After two days of battling strong winds in Hutchinson, the girls golf team won second place at state with a total score of 713 Tuesday, Oct. 23. The team lost to Shawnee Mission East by 36 strokes but had two girls place in the top 10; senior Hannah Davie and sophomore Libby Green tied for fifth place with a score of 166, only 24 strokes over par.

After winning the state championship title in 2018, junior Ava Van Inwegen believes expectations were high going into the state tournament this year.

“[There was a lot of pressure] because people expected us to win again,” Van Inwegen said. 

Before the tournament, Van Inwegen knew there would be challenges to overcome.

“I expected the conditions to be rough,” Van Inwegen said. “I knew the competition would be difficult.”

On the first day of the tournament, Monday, Oct. 21, winds were as high as 29 mph, according to timeanddate.com. Green believes this put many golfers at a disadvantage.

“We’re not really used to wind play, because we live in Eastern Kansas where there’s not a lot of wind,” Green said. “Western Kansas is a lot different.”

According to Davie, the winds had a big effect on the golfers’ performance.

“It did affect us [because going] into the green you having to carry three clubs and the wind was taking the ball everywhere,” Davie said. “Most people shot five to ten more [than usual].” 

Compared to other teams at state, Green believes that Mill Valley handled the windy weather well.

“I think we played the course well,” Green said. “There was one hole where a bunch of the other girls shot out of bounds, but none of [the Mill Valley team] went out of bounds.

Despite the difficulties, Van Inwegen is content with the outcome of state.

“I think we all played calm and kept ourselves composed,” Van Inwegen said. “With the difficult competition, I am happy with second.”

After three years of varsity golf, Davie has mixed feelings about the season ending.

“It’s good because with school I’ve been really stressed and missing so much class,” Davie said. “But I’m also really sad; there were lots of tears on the way home.”

Davie is undecided on her future plans for golf.