Finishing their season in the less-than-favorable conditions during the two-day 6A State tournament at Hutchinson, the Manhattan High girls golf team finished within the tournament’s first day of competition with some ranked individuals.

“The team did not make it on to the second day of competition,“ Paige McCarthy, head coach said. “So six of our girls didn’t get to play the second day.” 

At the end of the first day at state, the team as a whole didn’t rank within the top six couldn’t continue into the second day since only the top teams qualified to continue into the next day.

 “But four of them had low enough scores that they were low individuals and could compete for individual medals,” McCarthy said. “But if we take our four girls scores from Tuesday, and add them to our Monday score. we really would have gotten sixth place in state. [The players] had to grind through cool, cold, windy conditions, you know, and everyone in the field did, but I think it really is a good statement of our character competitiveness.”

Continuing their games through the weather Kansas threw their way, it didn’t stop senior Kami Bussmann from trying their best to finish the season with a high note after being able to continue to the second day of the tournament.

“So at state, I didn’t do as well as I wished but I’m still fine with my results,” Bussman said. “I shot a 93 both days and was more happy with my ability to bounce back from bad shots. I ended up placing 19th individually and I had never placed individually at state before so that was cool”

Even with the disappointment of not being able to finish in the top six teams at state, the team is taking it in stride and are preparing to work hard and be better next season.

“[They’re] just a nice set of girls to work with,” McCarthy said. “And we started out pretty strong at the beginning of the season we had a couple really good tournaments and I don’t think that we’ve finished quite as strong as maybe we all the girls and I wanted to. So I think it’ll make them kind of hungry for next year.”

Eventually, the team had to say goodbye to their senior teammate and leader and begin preparing the current juniors to step up and lead the team for next year’s season.

“Next year we’re going to be chock full of seniors and we’ll have some juniors that will figure into things too,” McCarthy said. “So I think that they’re figuring out that they need to not only practice in the summer, but they need to play some strong tournaments with good competition to prepare them for the season.”