By David Paulsen
Sports Correspondent
The Southern Lakes Conference girls golf final results are now complete and nothing has changed from one year ago.
The Union Grove Broncos repeated as SLC champions, and Bronco sophomore Mari Suokko was once again named the SLC Player of the Year.
Union Grove and Waterford were tied going into the SLC Tournament Tuesday after both went 5-1 in SLC duals. That meant it came down to which team could win the conference tournament played at Brown’s Lake Golf Course.
The Broncos took the top spot, thanks to a 379 team score. Westosha Central had the second best team score with a 386, followed by Waterford with a 396. Wilmot was fourth with a 398, Burlington fifth with a 401, Elkhorn sixth with a 415, and Lake Geneva Badger seventh with a 453.
Adding together points from both the dual portion of the season and the tournament places, Union Grove won the SLC crown with 22 points, followed by Waterford with 18 and Westosha Central with 17.
Wilmot was fourth with 10 points, Elkhorn fifth with nine, Burlington sixth with five and Badger seventh with no points.
“Winning our second conference championship in a row is pretty special,” Union Grove head coach Eric Swanson said. “Waterford is a very good team, as is Westosha, so to come out on top is a pretty big deal. The girls worked hard in the off season, and it’s nice to see that hard work pay off.”
Swanson noted that the Brown’s Lake course played very tough and that was reflected in the scores of all the golfers from all the teams.
Suokko carded an 83 to edge Westosha’s Madison Fenske by one stroke as the meet medalist.
Suokko did not hit the ball well on the front nine, shooting a 46, but put it all together in the back nine to card a 37.
“She really has elevated her game over the past couple of weeks,” Swanson said.
Fenske had a 43 on the front nine and a 41 on the back nine.
Sarah Schuster added a 95 for the Broncos and Tara Manteufel a 98.
“Sarah had one bad hole putting, but other than that she really hit the ball well,” Swanson noted. “She has been playing much better as of late and today it came together in a personal best round.”
Rounding out Union Grove’s team score was Emily Garbie with a 103. Jorey Staven also competed and carded a 105.
Waterford
The Wolverines were led by Breanna Bertschinger with a 96. Leilyn Nowaczynski and Taitum Beck each carded 98s and Brittany Raab turned in a 104.
The fifth Waterford golfer Tuesday was Lauren Torhorst with a 113.
“The scores weren’t our best,” Waterford head coach Jody Hanson said. “They struggled with the greens. The greens were fast and the pin placement was difficult.”
Hanson added that the girls struggled on the front nine, but were much more impressive on the back nine.
The Wolverine girls shot a 207 on the front nine, and a 189 on the back.
Besides the course playing tough, Hanson said that each of her girls struggled in different areas.
Burlington
The Demon girls had the second best score after the first nine holes, carding a team score of 200, but could not match that on the back nine. The girls had the second worst team total on the back nine with a 201.
Ellen Stang led Burlington with a 90 (44-46), but no other Demon broke 100.
Ashley Storck carded a 100, Danni Robers a 104, and Quinne Herolt a 107.
The fifth Demon competing Tuesday was Lauren Hockman with a 110.
The fifth-place finish in the tournament was a significant drop for the Demon girls, who took second in the tournament one year ago.
All-Conference selections
Suokko led the first-team selections, which also included Fenske, and Westosha’s Leah Birch. Elkhorn’s Taylor Lockhart and Waterford’s Bertschinger rounded out the first team.
Fenske, Birch and Lockhart are all seniors. Bertschinger is a junior, and Suokko a sophomore.
The second team included Stang from Burlington, Elkhorn’s Hannah Grobelny, Wilmot’s Marnie Destree, plus Beck from Waterford and Manteufel from Union Grove.
Of the second team, Grobelny is the only senior. Stang, Destree and Manteufel are juniors, while Beck is a freshman.
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