Prescott came up short in search of the girl’s golf State Championship, placing second of 12 teams with a final score of 666 strokes (335 round one, 331 round two) in Verona on Monday and Tuesday.

The Cardinals had won four consecutive Division 2 titles and made the jump to Division 1 heading into the year. Despite a significantly smaller enrollment than many of their competitors, Prescott won their Sectional and came in with high expectations. The team secured its spot as Prescott’s best team ever statistically.

“Probably one of the most relaxed team’s I’ve ever brought,” Head Coach Chad Salay said. “Their performance matched that.”

Lexi Marks of Ellsworth qualified for State individually, scoring a 188 over two rounds to finish in a tie for 13th in Division 2 of 39 golfers. Marks posted a 95 in round one and a 93 in round two. The junior was second team all-conference this season in the Middle Border Conference.

Prescott put up a strong fight, but Divine Savior Holy Angels dominated the event, scoring 637 to win by 29 strokes.

“It was going to be a long shot to beat Divine, just being the defending champs and how good their starting four are,” Salay said. “We wanted to give them a better run than we did, but at the end of the day they’re the number one team.”

Macy Reiter led the way for Prescott, scoring 161 (80, 81) to place in a tie for 15th of 78 golfers. Following behind Reiter were Gabbi Matzek in a tie for 18th at 164 (82, 82), Jeanne Rohl in a tie for 26th with a 168 (86, 82), Layla Salay in a tie for 33rd with a 173 (87, 86) and Lydia Feran in a tie for 53rd with a 184 (87, 97).

Salay was proud of the way Reiter stayed mentally strong throughout the tournament, yet he was not surprised, as he said Reiter had been swinging extremely well going in. Salay said Reiter did not perform as well as she hoped at state a year ago, which made the performance even more special this time around.

“Last year she was a freshman, so part of that’s expected to have the nerves and maybe not perform the way that you had all year,” Salay said. “It wasn’t honestly too surprising to me to see her perform that well.”

Feran made history, shooting a hole in one on the 12th hole of round one, becoming the 11th golfer to ever do it in the WIAA Girls Golf State Championship. Feran joined Maddie Reiter (2022) as the only golfers to accomplish the feat from Prescott.

“It was the talk of the tournament day one,” Salay said. “She shot a great score that day and had the hole-in-one, just a really cool experience.”

The race for second was as close as it gets, with Prescott beating Middleton by a single stroke. Middleton entered round two nine strokes ahead of Prescott, with a 341 in round two not being enough to hold on.

“It really did kind of feel like a championship,” Salay said. “There was a big roar when Gabbi made her putt because that sealed it… A couple coaches even came up to me and said, ‘You guys are the public school champs.’”

Middleton has an enrollment several times the size of Prescott, and Salay said showing what Prescott can do against teams of that size made it feel as good as many of the previous championships Prescott has won.

The team posted a scoring average 10 strokes better than their previous statistical best over the season. Salay said he has seen teams with one player who dominates to lead the team, but this Prescott squad had a list of golfers that could go out there and post a good score on any given day, and they stayed consistent. It was also Prescott’s best score at the State Tournament by five strokes.