(Kaleb Center, CSC Sports Information)
For the third consecutive year, the Chadron State College golf team won a fall tournament in South Dakota, taking home the team trophy on Tuesday at the Hardrocker Invite at The Golf Club at Red Rocks in Rapid City. The Eagles, as did most other teams in the field, added strokes in the second round but came up victorious by 13 over the better of host South Dakota Mines’ two team entrants.
The Eagles won the 2020 Yellow Jacket Fall Classic, hosted by Black Hills State, and last year’s Hardrocker Invite, before carding 332-343-675 in this year’s event, which is 17 strokes back of last year’s performance at the same course.
CSC was without last week’s No. 3 golfer, junior Brooke Kramer, who tied for the team’s second-best round one at 79 last week before a hand injury took her out of the event.
“It was a great team effort,” said CSC Head Golf Coach John Ritzen. “This is usually the most difficult course we play all year, so we really tried to take the focus off of our scores and just play solid golf. It was more of a mental test, which will help us moving forward.”
Ironically, Chadron State led in every team statistical category this week except for birdies and eagles.
CSC senior Alpine Hickstein was the runner-up at the event, recording 77-85-162. She trailed the individual champ, Rianna Garland of South Dakota Mines, by four strokes over 36 holes. Statisically, Hickstein tied for the tourney lead on her par threes, at plus-two, and trailed only teammate Kinsey Smith for holes at even par.
The Eagles had four golfers in the top 10 on the leaderboard, in a field of 40.
Smith, a junior, tied for third at 82-84-166, while classmate Kenzey Kanno was sixth with a card showing 86-83-169. Those two played with the scoring groups and counted both rounds toward the team score.
Additionally, true freshman Aubree Heinsma of Windsor, Colorado, a high school teammate of Smith’s in 2019, tied for eighth, putting together an 82-89-171 showing as an individual performer.
Freshman Payton Wise of Kimball, Nebraska, another individual golfer, was the fifth CSC player in the top half of the field, firing 87-92-179 for 20th.
Chadron State will travel to Marshall, Minnesota, in a quicker turnaround than usual, to play at the Mustang Invite on Marshall Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday.
CSC individual results:
2, Alpine Hickstein, 77-85-162; T3, Kinsey Smith, 82-84-166; 6, Kenzey Kanno, 86-83-169; T8, Aubree Heinsma, 82-89-171; 20, Payton Wise, 87-92-179; T21, Allison Acosta, 87-94-181; T27, Jordan Grasis, 97-91-188.
Team Scores
1, Chadron State, 332-343-675; 2, South Dakota Mines A, 342-346-688; 3, Montana State-Billings, 348-350-698; 4, South Dakota Mines B, 345-355-700; 5, Minot State, 353-352-705; 6, Black Hills State A, 354-372-726; 7, Black Hills State B, 375-386-761.