State champions: Washington girls golf team

ADEL — It was back in March. It wasn’t the first day of practice, but it was the first day the Demons were able to practice outside.

It was a realization by the Washington Demons head girls golf coach, Len Kull.

“All I know is the first day that we were outside, and we were hitting golf balls, I knew we had something,“ Kull said. ”There was no question.“

That “something“ is a state title.

Washington won the Class 3A tournament at the par-72 River Valley Golf Course Wednesday after Tuesday’s first round put them 17 strokes ahead. The final tally was a 28-stroke win over second-place Gilbert, which had the individual champion.

Washington’s Kiki Bruner was the runner-up medalist, carding a 77-74—151 to Eden Lohrbach’s 76-73—149. It was a two-person race as third place was 10 strokes back.

“I tied for the lead a couple times, but I could never get quite past her,” Bruner said. A great tee shot on 13 and an approach shot to three feet gave her a birdie to tie for the lead. But three putts on 15 and again on 17 were the two strokes that left her short of the individual title.

“My putting just wasn’t there,” Bruner said. “My drives were good. I only missed two fairways all day. My approach shots were good. I wish I could blame it on the greens, but it was my putting.

“This was a very nice ending to my high school golf career. I am so happy for the team to win.”

Josie Tanner and Anna Nacos had great endings to their Washington High School careers. Nacos tied for fifth place with a 80-83—163. Tanner, shot 96-89—185 to tie for 22nd. Of the team’s three sophomores, Makenna Conrad posted scores of 90-89—179 to place 12th. Kaylin Long’s card read 93-102—195 for 32nd overall. Alecia Goff was at 110-125—235, finishing 64th.

Mt. Pleasant’s Elli Liechty tied for 16th with 91-92—183.

Tanner’s seven-stroke improvement over the first round didn’t please her.

“Better, but it was still an ugly round,” she said. “There were a few holes I played better, but my drives were all over. I guess the difference in the round was my approach shots.”

There were a few bad holes where she took a drop despite the coach encouraging her to hit out.

“Sophomore year at state, I took three shots to get out of the weeds, so I knew when I was in the weeds I was just going to drop,” Tanner said. “I’m not hitting out of the weeds, Coach, leave me alone.”

Despite the disappointment in her rounds, Tanner had many great memories of her senior year and career. “We had a few adventures and that’s what I missed most about not playing last year.”

Tanner didn’t even get to talk to coach Kull for a year and a half, and she missed that.

“We try to keep things light,” Kull said. “We want to have fun, and I want the girls to have fun.”

Having fun was easy when there were eye-opening victories all year.

“The only competition that Kiki saw all year was Anna,” Kull said. “That’s not necessarily a good thing to always be at one another. It was a good rivalry.”

Washington did not see any stiff competition during the year, winning every date except for the Waukee tournament with 10 4A schools where the Demons were second.

“We need competition,” Nacos said. “When you have somebody else throwing in good shots on you, it’s a big difference, and it’s something we did not see very much this year. It can mentally get to you.”

The state tournament is an event unlike any other, according to Nacos. She would know. She was a part of a team championship every year there was a season. She was on Washington’s winning team her freshman year, on Dubuque Wahlert’s winning team her sophomore year, and there was no winning against the coronavirus pandemic her junior year.

"There is no more pressure than the pressure that you feel at state,“ she said. ”No other tournament is like this. It’s a whole different feeling, and for the younger people to learn that now, it’s good.“

“What made the difference for us,” Conrad said, “was to have the seniors guiding us and letting us know what to expect.”

“The sophomores fit right in with the seniors,” Kull said. “We started playing and it wasn’t just me that knew, but they knew that we had something.”

"We tried to not get comfortable because we knew other teams were doing good,“ Nacos said. ”We tried not to talk about state until we got here, and when we got here we said all we have to do is shoot our average.“

That sparked a dilemma for Kull. “I said to myself, ’What are we going to do to stay under the radar?’ I really didn’t want to say too much. I guess that’s just the way I am.“

It seems to be the way to be. It won a sixth state title for the school.

"It’s incredible, and it’s because how hard our team works all season,“ Conrad said. ”We wanted to get here and win it and we did, so it feels incredible.“

“It feels great, just great to win,” said Long, who had the Demons fourth score in the first round. “I didn’t play my best (in the second round). I was more nervous the second round. I felt the pressure.”

Although she felt pressure, she was able to recover from bad holes. She hit into the penalty area twice on the second hole. “I got it on the green on the next hole so that felt great.”

It helps to have a veteran coach.

"He is very good at making you take a deep breath and restart,“ Long said. ”He’s also very good at explaining what we would be doing wrong but even better is an explanation of how to fix it.“

While Kull wanted to stay under the radar, maybe the radar showed something when the Demons won two different tournaments by 100 strokes, although part of that was the competition.

“The trick was to give them the mindset that they have to get better,” Kull said. “I wanted them to keep working on their game. It must’ve worked because we ended up sealing the deal.”

The deal sealed for 2021 leaves something for the sophomores to work on.

“I’m going to have to work really hard this summer to get to be as good as our seniors were this year,” Conrad said.

INDIVIDUAL SCORES

1. Eden Lohrbach, Gilbert 76-73—149

2. Kiki Bruner, Washington 77-74—151

3. (tie) Meghan DeLong, Clear Lake 83-78—161

Kaitlyn Hotchkiss, Cedar Rapids Xavier 85-76—161

5. (tie) Anna Nacos, Washington 80-83—163

Nora Carlson, Humboldt 78-85—163

7. (tie) Rebecca DeLong, Clear Lake 87-79—166

Katelyn Vaasen, Dubuque Wahlert 86-80—166

9. Ashlynn Sporrer, Nevada 83-86—169

10. Rylie Driskell, Creston 85-86—171

TEAM SCORES

1. Washington 675, 2. Gilbert 703, 3. Clear Lake 745, 4. Dubuque Wahlert 750, 5. West Delaware 757, 6. ADM 779, 7. Monticello 797, 8. Nevada 802, 9. Lisbon 812, 10. Creston 824