Tri County wins district crown

Daily Sun sports

NEBRASKA CITY - DeWitt Tri County’s Lady Trojans pulled away from the field and earned C-1 District championship honors Tuesday at Table Rock Golf Course at Nebraska City.

The Lady Trojans earned first place with a 418, while Omaha Brownell-Talbot was second at 440 and Tecumseh-Johnson County Central was third at 442.

All three of the Top Three teams qualify to compete in the Class C State tournament next Monday and Tuesday at Indianhead Golf Course in Grand Island.

Tri County coach Jerod Spahr said in the end, the team race “wasn’t that close,” but was a little disappointed even in winning the district title.

While the Lady Trojans won by 22 strokes over runner-up Brownell-Talbot, Spahr said it “isn’t always about the strokes.”

“I know where the potential of the girls is,” Spahr said. “If we’d shot a 380 and got fifth I’d have been happy with that because I would have known they were close to their potential.”

With the windy conditions Tuesday, Spahr said he liked the fact he could “coach” his players between holes.

“I could tell them kind of where to aim,” Spahr said. “For the most part, they did pretty well.”

Spahr said the only “letdown” was the Lady Trojans didn’t improve their overall team score from front nine to back nine.

“I thought we shot well on the front nine, but we fell down on the back nine a little bit,” Spahr said. “As a coach, you always want to see them improve on the back nine compared to what they did on the front nine.”

Tri County shot a 205 on the front nine and a 213 on the back.

The Lady Trojans finished with three district medal winners.

At the turn between nines, Spahr said all five of the Lady Trojan were “in the medal hunt.”

Senior Abby Hahn led the Lady Trojans, finishing fourth with a 97.

“Abby once again led the team,” Spahr said. “She is the only one who got stronger on the back nine. She shot better on the back nine than she did on the front.”

Lady Trojans Mariah Brandt and Kara Riesen tied for sixth place with 105s.

“Those girls (Brandt and Riesen) shot well,” Spahr said.

Also golfing for the Trojans were Kelsey Hofstetter with a 111 and Shelby Shutts with a 112.

Spahr said each one of the Lady Trojans know there were places on the course where they could have “taken off strokes.”

“Hopefully, next week, we can really put it together,” Spahr said.

Putting is the one area where the Tri County golfers will be doing some work in preparation for state, the coach said.

“We’re still rushing some of our putts,” Spahr said. “We’re struggling with our putting. We’re really going to work on putting and chipping.”

For Johnson County, Whitney Pfister and Rachel Kettelhake both picked up district medals.

Pfister was eighth with a 106, while Kettelhake was ninth with a 107.

Others golfing for the Lady Thunderbirds were Kaci Wolken, 114; Lindsey Badertscher, 115; and Michelle Fritsch, 133.

Humboldt Table Rock Steinauer had just three golfers in the C-1 District field.

Competing for HTRS in the meet were Kelly Freeman, 122; Makala deKoning, 165; and Andrea Billings, 167.

C-1 District

Team Standings

1. DeWitt Tri County, 418; 2. Omaha Brownell-Talbot, 440; 3. Tecumseh-Johnson County Central, 442; 4. Syracuse, 459; 5. Lincoln Lutheran, 461; 6. Auburn, 477; 7. Wahoo, 479; 8. Bennington, 504; 9. Palmyra, 555; 10. Arlington, 617; Humboldt Table Rock Steinauer and Exeter-Milligan, NTS.

Individual Medalists

1. Steph Rodgers, Syracuse, 81; 2. Amy Swearer, Lutheran, 88; 3. Erika Larose, Brownell-Talbot, 94; 4. Abby Hahn, Tri County, 97; 5. Emma Harris, Wahoo, 99; 6. (tie) Mariah Brandt, Tri County and Kara Riesen, Tri County, 105; 8. Whitney Pfister, Johnson County, 106; 9. Rachel Kettelhake, Johnson County, 107; 10. (tie) Sidney Grable, Auburn, and Shelby Backhus, Lutheran, 108.

Sunland Results

Tri County: Abby Hahn, 97; Mariah Brandt, 105; Kelsey Hofstetter, 111; Kara Riesen, 105; Shelby Shutts, 112.

Johnson County: Kaci Wolken, 114; Lindsey Badertscher, 115; Whitney Pfister, 106; Rachel Kettelhake, 107; Michelle Fritsch, 133.

HTRS: Kelly Freeman, 122; Makala deKoning, 165; Andrea Billings, 167.