To top off a winning season, the girls golf state team, made up of freshmen Betsy Mitchell, Alexi Omillian, Liana Libarnes and junior London McLaughlan took home top-10 spots in the tournament, as Mitchell took third and Omillian took seventh.
All four of the golfers came off the district championship the week before, as Omilian tied for first place, Mitchell took second, McLaughlan at 19th and Libarnes at 25th. The combined score from the four golfers earned the team a district title, as the state golfers would look to carry on that success to the state championship.
The state championship was a two-day event at Sedalia Country Club, capped off by a team total of 683 strokes for Staley, good enough to give them a team ranking of sixth place. Before the tournament, the approach for the team was to utilize the given practice rounds, with the tournament’s rule to allow the golfers time to play and feel out the course before the tournament.
“The most important thing I’d say as the coach is, you give them a time and an opportunity to work on what they need to work on,” head coach Richard Tingler said. “I know leading up to districts and and after districts, it was focusing on, ‘What do you need?’”
Prior to the state championship, before the district round, the team went to Smithville, Missouri, to practice on the course they would be playing on for districts to scope out the movement and speed of the greens. It was steps like these to allow the golfers to get used to the courses and also practicing on a difficult course like Staley Farms.
“It’s kind of hard at Staley because greens at Staley are like nothing else you’ve ever seen anywhere else,” Tingler said.
While every golf course is different, especially Sedallia Country Club and Staley Farms, most of the team practice time went to fundamentals like range sessions and work on the short game. The only thing left was understanding how to play the courses, especially Sedalia.
“It’s just going around the course, and seeing the course,” Mitchell said. “We know the course pretty well since we played it this summer,”
While golfers like Mitchell and Omillian have had experience at Sedalia, McLaughlan was not too familiar with the course and took extra steps to prepare.
“I’ll feel out the greens, and the short game area, because I need to make sure my drive is good and make sure I know the greens well,” McLaughlan said.
Adding to the difficulty, the golfers dealt with cold and windy conditions in both state rounds, with wind gusts reaching up to 40 miles per hour.
“I think if there weren’t wind conditions, there would have been a lot of under-par scores,” Tingler said. “So yeah, I think it affected it, but I still think these girls played some really good golf considering all the climate and conditions going on.”
Beyond the environmental factors that affected the game, the golfers also worked to block out the mental noise and personal expectations of playing in the state championship. It was the first time competing at the state level for all four golfers.
“There were a lot of nerves because even though there was a freshman and a junior, they were all rookies to state,” Tingler said. “The three freshmen had never been in the situation before, but even [McLaughlan] had never got past districts.”
Even though it was a young state team, the regular squad featured three seniors who also had a big role on the team to provide mentorship and example. But going into next year, there is a lot to look forward to as the team moves forward.
“I think in the next three years, we’re going to be pretty successful,” Tingler said. “I just want to say, keep an eye on us, because we’ve got some good things to come.”
