Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

A two-win week for Payton Wise

Wise wins again at Creek Valley

Attention readers:

These two stories were intended to run in last week's Observer Sports.

These stories were inadvertently left out of print last week, though they did appear on the website.

A break-out week for Kimball High freshman Payton Wise as she picked up the first place gold medals in both tournaments the Kimball girl's golf team was involved in this past week.

Wise finished first at the Kimball Invitational tying the school record with her first round of 82, and then captured the medalist honors again at the Creek Valley Tournament held at Chappell with her round of 86. Her efforts helped Kimball to second place finishes in both events.

A nice golf day for the Kimball Tournament with a cool start and the wind staying down but the field of golfers was small as many schools were at the Scottsbluff Tournament. Bridgeport took the top team honors with a score of 407 with Kimball runner-up at 433. Coach Todd Janicek's Bridgeport team had all four girls finish in the top ten medal group with Molly Lambert 2nd with her round of 93, Awni McGrath 4th with 99, Kaeli McVicker 5th at 105, and Toni Mitchell 6th with 111.

Kimball actually had five girls finish in the top 10 medal group with Wise well ahead of everyone with her record setting round of 82 which tied the record established by Loni Janicek, also shot on the Kimball course, back in 1999. Wise shot 40-42 en-route to her win. Raven Johnson shot the same score as second place but settled for 3rd via a score card playoff. Her nine hole scores were 49-44=93 but did not count in the varsity rounds as she was playing as a JV golfer on this day. Sheridan Magninie finished 7th at 54-58=112, Carli Wurdeman was 8th with her round of 57-55=112, and Maddie Cook was 10th at 61-66=127. Sam Bemis, playing also as a JV, shot 58-71=129.

Coach Luke Maas was proud of the performance of his girls, especially of the exciting round shot by his prized young freshman. "We are improving but we still have a ways to go, but with a lot of work in practice we can keep improving and trying to get to where we want to be," he said.

Wise wins again at Creek Valley

After her individual win on Tuesday, Miss Wise came right back with another gold medal performance on Thursday at Creek Valley, once again shooting a winning round in the 80s with nine hole scores of 44-42=86. Kimball had three girls in the top ten medal group with Carli Wurdeman 7th with her rounds of 58-51=109, and Sheridan Magninie finished 9th with her round of 57-53=110. Maddie Cook shot 58-32=120 finishing just out of the medal group. Raven Johnson withdrew from scoring as there was an issue of score cards not matching.

Bridgeport shot a very good team score to win team top honors with their 383 while Kimball was second once again with 425. Bridgeport had individual places of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and 6th and so far that appears to be the team that Kimball is chasing in trying to get that first win. Coach Maas said "Overall we had a good day but definitely we are ready to win one".

 
 
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