A Look At The Links: District Drama

If you have been following our A Look At The Links series then you would know that last Wednesday the 5th District golf tournament took place.  You would also know that the Grace boys and girls teams were heavily favored to win the district titles.  Coach Jorgensen and Coach Christensen have been around long enough to know that you don’t count your chickens before they hatch.  In last week’s Team of The Week article, Coach Christensen alluded to just that fact.  As the district tournament was winding down the Grace boys had lived up to the expectations and led the competition, with Jamison Smith coming in as the top overall individual golfer.  Aberdeen finished in second place as the other district team to qualify for state.  The Cardinal men finished in fifth place with Ryker Tingey and Preston Ozburn leading the way.

The drama came in the girl’s tournament.  With the girl’s teams finishing up, it appeared that the Grace girls had indeed sealed the victory as their team score came in at an impressive 390.  However, as scores were being posted there began to be some rumblings of a potential mistake by one of the Grace girls on her scorecard, deeming her score ineligible and disqualifying her from the tournament.  Indeed that is what happened, as the Grizzlies’ lone senior golfer Madison Edwards made an unintentional error on her scorecard.  With Edwards being disqualified, the Grizzlies had to rely on freshman Ava Christensen to make up the difference.  Meanwhile, the Lady Cardinals of Soda Springs, who had been led once again by their own senior Oakley Peck, had finished up in second place behind the Grizzlies prior to the disqualification.  The Cardinals also relied on a pair of underclassmen, Tara Vedder and Jasta Stoor, to at the very least hold that second place spot which would advance them to the state tournament.  As the scores were retallied the Soda and Grace faithful were on the edge of their seats.  Soda, waiting to see if they would overtake the Grizzlies and Grace, also waited to see if they would finish holding first or possibly falling to third and being out of state contention.  When the results finally came in the Lady Cardinals found themselves in first place and claimed the district title.  The Lady Grizzlies, though disappointed in losing the top spot, were able to breathe a sigh of relief as they finished in second place and still stay alive to compete at state.  

With the team scores decided, there was still one matter of business to take care of.  Kamryn Mansfield and Karlie Christensen, both from Grace, had finished tied for first place individually.  The two teammates would have to face each other in a playoff to determine the individual district champion.  After the first hole playoff, the girls remained tied and moved to the second hole.  Both girls had great drives off of the tee, but Mansfield’s ball landed just in the rough.  A few shots later Mansfield was forced to take a drop, and Christensen stayed clean onto the green, eventually putting her way to the individual championship.  

When it was all said and done in Preston, three of the four local teams had punched their ticket to state with the Grizzlies capturing both individual district titles.  The boys and girls teams from Grace as well as the Lady Cardinals competed for state titles at Circling Raven Golf Club in Worley on Monday and Tuesday earlier this week.  Check next week’s A Look At The Links for a full rundown of the state meet.