Hard work pays off for Holaday at 4A state golf meet
Since the Holton girls golf program has been around, the team hasn’t been without a representative at the 4A state meet. That was no different this year as Quinn Holaday qualified for state competition and represented the Wildcats at Dub’s Dread Golf Course in Kansas City on Monday.
While the Wildcats wanted to return as a team, coach Dennis Tegethoff noted as long as they keep sending at least one golfer to the state meet, he believes that can be a hook.
“I think it’s good because it shows that we have some kids with some interest in golf and they’re staying with it and making some progress,” Tegethoff said. “I hope that there’s some incentive there for some other young golfers or some kids that have an interest in golf, you know, to kind of keep things going.”
That interest plus a competitive drive has proven to be a successful formula in other sports and Tegethoff said it is no different in golf.
“If you put the two together, usually you get some pretty good results,” Tegethoff said.
Work is another part of that successful equation and Tegethoff said Holaday exemplified that with how she ended her season. While he noted the junior plays softball in the summer, she also made time for golf once the softball season was over and it paid off.
Holaday closed the season with two solid performances and if not for a slow start in the first five holes at the state meet, Tegethoff said she very well could have been in medal contention. As it were, Holaday ended up finishing in a tie for 44th place out of 88 golfers.
“Improving with that kind of pressure on you and having to play the ball down, I thought that was a good accomplishment for her,” Tegethoff said.
Tegethoff noted the Wildcat golfer started on the back nine, what he considered the tougher stretch of the course, and ended up 11 strokes from medal contention. That finish was a testament to Holaday’s hard work, he said, and something he hopes rubs off on the other Holton golfers.
Holaday will be returning to the team next year and while the Wildcats will be losing seniors Ali Morris, Hannah Deegan and Paige DeLay, Tegethoff said the optimism and potential will be high once again. What Holton ultimately ends up doing, though, depends on how much of a commitment the Wildcats make in the offseason.
“We’ve got some kids coming back who could qualify and maybe as a team, but what happens between now and the middle of next August is going to be key to that,” Tegethoff said.
Overall, the 2014 campaign was still a pretty good one in the eyes of Tegethoff. The Wildcats captured a couple of team titles at various meets and had several individual medalists through the course of the season and the team will look to keep expanding on that success in 2015.
4A State golf
Team results:
1. Hays 364, 2. Hayden 380, 3. Goodland 391, 4. Labette County 395, 5. Winfield 406, 6. TMP-Marian 420, 7. KC Piper 427, 8. Andale 439, 9. Clay Center 449, 10. Anderson County 450, 11. Frontenac 452, 12. Spring Hill 456
Individual results:
1. Pool (Coffey.) 79, 2. Jensen (De Soto) 79, 3. Pennington (KCP) 83, 4. Bertholf (Win.) 85, 5. Schaben (Hays) 87, 6. Gartner (LC) 88, 7. Funk (Chanute) 89, 8. Rezac (Hay.) 90, 9. Moody (Front.) 91, 10. Patterson (Hays) 91
Other HHS results:
t44. Quinn Holaday 108
