It was a rainy day for golf as the Prescott Cardinals took first place in their final meet of the season at Pheasant Hills Golf Course in Hammond on Monday.

At the beginning of the season, there was some question about whether Prescott could continue its dominant run of three consecutive conference and state championships after having graduated so much talent. That was before they took first place in every single conference meet they played in this season and secured their status as the 2023 Middle Border Conference Champions on Monday.

With a run like that, it wouldn’t be unusual to have multiple players end up with honors at the end of the season. What is unusual is that every single Cardinal golfer finished in the top 10 and earned a place on the all-conference team. In order they are: Gabbi Matzek (third), Macy Reiter(fourth), Layla Salay (fifth), Lydia Feran (sixth), Jeanne Rohl (seventh) and Anika Fredericks (10th).

On this final day of regular season golf, Matzek said the weather had an adverse effect on her, but she felt like she wasn’t at her best either.

“It's frustrating because you're going to take some bigger chunks out of the wet ground, which is harder, and the greens are not as consistent,” Matzek said. “I had a really good front nine, but the back nine was pretty rough. My driver wasn't really going the best, so I kind of had to improvise, but anytime we can play this course it helps us.”

In fact, it should help a lot as they will turn around and come right back to the same golf course in Hammond on Thursday to play their regional competition round. Considering that Prescott is coming off three straight years of state championships, they should be old hats at this. However, for four of the top six Cardinals players, including freshman Layla Salay, this was their first season of varsity golf.

“I feel like my game has kind of come and gone at times this season, but it's improved since the beginning. And the being nervous part has definitely gotten better,” Salay said. “Today wasn't my best here, but it was all right, and I feel pretty good about it. It was partly the weather, especially in the beginning when it was raining pretty hard, but I think it helps a lot to have this round before regionals. I’m really excited for it.”

Regionals consists of an 18-hole event in which three of the eight teams will advance to sectionals for the Middle Border. The top four golfers who are not on teams going to sectionals will still advance and compete to go to state individually. For the Cardinals, the hope is that all continues to go well so everyone will end up in Madison for the state tournament at University Ridge Golf Course together.

Head Coach Chad Salay said there’s not a lot left to practice physically before the postseason. Their skills are what they are at this point, so what the Cardinals will focus on in the next few days is more of the mental elements of the game.

“There’s been a lot of growth, as far as experience like in how to handle, you know, big tournaments, struggling with getting nervous, and how to handle the pressure this season. We still work on situational strategies on how we’re going to approach certain situations like what to do if you make a triple bogey, and how to bounce back if you have a bad shot and move on from it in a positive way,” Salay said. “Some of the girls mentioned things today that didn’t bother them all year and just started bothering them today. It’s like, they’ve had no issues with it all year, and then all sudden they're nervous. Things tend to get magnified a little bit when playoff season starts.”

A young Ellsworth team earns honors in conference

The Ellsworth Panthers finished fourth at their final meet of the season on Monday at Pheasant Hills Golf Course in Hammond, finishing just five strokes behind Somerset.

The Panthers’ season had tailed off a little bit at the end after starting out hot, but they finished strong in the last two meets and had two players receive conference honors. Lexi Marks finished eighth in conference points and received all-conference honors, and Addy Huppert finished 13^th receiving an honorable mention.

The Panthers are a young team that has seen a lot of growth this season. Head Coach Carson Huppert sees both sides of it as they gear up for their regional competition round this Thursday back at Pheasant Hills.

“We didn't accomplish the goals we would have liked to; I think we would have to place a lot higher in the conference,” Huppert said. “We had a little lull there in the middle, but we started to get it back at the end of last week, so hopefully we're ready to go in three days.”

Marks said she has felt that same rollercoaster that Huppert mentioned with her performance as the season played out.

“My progress wasn’t very good this season. It kind of got worse, and then today it got better,” Marks said. “Last year I got an honorable mention for all conference, and this year I got eighth. I was nervous before the round, but Carson said as long as I don’t hit it in the pond today, I’ll be fine, and I didn’t hit it in the pond.”

Addy Huppert is another integral part of that young core of good players that the Panthers are developing. On a tough day for golf, she also saw the big picture.

“Today wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. I played here over the weekend to prepare myself for this week, but I couldn't putt today because the greens were terrible with all the rain,” Huppert said. “I’ve definitely gotten a lot better this season, though. I've shaved off several strokes from the beginning. I think we all improved, and we should have a chance at regionals.”

Even though their final record this season wasn’t great, finishing fifth behind Altoona and Somerset, hopes are high for the Panthers as they look forward to Thursday. And with Altoona leaving to compete in D1 regionals, Coach Huppert knows their main competition is going to be Somerset.

“We have to get top three to move on and, you know, we're right there with Somerset, all the time,” Carson Huppert said. “The scores are tough to beat, but we’ve beat them, and we’ve tied them, and their top player isn’t going to go out there and shoot minus one every single time.”

Huppert said that, regardless of what happens at sectionals, they have a lot going for their program, and things are looking up.

“We’re a young team,” Huppert said. “Lexi and Addy are both sophomores, we don’t have any seniors like other schools, so everybody is coming back next year. The future looks good.”

Good luck to all our Pierce County golfers in their pursuit of postseason glory.