Vail Mountain School and Battle Mountain golfers qualify for state tournament
Rex Keep/Courtesy photo
Just when you thought school was out and prep sports was over for the year, the Battle Mountain and Vail Mountain School girls golf teams decided they had something to say.
The Huskies’ fabulous freshman Makena Thayer placed third at the 4A Region 4 tournament at Bookcliff Country Club on Monday to qualify for the 4A state championships at ThornCreek Golf Course in Thornton. Meanwhile, the Gore Rangers are sending Logan Nobrega, Haley Plumley, Annika Shikverg and Sage Sappenfield to Aspen Golf Club for the 3A tournament; both state tournaments are May 30-31.
In all classes (3A, 4A and 5A), the top two teams plus the 13 best individuals not on a team qualified out of their respective regional tournaments.
Nobrega, a junior, shot a 79 to place runner-up to Aspen sophomore Lenna Persson (78), who led the Skiers to the overall team title in the 3A Region 4 tournament on May 22 at Yampa Valley Golf Course. Aspen scored 255 points to sneak past Berthoud by one stroke. Plumley (86) placed seventh, Shikverg (103) was 16th and Sappenfield (104) placed 17th as the Gore Rangers tallied 268 points to finish third.
Battle Mountain scored 277 points, taking the sixth spot as a team, just one point behind Golden in fifth. Mullen (243) and Durango (246) took the two automatic state team slots as Steamboat Springs (251) placed third.
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Mullen senior Kaitlin Zingler shot a 69 to win by five strokes, but Thayer’s 75 was good for third place as seven golfers went under 80.
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Huskies senior Keely Sego shot a 94 and was in a playoff for the final alternate state spot, but lost when her final putt lipped out.
“Keely was irreplaceable when it came to leadership,” Battle Mountain coach Christopher Hoevel stated.
“She was a role model for the girls by always being on time and having a positive attitude and an outlook on adversity that helped everyone see they could overcome their own. It is a huge loss to our program to have her move on.”
Dharma Bronsing and Tatum Vickers shot 108 and 110, respectively, for the Huskies.
“They rose to the occasion, handled tremendous stress, and were able to walk away with heads held high knowing they worked hard all year and left everything out on the course in the final round,” Hoevel added of Bronsing and Vickers.
“Our girls were pushed back almost 100 yards from the other tournaments for the tee shots and we’re still able to post some of their best rounds of the year.”
Eagle Valley’s Sophie Weisberger and Ellie Robbins tied for 48th place with a score of 123. Julie Borejszo (134) and Ella Weisberger (139) rounded out the Devils’ scoring.
