PREP GIRLS' GOLF: Vreeman tops leaderboard with personal best round

WORTHINGTON — Something clicked with Emaleigh Vreeman’s golf swing this past week.

The Southwest Christian junior got the chance to test out her newly refined swing at Thursday’s Section 3A South golf meet at Prairie View Golf Links, and the results were better than she could have imagined.

Vreeman fired a personal best round of 79, earning medalist honors by a full 11 strokes.

“This is the best round I’ve ever shot in my life,” Vreeman said. “This week I finally fixed my swing to the point where I was comfortable and confident with it again. Last week I was really worried about today, but going into this week I felt confident finally.”

Vreeman wasn’t the only golfer to fire a career-best round in the ideal conditions on Thursday.

Hannah Kloss is more used to recording a score around 105 over 18 holes, but the Windom freshman managed a round of 90, taking second place in the tournament and helping the Eagles claim the team title with a total of 374.

“I thought it was pretty amazing because I’ve actually never shot that well,” Kloss said of her round. “It was kind of mind-blowing to me.”

Kloss’ score was even more incredible considering she shot a 101 in her practice round at Prairie View just a day before the tournament.

“I came out here yesterday and I didn’t shoot so well, I only shot a 101, so I was 11 strokes better than I was yesterday,” Kloss said. “It was a lot tougher conditions yesterday, but I was still extremely proud of myself for shooting as well as I did.”

Windom’s team score was rounded out by Marissa Cartwright with a 93 (she tied for third with Westbrook-Walnut Grove’s Molly Jarmer), Kelsey Hanefeld with a 95 and Megan Will with a 96.

The Eagles’ victory earned the team a trip to Wednesday’s sectional round at Marshall Country Club, with second-place finisher Fulda also earning a trip to sections.

“We came in today kind of figuring that we would probably be one of the teams going to sections,” FHS sophomore Madeline Westra said. “Windom’s got a couple of really good, consistent girls, and we said, ‘It might be close, but we’ve got a chance if we have a good day.’”

Westra led the Raiders with a fifth-place finish, firing a round of 94, with the team compiling a score of 397.

“If feels pretty good, I mean, I’m pretty young yet,” Westra said. “Congrats to Emaleigh, she’s a nice girl. It’s important to come in with a good score for my team so our team can do well, and it feels pretty good.”

Although Vreeman and Kloss had pretty steady scores throughout their rounds, Westra’s round was much more adventurous, such as following a birdie on No. 5 with a quadruple bogey on the next hole.

“I had some really really good holes and I had some really bad ones,” Westra said. “I birdied a par-3 and then turned around and went out of bounds twice on the next hole and got an eight.”

Fulda’s top-four was rounded out by Sarah Strenge (95), Tessa Kramer (99) and Caitlin Strenge (109). Mallory Pagel also recorded a 109.

Despite having a young lineup, Westra said that the team is simply looking to go out and try to be consistent at sections and see how things turn out.

Windom’s lineup this year is also very young, with senior Danielle Evers the only player older than 10th grade, but that hasn’t prevented the team from routinely beating all of its competition this year.

“Our team is just amazing,” Kloss said. “We are all so young, so it’s just kind of awesome how well we do every meet. We are just the best team ever I think, although everybody probably has the same opinion of their team.”

The Eagles are hoping they can seize the opportunity this year to make it to state by winning sections since next year a move to Class AA competition will make the whole process much tougher for the team.

“We’re definitely going to work our butts off so that we can do the best that we can at sections, because we all want to go to state so badly,” Kloss said. “We’re moving into the AA class next year, so it will be harder after this year. We are definitely excited about going to sections, but we also know that we have to work very hard to (get to state).”

Vreeman has made it to sections every year she’s been in high school — making it to state her freshman year and falling just short last year — and she is hoping that she can build off of Thursday’s performance to make it back to state this year.

“I’m confident as of now,” Vreeman said. “We’ll see how practice goes this week.”

Marshall Country Club is a course that rewards players that can drive the ball straight, and luckily that has been one of the strongest aspects of Vreeman’s game recently. Overall she feels pretty confident playing at MCC.

“I’ve played it quite a few times,” Vreeman said. “I like the course personally, it’s fun to play.”

Vreeman was one of seven individuals that qualified for sections in addition to the two teams that qualified.

The other individuals were Jarmer, Adrian’s Marissa Veld (95), Laura Lorang (102) and Katie Wieneke (108), Red Rock Central’s Alison Kircher (99) and Murray County Central’s Chelsey Jurrens (102).

Wieneke tied with MCC’s Michelle Carlson and Liz Prahm with round of 108, but won a playoff against the two Rebels to earn the final place at sectionals.

MCC finished third in the team competition with a total of 433, with Kirbie Tedrick rounding out the team score with a 115.

RRC was fourth with a 439. Shelby Evans (109), Makayla Meier (112) and Kylie Redenius (119) rounded out the team’s top-four.

Adrian finished fifth, with Samantha Boyle rounding out the team score with a 136.

SWC’s sixth-place team score of 445 was rounded out by Alexis Mesman (114), Jennifer Schmidt (123) and Carli Hulstein (129).

The Chargers had an incomplete team score. Paige Erickson carded a 110 and Abby Herding was in with a 114.

The tournament was originally slated to be played on Wednesday at Worthington Country Club, but Prairie View filled in very well as the stand-in host.

“It was just a gorgeous day out at Prairie View,” Westra said. “Prairie View’s a really nice course when it’s a beautiful day outside, but it can be kind of difficult when the weather’s not too nice.”

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