Small Crestwood girls' golf team has experienced players

CRESCO - With only six total golfers on the squad, the 2018 Crestwood girls’ golf team will have a small squad. However, what they lack in numbers, they make up for with experience.

Five of the six players on this year’s team are returning letterwinners. They include: Megan Ferrie, senior; Ashley Voves, junior; Kryslynn Ruppert, sophomore; Hailey Panos, sophomore and Isabella Lehmkuhl, sophomore. Senior Karissa Stika will also compete for the Cadets this spring.

During the 2017 season, the Cadet girls’ team placed seventh at the regional meet and sixth at the Northeast Iowa Conference Meet. Voves (12th place) and Panos (14th) both earned All-Conference honors last year.

Crestwood Girls’ Golf Head Coach Jason Sorenson said the experience the returning players received last year will help the team this spring.

“We have some good, experienced players coming back,” Sorenson said. “We have a core of girls who participated in a lot of varsity meets last year. They have a good understanding of the game, and they carry themselves well on the course.

“The girls will play a similar schedule to what they played last year. The more we can play our home course and other courses, the more experience we’ll get, which will help with our strategy on the course,” Sorenson said.

The coach noted that if the girls can improve on their short game, that will lower the team scores.

“The short game is always an area where you can cut off some strokes,” Sorenson said. “If we can play a little bit cleaner around the greens, that will help. In all sports, the sooner you can let go of a bad shot or play, the more successful you will be in the rest of the game. The mental strength is something anyone can work to improve,” Sorenson said.

He said the team has a few simple goals.

“We have our process goals which include: play honest, play one shot at a time and have fun,” Sorenson said. “We’ve had those goals for the past eight years. 

“I think we are getting to a point with our experience that we’re also looking at result goals as well. We don’t have any specific result goals (in terms of scores), but I think these girls have enough experience that they have some competition aspirations as well as their process goals. We are getting a mindset (as a team) of moving beyond just the regular season meets, but that will take a lot of effort and practice,” Sorenson said.

He anticipates the Cadet girls’ team will be competitive within the Northeast Iowa Conference.

“As a team, we should be in the middle to the top of the conference,” Sorenson said. “That always depends on how well we can work on things and our effort. We just need to hit one shot at a time and keep practicing,” Sorenson said.

Unfortunately because of the weather, the girls have not been able to practice very often on the golf course since practice began in mid-March.

“We were able to chip on the range and work on our escape shots once,” Sorenson said. “Otherwise, we’ve been practicing at the Cresco Fitness Center. I appreciate the work the fitness center has done to allow us to practice there, and that has been beneficial for us."