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Osterloo tied at the top at state
Brookings has slim team lead
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FarkMITCHELL — At the end of Day 1 at the Class AA girls’ golf state tournament at Lakeview Golf Course in Mitchell, there was nothing surprising about Brookings sitting atop the leader board.
The fact that Huron sat only three strokes back, however, might have taken a few people by surprise.
Brookings’ Morgan Fitts fired a first-day 79 to place her in a tie for first with Pierre’s Taylor Smalley and Rapid City Central’s Paige Osterloo, with the final round to be played today. Fitts’ round came as part of 336 for Brookings, which placed the Bobcats only slightly ahead of the dark horse Huron Tigers, who are hoping to steal what was widely expected to be a three horse race between Brookings, Sioux Falls O’Gorman and Rapid City Stevens.
“I don’t think anybody expects us to be up here,” Huron coach Terry Rotert said. “Coming in, our goal was to be in the top four. We were sixth last year, returning everybody, so we thought we should be able to move up. We just had a few kids play really, really well on the back nine in the wind.”
Rapid City Stevens, which was the runner-up at last week’s GDC tournament, suffered through a sluggish first day. Osterloo’s 36 on the front nine helped her to a 79 and a tie for the lead, but the Raiders’ next best score was Katelyn Belzer’s 88. The Raiders’ 352 leaves them 16 strokes behind the leader.
“That’s a ways back, but I think we can cut into it,” Stevens coach Phil Hunt said. “We did all right, but it wasn’t our best by any means.”
Osterloo got off to a hot start, finishing with a 36 on the front nine, but she ran into some trouble on the back, where she finished with a 43.
“The wind came up on the last three or four holes, and made it really difficult on her,” Hunt said. “Hopefully (today) she can keep it in bounds and do even better.”
Erin Cheever finished with a 92, Molly Webster had a 93, Molly Rezich had a 98 and Kate Knigge had a 114.
“With three new players to the state tournament competition, they probably got a little unnerved early, but once they got a few holes in and settled down, I thought they did well,” Hunt said.
Sturgis, which is in ninth place with a 377, was led by Megan McDougall’s 84, which has her in a tie for ninth. Brianna Dodge finished with a 90.
Spearfish finished the first day with a 398, good for 11th place. Vanessa Hamaker led the way with a 95 and Hayley Decker had a 96.
Rapid City Central didn’t have enough golfers to accumulate a team score. Taylor Warren led the way for the Cobblers with a 115. Lindsey Evans had a 122 for the day.
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