The River Falls Wildcats took second place on Thursday at New Richmond Golf Course.

After defeating the Hudson Raiders by 10 strokes over 18 holes on New Richmond’s 18-hole course a week ago, the Wildcats came up short at Thursday’s round across the road on their 9-hole course, losing to the Raiders by 5 strokes.

It was essentially back and forth all afternoon between these two as they had a total of seven players in the top 10 scorers on the day.

Mahlia McCane shot a 42 finishing one stroke out of a three-way tie for first place. A tough luck bogey on hole 18 was the difference as she initially laid it up perfectly for birdie on her second shot. Nathalie Rotsaert finished tied for fourth shooting a 43.

New Richmond Golf Club seems like an easy course, but it’s deceptively difficult according to the players.

“You think it’s so open, and it’s so flat, that it’s an easy course, but that actually makes it challenging visually,” McCane said. “Like the other course here is tighter, there’s a lane and you kind of have to go in one area. Here, there’s just so many places you can go and miss. I have to kind of try to dial in on one spot.”

The New Richmond 9-hole course also has the built-in difficulty of being able to play it backwards. They reverse it every day, so, essentially, there’s two holes for every tee, which adds to the already challenging visual element. Ellie Krueger, who finished with a 49, says this isn’t one of her favorite courses specifically because of this element, but also adds that the grass itself adds its own element of difficulty for players.

“They purposely make the rough within like the 20 feet of the fairways more thick,” Krueger said. “They do that at some other courses too, but, basically, once you get off of that first 20 feet, then it’s back to normal rough. It is a bit tougher, but I think it also definitely shows who can handle different shots.”

Looking at the talent level and confidence, you would never know that Krueger had never held a golf club in her life before March 2022. Her meteoric rise has propelled her all the way to shooting in the two spot for varsity golf just 18 months later.

Tim LaVold, coach of the Wildcats, says he’s sticking the one/two punch of McCane and Krueger no matter what and says he’s not worried about Krueger’s off day.

“She’s got a good swing, she’s got athletic ability, and she wants it,” LaVold said. “To be honest, it wasn’t surprising that she had a rough day today, she just had her best day ever the other day shooting an 85. College coaches are talking to her, and she’s excited. But, when you’ve only played a year and a half, you don’t have a lot of experience with different shots and different scenarios, and she’s trying to learn these things while also learning to control her emotions. When she does, she plays pretty good.”

Expectations are high across the board for the Wildcats. A season ago, they finished within a handful of strokes of beating Hudson and going to state. A year later, these two are the clear front runners in the conference.

“As of right now, our competition is basically Hudson,” Krueger said. “Looking at our round at Wild Ridge a couple days ago, we were three strokes off of beating Hudson, but we were missing our 4 and 5 players. So, we played with two freshmen girls who had never played a competitive round. If we can all just play our own role, I think it’s a no brainer that we’ll get there.”

LaVold says the goal is to win the conference, to get a couple of girls all-conference honors, and to go to state. He believes these goals are lofty, but that he wouldn’t set them if they weren’t attainable.

“Last year we missed state by six shots, but we played our best round of the year at sectionals,” LaVold said. "Mahlia made state individually, but we knew we were all coming back. We have a chance this year. We’ve already beat Hudson once, and if we’re on our game, we’re going to be right there with them all year. It’s going to be a battle, but we have the ability to get that goal.”

With three seniors in the starting five, including McCane and Krueger, the Wildcats are in a win now mindset.

“After the season, we’re losing a lot of our depth,” LaVold said. “So this is it. This is our year.”

Big Rivers Conference golf continues this Thursday with a meet at Turtleback Golf Course in Rice Lake. Tee off is at 3:30 p.m.