steering them more in the right direction.”
Sisseton’s Kenzley Heath finished eighth with a total of 170.
The Cavaliers do not have a senior on the roster, which bodes well for the future of the program. But, Crawford noted, other teams also have forward momentum in their programs.
“This will be the third or fourth year everybody is coming back, which is really exciting,” she said. “But also I believe St. Thomas More is bringing most of their people back, too, and Sioux Falls Christian always has more people coming. Just because we don’t lose anybody, doesn’t mean everybody else is losing all their people. It’s still going to be very competitive. It’s never a given.”
To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:
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