A Look At The Links: State!

The last golf tournament of the year took place last week in Burley.  A difficult course and some less than ideal weather gave the participants plenty of challenges throughout the tournament.  Despite the difficulties several of our local golfers were able to power through and finish amongst the top of the field.

In the boys division the Grace Grizzlies finished fifth overall out of the fourteen teams in the tournament.  In the two day tournament Tate Williams grabbed the best score for Grace after the first round but Jamie Smith came roaring back on day two to earn the best finish for any of the Grizzlies.  Keathen Edwards played solid for the Grizzlies finishing in the third spot on the team.  Senior Derek Hill had a rough day one that temporarily set him back but improved his game by twelve strokes on day two.  Finally Cort Spencer rounded out the Grace team.  The inexperienced Spencer finished well behind the others but got some great experience along the way.  Overall the Grizzlies played two solid rounds to finish the season feeling good about what they accomplished considering the conditions.  With Smith, Williams, and Hill all graduating the Grizzlies will need to do some recruiting from their student body to fill out a team next season.  Edwards will give them a solid leader that can go out and golf with anyone and Spencer will have another year of experience under his belt.

In the girls division both the Lady Grizzlies and Lady Cardinals competed for the state title.  Both teams came up a little short of attaining their goal of winning a state championship but still proved that they were worthy of being among the top teams in the state.  The Lady Grizzlies that were short handed for much of the season finished strong with a third place trophy.  The Lady Cardinals did a step better finishing in second place as a team just ten strokes behind the state champions from Ambrose.  Individually the top two girls from each of our local teams were in a tight group to lead our county.  At the end of day one Grace’s Kamryn Mansfeild took the lead not only amongst our local girls but tied for the lead in the overall standings.  Mansfield’s teammate Karlie Christensen as well as Soda Springs’ Jayden Parker and Tara Vedder were all still in the mix for the top overall spot in the tournament.  Round two of the tournament had some mixed results for the Lady Cardinal golfers while the Lady Grizzlies all failed to match their day one round.  After everything shook out the Cardinal’s Jayden Parker finished as the top Caribou County golfer and claimed the number two overall spot in the tournament.  Parker was followed closely by Mansfield who finished third overall.  Christensen and Vedder each finished in the top ten with Christensen coming in fifth and Vedder finishing tied for eighth.  The two girls teams once again proved that some of the top golfers in the state come out of Caribou County.  The Grizzlies lose Christensen and Olenslager to graduation and will have to find some way to fill some holes to form a full team next season.  Meanwhile the Lady Cardinals are very young and should return as one of the teams to beat next season.

Grace Boys Results

Jamie Smith (82) (82) 164

Tate Williams (81) (84) 168

Keathen Edwards (87) (89) 176

Derek Hill (108) (96) 204

Cort Spencer (139) (132) 271

Grace Girls Results

Kamryn Mansfeild (79) (84) 163

Karlie Christensen (89) (91) 180

Shaston Lloyd (97) (107) 204

Tessica Jorgensen (134) (113) 247

Evie Olenslager (148) (149) 297

Soda Springs Girls Results

Jayden Parker (82) (80) 162

Tara Vedder (89) (99) 188

Kale Hopkins (113) (100) 213

Jasta Stoor (113) (110) 223

Jocee Tingey (116) (108) 224