Girls’ golf teams, Paton aim for glory

It’s a busy weekend in spring sports, but the last of its kind, as the Union area will wave goodbye to the season after this weekend.

The Union coverage area has three girls golf teams, a pair of individual golfers and one tennis player still playing. The athletes will be scattered across Iowa looking to bring home some hardware.

The Class 1A, 2A and 3A girls’ golf meets began on Thursday and Friday. The Union area has one team in all three tournaments, and a couple individuals in Class 3A

The 3A meet in Adel features Washington, which dominated their regional tournament to earn a spot. The Demons will be looking to defend their team title after winning by 28 strokes last season.

Along with the Demons, Mt. Pleasant’s Sami Wibben and Fairfield’s Myah Twohill will be competing in the individual ranks. Wibben and Twohill both qualified as individuals at the regional meet.

Mid-Prairie and New London are both in action in the Class 2A and 1A meets. Mid-Prairie is in Cedar Falls for the Class 2A meet after qualifying second in their regional. New London won their Class 1A regional by over 50 strokes, and will be in Marshalltown.

As of press time, Day 1 of the girls golf tournaments have not been completed.

While the golfers are playing Day 2 of their respective tournaments, Fairfield’s Tess Paton will begin the Class 1A girls individual state tennis meet. The tournament will start Friday, and both winner’s bracket semifinalists and consolation semifinalists will still be playing on Saturday.

Paton was runner-up in the regional tournament, falling to Davenport Assumption’s Mary Rolfstad in the championship match. Rolfstad earned the No. 2 overall seed. Paton was unseeded, and will play from the other side of the bracket.

Paton is coming off a third-place finish at the 2021 state tournament. She defeated Shenandoah’s Le Yuan Sun in the third-place match last season, and Le Yuan Sun is the No. 1 seed in the state bracket.

Paton doesn’t have an easy at the beginning of the tournament. She will take on regional champion Samantha Tidgren of Kuemper in the first round, with the winner taking on either Catherine Straus of Spirit Lake-Okoboji or Elise Davidson of Camanche Catholic in the quarterfinals.

Neither of the Top-2 finishers from last year’s Class 1A singles bracket are in the tournament this year.

Results from all the action of the golf courses to the tennis court will be in Tuesday’s edition of the Union.