A Look At The Links: District Tournament

The golf season has quickly come to an end with the beginning of the end taking place last week.  The Soda Springs and Grace golf teams battled it out at the district meet in Preston last week.  Going into the meet the Cardinals were recognized as the favorites in both the girls and boys competition but as we all know nothing is ever guaranteed.

The Lady Cardinals are once again district champions after defeating Grace in last weeks district meet.

 The Lady Cardinals have been laser focused all season long winning the majority of their regular season meets and tournaments.  Led by Jayden Parker the Lady Cardinals established themselves as the top team in the district early in the year and held that position all through the season.  In last week’s districts nothing would change.  Parker played an amazing round and the rest of the team did more than enough to secure the top spot as a team.  Despite their best efforts the Lady Grizzlies could not close the gap.  The always solid Kamryn Mansfield led the Lady Grizzlies as they finished in the second place spot at districts.  Both local girls teams qualified for the state championships.  Mansfield from Grace and Parker from Soda Springs have dueled it out all season battling back and forth for the top spot in the district.  At the district championships Parker was able to earn the top spot and win the district title with Mansfield close behind in second place.  Both girls stand a good chance at earning medals at state. 

Like their Lady counterparts the Cardinal boys team has been able to be on top of the district for the majority of the season.  Close on their heels have been the West Side Pirates while the Grizzlies have been in a distant third.  The Cardinals needed to continue to play solid if they wanted the team title and Grace needed nothing short of a miracle.  As it played out the Cardinals were able to do more than enough to earn the team title while the Grizzlies once again finished in a distant third place.  The Grizzlies were eliminated from the state tournament but their top golfer Keathen Edwards was in position to qualify individually.  Edwards has been one of the top golfers in the district all season long but did not have his best day at districts.  After it all shook out Edwards earned a spot at state.  As for the Cardinals, winning the district title ensured them a spot in the state meet.  All season long the Cardinal boys have jockeyed for the top position on the team.  It felt like each and every week a different Cardinal was placing first on the team.  That put the individual district title completely up for grabs.  Between several of the Soda boys and a couple of Pirates it was anyone’s title to win.  With so much talent vying for the title it was no surprise that as the round ended there was a tie at the top.  Soda Spring’s Barrett Hobbs and West Side’s Mitchell Mumford were tied for first and forced to go to a playoff to determine the district champion.  In the playoff Hobbs came out victorious and claimed the district title. 

The State tournament took place on Monday and Tuesday at Scotch Pines golf course in Payette.  Check out next week’s A Look At The Links to see how all of our local golfers fared in the state championships.

Grace Girls 396

Kamryn Mansfield 83

Shaston Lloyd 98 

Tessica Jorgensen 101

Paisley Barthome 114 

Myleigh Straatman 117

Soda Springs Girls 367

Jayden Parker 79

Tara Vedder 92

Jasta Stoor 97

Jocee Tingey 99

Kale Hopkins 101

Grace Boys 430

Keathen Edwards 85

Kade Kimball 99

Jace Manhart 119

Colt Coleman 127

Mack Jorgensen 134

Soda Springs Boys 343

Barrett Hobbs 82

Kayden Simmons 83

Preston Ozburn 86

Brycen Simmons 92

Gavin Hansen 96