Ellsworth and River Falls girls golf each won Regional titles with Prescott finishing just two strokes behind River Falls for second. While all three team’s seasons came to an end at Sectionals, all three teams had great seasons and brought home some hardware.

Ellsworth senior Lexi Marks will be making a third trip to State as an individual, and Prescott junior Layla Salay will be joining her.

Ellsworth

Ellsworth won a Regional championship in Hammond, going on to place fourth at Sectionals in Spooner.

“We played really well. It was the lowest scoring round that we’ve had all year,” Head Coach Carson Huppert said after the Regional title. “It was a good time to peak.”

They had familiarity with the course, and winning against a St. Croix Central team that had them beat in the majority of events during the back half of the season was a huge boost.

“To do it on Saturday and bring some hardware home, and they get to see their names on the banners in the gym forever now, just a good pick me up,” Huppert said.

Marks has been the top golfer for Ellsworth for years now, tying for a win at the Regional. Marks kept it going at Sectionals with a sixth-place finish to qualify for State as an individual for a third time.

“Lexi had a really good week of practice heading into it,” Huppert said.

Huppert said Marks can strike the ball as well as anyone, and when she stays consistent, she is tough to beat.

Junior Emma Helgeson took third place with an 85 score at the Regional to back up Marks.

“She stays out of trouble. She plays a really consistent game,” Huppert said. “The difference from last year to this year is she’s mentally a lot better. She’s staying composed a lot better and she doesn’t let a bad shot affect her as much as it did in the past.”

Rounding out the scorers for the Regional champion squad were senior Nora Feuerhelm (took seventh at the Regional), senior Addy Huppert and sophomore Aubrey Marks.

“They’ve all done it, so hopefully we connect and it all happens at the same time,” Huppert said ahead of Sectionals.

It was a tough Sectional draw for Ellsworth, as Colfax/Elk Mound and Spooner are two expected Division 2 State title contenders, and they took the two State spots.

Prescott

Prescott finished the Chippewa Falls Regional as the second of four qualifiers, scoring 343 to land two strokes behind River Falls.

“I felt like we played really good. Just kind of got beat by a really good score,” Prescott Head Coach Chad Salay said about the Regional. “We had two PRs out of two girls, so obviously that’s extremely good and what you hope for, but it still wasn’t enough, so I guess we’re going to have to find a couple more shots.”

The Middle Border Conference champions took fifth at the Division 1 Stevens Point Sectional to miss out on State qualification. The team score of 368 was competitive with the 357 necessary but came up short.

“Sectionals is all the best teams in our area here on this side of the state, so yeah, it will be a battle,” Salay said ahead of Sectionals. “If we have our ‘A’ game, I think we can do it, and if we don’t, it will be a battle.”

Junior Layla Salay is headed to State as an individual, tying for fourth with an 85 at Stevens Point.

Prescott has had a lot of success over the last decade, winning State titles and placing second in the team’s first year moved up into Division 1. Juniors Salay and Macy Reiter were key pieces to the team in recent years.

“We do have four brand new varsity golfers, so we can’t lean on that as much as we have in the past,” Salay said after Regionals. “A couple girls that have been there and won a State Championship and taken runner-up.”

Layla Salay scored an 80 to take third at the Regional and Reiter tied for eighth with an 85 alongside fellow junior Lily Vesperman. Addison Kellogg scored 93 and senior Brooklyn Goehring scored a 98 to close out the scorers for Prescott.

Kellogg was named the individual Comeback Player of the Week on Wisconsin.Golf for going from a 52 on the front nine to a 41 on the back nine. Coach Salay said her performance was 13 or 14 strokes better than her previous 18-hole average. He also said Vesperman had a personal-best day at the Regional.

River Falls

River Falls squeaked out a Regional win in Chippewa Falls after beating Prescott by two strokes with a team score of 341. The Wildcats were in a fairly stacked Regional as Prescott was last year’s State runner-up in Division 1, and Hudson had been getting the best of them for the most part until River Falls broke out to win the Big Rivers Conference Tournament to close out the regular season.

Senior Nathalie Rotsaert led River Falls with a second-place finish for a score of 78. Senior Addy Timm placed eighth with an 85, junior Elsie Schmid was right behind with an 86, junior Rory Opatz scored a 92 and freshman Olivia Lick tallied a 95 to round out the lineup.

At Sectionals, River Falls placed fourth and needed a top two finish to advance to State. The Wildcats scored 362 with Onalaska’s second place score coming in just five strokes better at 357.

Schmid and Rotsaert led the way in a tie for eighth place with scores of 87. It was a season to remember for the Wildcats, and they will have the Regional title immortalized in the trophy case.