The Prescott Cardinals earned their fifth straight Middle Border Conference win of 2023 on Thursday at Bristol Ridge Golf Course in Somerset.

The Cardinals won by 21 strokes over the next closest opponent, the St. Croix Central Panthers. They now lead the conference by eight points over the Panthers, who have taken second in four out of the five conference meets this year and appear to be the Cardinals’ main competition for first place.

The scores were higher than usual at Bristol as that is the toughest course Prescott plays all year, according to their head coach, Chad Salay.

“I would say that year to year, our highest scores are usually shot there. It is a fairly tight course with some tough tee shots and the green complexes are very undulated. The hole locations today were especially hard which didn’t help matters,” Salay said. “Overall, we were happy with the way we played, considering. It was nice to see Gabbi get medalist honors as well, she played incredibly. She was even par through eight holes, but she finished with a quadruple bogey. To win the event with a quad is pretty amazing.”

Gabbi Matzek took first place in Bristol with a score of 40. Layla Salay was just two strokes behind her at 42, tied for third place. After that there was a six-stroke gap with Lydia Feran and Macy Reiter each shooting a 48 and tying for fourth place.

On the season, Matzek leads the Cardinals in individual conference standings at third overall and is just three points out of second place.

It’s impossible not to bury the lead when you’re talking about two Cardinals golf meets in the same article. On Tuesday, the Cardinals traveled to the site of the state tournament at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison for an invitational that was almost completely composed of Division 1 schools. The only other Division 2 school was the #3 ranked team in the state, Jefferson, who finished a massive 39 strokes behind Prescott.

“We were actually leading the event through nine holes. We struggled a bit on the second nine holes, but to finish within 10 strokes of the two-time defending Division 1 state champ is encouraging,” Salay said. “We finished among all the top 5 teams in Division 1. Macy Reiter played an amazing round shooting a 79 and leading our team.” 

Prescott’s exciting year of golf continues with Middle Border Conference play on Thursday when they travel to Krooked Kreek Golf Course in Osceola. Tee off is at 4 p.m.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats had a somewhat uneven week of golf.

Their Big Rivers Conference round at Lake Wissota Golf Course on Monday was a tough one as they placed third behind Hudson and Chippewa Falls.

“Everyone had an off day,” Tim LaVold, coach of the Wildcats, said. 

This finish widens the gap between first and second place for Hudson and River Falls. Hudson now leads by three points, which means the Wildcats will now need to make up four place finishes in the BRC to take the lead over the Raiders. That is the equivalent of River Falls taking first place while Hudson finishes fifth, so it’s still more than manageable as they just hit the midpoint in the season.

The Kilkarney Hills Golf Course Invitational was better. Even though Hudson won with a score of 353, River Falls took second with a score of 368. Mahlia McCane led the way for the Wildcats as she tied for fourth shooting an 88. Aili Lassi tied for sixth with 91, and Ellie Krueger rounded out the top 10 with a 93.

LaVold said this round was far more in character with what the team expects of themselves.

“368 is a good score for us,” LaVold said. “Mahlia had two birdies on her round, and Nathalie was four over through eight holes.”

Next up for the Wildcats is back-to-back Big Rivers Conference outings; the first is at Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax on Tuesday at 2 p.m. and the second is on their home turf at River Falls Golf Course on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m.

Ellsworth

It was a tough week of golf for the Panthers at Bristol as they took fifth place and have dropped to fifth place in conference standings after holding second place in the Middle Border just three weeks ago.

Lexi Marks led the team shooting a 48 and tying for fourth place. The Panthers Nora Feuerhelm was the only other player to shoot under 60 on the day.

Carson Huppert, head coach of the Panthers, is optimistic about how they’ve played thus far.

“We are at the midpoint in the season, and we have three girls trying for all-conference points,” Huppert said. “We are a young team that has had some ups and downs, but we are learning. Hopefully we will be playing our best golf come regional time.”

Ellsworth will look to climb back up the standings this Thursday at Krooked Kreek Golf Course in Osceola. Tee off is at 4 p.m.