Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley golfers qualify for 3A state tournament

A pair of Eagle County golfers punched their tickets to the 3A state golf tournament on Tuesday in Gypsum.

Battle Mountain’s Makena Thayer shot an 84 at the 3A Region 4 tournament at Gypsum Creek Golf Course to place second overall while Eagle Valley’s Julia Borejszo carded a 100 to tie for eighth. Steamboat Springs Kaitlyn Grommeck (81) won the individual crown as the Sailors finished second as a team, just three points behind Severance (287). The top-2 teams from each region and the top-13 players not on a qualifying team advanced to the state tournament at Boomerang Links in Greeley on May 19 and 20.

Wind was a big factor in pushing some of the scores above other regions around the state, Eagle Valley head coach Zach Haglin said.

“Staying mentally tough was really the challenge,” he stated. “With tee shots and keeping the ball in play, Gypsum has a tendency to punish you, and with the wind kicking up like that, it really makes it that much harder to keep it in the fairway.”

Battle Mountain coach Phil Tronsrue echoed the sentiment; he was thankful Battle Mountain got to start on the back nine before the winds picked up on the mesa.

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“We talked about trying to keep the ball low, use more woods and hybrids, but you know, sometimes it was just crazy the way the wind was,” he said.

Thayer — who came into the event having won six of the seven regular season tournaments — didn’t have her best start. She bogeyed her first hole and shot doubles on the next two. Tronsrue caught up with her on the 13th, where she started a nice birdie-par-par-birdie string.

“She looks forward to those par-5 holes because she’s pretty positive about being able to hit greens on two and two-putt in, and that’s what she did,” Tronsrue commented. “She let those first three holes go by the wayside; didn’t affect her mentally and she timed things up and played really good golf there.” 

Starting on opposite ends of the course, Thayer and Grommeck traded the top spot on the leaderboard all afternoon, but the Sailors’ senior pulled away with a relatively mistake-free 39 on the back nine. Sophie Morgan was eight shots back from Thayer in third.

Thayer’s teammates Caleigh Kackman (120) and Abby Harrison (132) placed 24th and 31st for the Huskies. Even though his three seniors weren’t able to compete Tuesday, Tronsrue credited Bella Williams, Elisabeth Blake and Marin Carr as being Battle Mountain’s glue all season.

“They helped hold us all together — they’re great teammates and very supportive of each other. I don’t think we’d be where we were at without those three seniors,” he said.

Eagle Valley was strong through the lineup, too, with Ingrid Soltvedt (118), Ella Webster (119) and Ella Weisberger (120) coming in 22nd, 23rd and 24th, respectively. Soltvedt was in the mix for making state all day, but ultimately missed the cut by just three strokes.

“Golf is tough that way. When you look back, there are a number of opportunities to make up strokes,” Haglin said of the senior. “I’m proud of her. She’s come a long ways and is a heck of an athlete.”

With three juniors coming back and a few promising prospects coming up to the high school ranks, Haglin is excited about the possibility of trying to get his first team to state next year.

“Depends on how much golf they play over the summer,” Haglin said. “It would be possible for sure.”

With Kackman, Harrison and Thayer all returning, Tronsrue is also optimistic. The Huskies finished in the top-5 five times this spring and Kackman, a sophomore, was in the top-10 three times, including a sixth at Eagle Ranch and two 10th-place marks at River Valley Ranch and Aspen Glen.

“Those are difficult courses, so I was really pleased with how well she was coming on. And I thought as a team we were coming on,” Tronsrue said. “I think with those three, with work over the summer and fall, hopefully we can become more consistent with our individual and team scoring.”

Thayer placed 13th at state as a freshman and earned all-state honors with a program best fourth-place finish last year; in both seasons, the Huskies were in the 4A classification. Tronsrue said he spoke with a friend along the Front Range who said Boomerang plays similarly to Cobble Creek as a links-style course.

“I think that bodes well for Makena,” he said, noting that Thayer shot a 75 in Montrose earlier this year. “I think she can hit a lot of the greens in regulation.”

Borejszo joins Kylee Hughes, Anna Gill and Kaitlin Medina as the fourth girls golfer Haglin has guided to state in his seven-year tenure. They’ll play a practice round on Sunday before the action kicks off Monday. His goal for the junior in her first state competition is to play loose.

“The cool thing is there’s really no expectations going into it,” Haglin said. “Just play the best you can and see what happens. Sometimes when you don’t have that pressure, you can see some good rounds happen.”