By Bruce Karnick

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The girls golf season kicks off each year with the Metro East Conference 9hole tournament. The teams of Simley, HillMurray, Mahtomedi, Two Rivers, South St. Paul, and North St. Paul joined Hastings on April 21 at Hidden Greens in Hastings. The Spartans are the returning favorites to win the conference with the McCauley sisters. Both of them are returning individual state champions and Isabella has played in the U.S. Women’s Open finishing 75th, missing the cut by just two strokes.

Luckily for the Raiders this season, all of the Varsity players are seniors. Megan Brown started off the season as the number one player for this tournament followed by Lauren Hubbart, Ashlyn Endres, Lauren Skov, Maddy Daley and Emma Langenfeld.

“We're finally out here,” excited head coach, Becky Hartung said. “We've had so much rain this spring. Hidden has been open for two, three weeks. So, we've been lucky to get out here and play. A lot of teams haven't even been on their courses yet. It's exciting. It's fun. The girls are ready to go.”

The girls have spent only a few days out on the course practicing getting in about 36 rounds of practice before the first match. Thankfully, the wrestling room at the high school is converted to the golf practice room for the spring. They have multiple stations for practicing various types of swings.

On the course, Hastings fought hard. Brown and Skov turned in a 44, Hubbart – 46, Endres and Langenfeld – 48 and Daley a 51 for a team total 182.

Simley took first, just four strokes ahead of Hastings with a 178. Then Hastings at 182, Hill-Murray in third at 194 and Mahtomedi in fourth with 200.

The girls will travel to Mahtomedi on May 2 then host Mahtomedi on May 5.

Photo by Bruce Karnick