Four Vikings and one Wildcat play both days at Hinckley, but fall short of state

Section 7AAA Tournament at Hinckley Grand National Over Memorial Weekend, all four area golf teams took to Hinckley Grand National Golf Course in an attempt to jockey for state tournament berths. North Branch Girls The Lady Vikings finished their season in the first round amid damp conditions from the previous rainfall from the early weekend. North Branch’s top four golfers were Emily Carlson with a 92, Janice Elkerton with a 99, Lauren Ibinger with a 102 and Emily Lawrence and Hannah Gomes shot matching 117s.

“The biggest excitement of the day for us came in the last hour of the event, after all our golfers were already off the course,” Head Coach Dave Ambers commented. “Emily Carlson's 92 put her in the running for a spot in the second day. It wasn't until the last foursome came in that we knew that 90 would be the cut-off score.” North Branch scored a 410 to finish in 10th place in the 13-team field. Grand Rapids, Elk River and Forest Lake qualified for the second day as teams, with Elk River eventually securing the team title. “Although this event marked the end of our season, we have some real reasons to look forward with optimism to next year,” Ambers said. Lauren (Ibinger) is a senior and has been our best golfer over the last two seasons and has been playing with us since she was a seventh grader and we'll miss her. However, the dramatic improvement of our younger players, particularly sophomore Emily Carlson and ninth grader Janice Elkerton, since the middle of the season, is very encouraging.

Congratulations to all the girls for all their hard work and thanks to their parents for all the support and cooperation and to their teachers who helped them keep up with their schoolwork, despite all the class time the players missed.” Chisago Lakes Girls The Wildcat girls, who had struggled with consistency all year, played up to their ability at sections according to Head Coach Perry Aadland. Unfortunately, with such little experience and a wealth of underclassmen, that wasn’t enough to hang with some of the best Minnesota has to offer in Section 7AAA. The Lady ‘Cats scores came off the clubs of Katelyn Sargeant (102), Barbara Murray (106), Maddie Maxwell (115) and Madyson Wilke (126). “The girls showed a lot of improvement during this season,” Aadland said. “If they can continue to improve during the summer, we will be much more competitive next season as all of our players are underclassmen.” North Branch Boys The boys, who had big aspirations of going to the state tournament this year, did send four boys to the second day of the tournament, but they couldn’t get there as a team. Senior Jared Houle shot a team-best 79 on the first day to lead the Vikes and ensure at least one more day in his career. Eighth grader Nick Kress shot an impressive 80 and seniors Mitch Barg and Joe Fairbanks came in with scores of 80 and 81, respectively. It was a handful of strokes hear and there that kept the whole team from the second day, though. They scored a 321, good enough for eighth place, but it was only nine strokes back from third place Andover. Forest Lake ran away with the first day with a 295.

With Houle, Barg, Fairbanks and Kress all moving on to the second day, the Vikings could conceivably put together a team score, but it wouldn’t count in the team standings. And boy would it have been a great one for them. Houle shot a two-over 74 to lead NB, with Kress trimming four strokes off of his first day total and shooting a four-over 76. Fairbanks carded a 77 and Barg had an 82 to put together an impressive 309 foursome. If NB shoots that the first day, they are in the second day as a full team, but such is the frustrations of the game of golf. “I am pleased with the effort the golfers put in all year. I am disappointed for the players that they didn't achieve their goal for making it to the state,” Head Coach Tom Moriarty. “We had an OK first day of the section and it put us behind and we had to play catch up, and we have a very tough section to play catch up in. We had five seniors this year and they will be greatly missed.” Chisago Lakes Boys Only one Wildcat boy made it to the second day, but two were just on the cusp.

Carter Haskins was the one who made it, shooting a 79 on the first day to lead the way for the ‘Cats. Garrett Darling and Eric Chambers were the ones who just missed the cut, carding matching 83s on the day. Bryce Thompson shot an 85, Tyler Buhr an 87 and DJ O’Brien an 88. On the second day, Haskins shot matching 40s on the front and back nine to card an 80 for the day. Forest Lake won the meet, shooting a two-day total of 595, 16 strokes ahead of second place Andover.