Prescott owns ‘back 9’ en route to title

Salay wins silver medal, Stutz comes through with 6th place finish to lead Cardinals

fter the first day’s 18 holes were cut short to nine holes due to inclement weather, the Cardinals were forced to leave the course after getting part way through their first nine holes.

It was a cold, rainy and windy afternoon, but after the lightning cleared, play resumed.

In just her second year of high school, Ava Salay took home her second silver medal after golfing a 126 over 27 holes both days. But this time, she got to celebrate a State Championship with her teammates.

Rhi Stutz was close behind, taking home a sixth-place medal after scoring 134.

Maddie Reiter finished tied for 16th with a 148. Liz Rohl was close behind at 21st after golfing a 152. Jessica Heinsch tied for 27th with a 161.

Coach, how did it feel to become State Champions?

“Oh man, this is incredible. So much hard work has gone into it from everyone associated with the program,” Coach Chad Salay said. “It’s just one of those things where it doesn’t always happen that way. It feels like it all paid off.”

Salay said he wasn’t aware that his team was ahead by so many strokes and were just one hole away from victory until his daughter, sophomore Ava Salay, was on the 18th hole.

“You can kind of tell based on what the other teams are doing as well but I didn’t look officially until the 18th green,” Salay said.

Tuesday’s weather wasn’t nearly as bad as the previous day, but it was still very windy. After day one, the Prairie School, an independent private school in Racine, narrowed the gap and emerged as a contender. With the number one golfer’s closing in on the last few holes, the Cardinals led by just four strokes at one point. But it didn’t last long before Prescott’s golfers continued to build their lead, finishing ahead of the Prairie School by a whopping 19 strokes.

Tuesday marked a historic day. The Cardinal’s won the first State Championship in Prescott girls’ sports history. On top of that, Prescott was the first public school to ever win the Division 2 Girl’s Golf State Championship.

The Cardinals each stayed focused and persevered at Kohler’s Blackwolf Run, which has played host to a number of professional championships over the years.

“This whole thing is just a mental battle. This weather has been crazy. We haven’t played in wind like this all year, they battled so hard. It is really hard to stay mentally tough in those situations. But that is something we’ve talked about all year,” Salay said before the Cardinal’s accepted their new gold hardware. “Staying mentally tough, it hasn’t been because of the weather, maybe we hit a bad shot, or whatever the case is. It’s something we

STATE

CHAMPS!

The Prescott Girls Golf Team and coaching staff were all smiles last Tuesday, as they posed with the WIAA Division 2 State Championship trophy. The Cardinals pulled away on the second nine holes of day two to easily win the meet. Pictured are (from left) Coach Maddie Wagner, Coach Chad Salay, Ava Salay, Rhi Stutz, Liz Rohl, Jessica Heinsch, Maddie Reiter, Lindsay Olson, Coach Darren Reiter. Photo by Jack McLoone.

have preached all year and it’s turned into a theme for us.”

The youth of Prescott have some great role models to look up to on this golf team.

“It’s already trickling down into the entire community,” Salay said. “We have tons of kids interested in golf now, when we literally had five kids in the program three years ago. Our camps are filling up, so we’re seeing those types of things. The community really has been awesome. They’re excited. Even boys, there’s a ton of high school boys playing golf on the course that we haven’t seen before.”