NCC Tournament
The Clear Lake girls golf team traveled to Boone Monday, May 6, to compete in the North Central Conference tournament to defend its conference title.
The Lions have dominated the NCC in recent years, winning the last three tournaments and after May 6, the Lions were champions once more, winning their fourth consecutive tournament title.
“We set a goal at the beginning of the year to defend our conference titles. We took care of that Monday,” said Lion head coach Colby Andrews. “The first part was beating Humboldt on the front nine to earn the dual conference championship. The second was winning the conference tournament overall.”
The Lions were able to take care of business in Boone with admirable scores despite a close race between the Lions and Bulldogs of Algona.
The Lions pulled away from the Bulldogs, shooting a 391 to beat out Algona by five strokes.
Lion senior, Meghan DeLong, became Conference Champion for the first time in her high school career.
DeLong shot a 79 which put her nine strokes over second place.
Elle Ebeling and Shaelyn Ulrich were in the top eight, earning all three golfers All-Conference honors.
Ebeling shot a 100 and was fifth, while Ulrich was sixth with a 101.
“This was huge for the future of the program to have two young players get on the podium and earn All-Conference,” said coach Andrews.
Maddie Loge saw varsity action after coming off a long injury that had kept her sidelined most of the year. She shot a 111.
“This is an unbelievable accomplishment and I am so proud of our team,” said coach Andrews. “This years team looks a lot different losing so much experience from the prior three championship teams. We replaced all but Meghan DeLong from last year’s team which was all seniors but her. The weather was windy and it was very wet out there.”
Inclement weather, injuries and lack of experience were all things the Clear Lake Lion girls faced, but still stood strong to become the North Central Conference Champions.
“This team has been through a lot this year,” said coach Andrews. “The girls have really started to get mentally stronger over the last couple weeks and their scores have shown this. We are going to have to play our best golf of the season at Briggs Woods Golf Course, but we will have a shot to qualify again this year.”
Charles City
The Lion girls hosted a dual with Charles City last Friday, May 10, in which the Lions came out on top with a 204. Charles City was close behind by five strokes.
Emma Sonderman took top honors, shooting a 48, while Shaelyn Ulrich also shot a 48 but took second. Sonderman won by way of card back by getting par on the number one handicap hole nine.
“This was great for Emma to play as well as she did,” said coach Andrews. “This was by far the most consistent I have ever seen her play. It was her career-best round, even with a rocky start on the first two holes, she settled in and played really well for the last seven. Shaelyn has been a huge part of the recent string of wins, playing better golf and staying in the 40’s for the last few meets has been huge.”
Elle Ebeling played well and shot a 50 and Mackenzie Clemens shot a 58 to round out the Clear Lake scorers.
