Girls finish third at State; Snelling earns runner-up honors

 Clear Lake freshman Emily Snelling finished as the Class 3A runner-up and helped her team to a third place finish at the State Meet played at Ames June 2-3.

 Snelling and the Lions stood in fifth place after the first day of play, but all had a better second day to finish strong.
 Snelling carded four birdies on Tuesday to finish with a two-day score of 151, three strokes behind champion Paige VanDyk of South Tama. Clear Lake was third in the team race with a score of 723. Atlantic won the 3A title with 695. Kuemper of Carroll was second with 715. Nevada (731), Beckman Catholic (746), Mid-Prairie (186), Unity Christian (775) and Clarion-Goldfield (806) comprised the remainder of the 3A field.
 “We started off the State tournament very well, but just needed to be able to finish a little better,” said Coach Adam Brinkman. “Emily was doing everything extremely well, but had a few putts she knows she wished she could take back. On the second day her driver was working well for her, putting her in good shape for her short game.”
 Snelling carded a first round score of 78 and was three strokes back of VanDyk after the first play.
 “Her eyes were set on winning it, but this is just going to give her great motivation heading into next year,” added the coach. “At the beginning of the season she was lacking her confidence, and the nerves were quite high, but the last month of her golf game, has really been a  big step forward. This year was a big learning experience for her. She has a bright three years of high school golf ahead of her.”
 Brinkman said the team was confident it could be in contention for the title on day two if his players could finish their rounds a little stronger.
 “They all went out and gave it everything they had,” said the coach. “After the first day they learned to not be so aggressive on some holes. They definitely played smarter the second day and that is why I think we had lower scores.”
 Paige Backhaus capped her high school golf career with a 10th place finish. The senior trimmed three strokes off her day one score to finish with a (86-83) 169.
 “Finishing in the top 10 was a goal Paige had all year,” said the coach. “The last couple weeks her game was right on the edge, but always had a couple holes to set her back a little bit, but at the state tournament for her to shoot 86-83 was a big part of the third place finish as  a team. The Ames Golf and Country Club is a longer course, and she doesn’t hit the ball very far but she is always consistently straight and that’s really what sets her game up for perfection. Both days she started off really well, even par after seven holes, but had a couple of bad holes to lose her concentration a bit, but the way she finished was outstanding.”
 Senior Erin Gates was next for the Lions. Gates had rounds of 98 and 102 to finish with a 200.
 “Erin didn’t finish her career the way she wanted to,” said Coach Brinkman. “She was just in a little weekend slump. Her driver wasn’t quite working. But she has been a huge part of our scoring this year. She had some great meets to help our team’s success. She is the only senior that is going to continue her golf career. She is going to play at NIACC and will be a big asset to their team next year.”
 Senior Maddie Hess slashed seven strokes off her day one score to finish with a (105-98) 203.
“Maddie is probably one of the hardest working girls on our team. She spends a lot of time outside of practice working on her game, and it showed at the state tournament,” said Brinkman. “All year long she just couldn’t get out of a little hole, she was consistently 105-110. For her to go out and shoot 98 at her last high school meet was great for her.”
Juniors Rebecca Long and Maddy Hartnett turned in scores of (115-103) 218 and (124-122) 246 respectively for the Lions.
“These girls definitely earned the third place finish. They have worked extremely hard both in the weight room and on the golf course,” continued the coach. “Towards the end of the season during Regionals and the State tournament you could tell that their hard work was finally paying off. I couldn’t be happier for this group of girls. The three seniors, Paige, Maddie, and Erin, were all a huge part of the team this year and were a fun group to coach, they are going to be extremely missed next season.”