The North Platte Lady Panthers made school history Wednesday, Sept. 16, traveling to Plattsburg and coming away with the program’s first girls golf victory.
In just the third match in North Platte girls golf history, the Panthers posted a combined team score of 239 to secure the win.
Leading the way for North Platte was senior Annabell DeBord, who carded a 52, the lowest individual round of the match for either team. DeBord’s steady play helped set the tone for the Panthers throughout the round.
Junior Kaitlyn Comer and senior Taylor Sipes each posted rounds of 61, while senior Emily Goodlet rounded out the team scoring with a 65.
The victory marks a significant milestone for a program that is playing its inaugural season, with all four North Platte golfers being new to the sport when the season began.
Head Coach Ryan Cook said he couldn’t be happier for the girls and the work they have put in since the beginning of the season.
“My heart is happy for these girls who keep putting in the work and exceeding all expectations,” Cook said. “These girls are like a sponge when it comes to learning this game. They are taking it all in and consistently getting better.”
While the Panthers celebrated their historic first victory, Cook believes the team still has plenty of room to improve.
“Another thing is, we are not done getting better,” Cook said. “There are areas of our game that are going to be easy to tweak to lower our scores even more.”
North Platte’s first victory comes only three matches into the program’s existence and provides another encouraging step forward for the young Lady Panther golf program.
North Platte traveled to Lawson on Tuesday, September 22, to take on Lawson and Cameron at Hidden Valley Golf Course.
The Panthers showed plenty of flashes of strong play throughout the round, but the Panthers were unable to put together enough consistent shots to post the score they were looking for.
“We hit a lot of great shots during the round, but we could not string together enough good shots to score well,” Cook said.
The Panthers finished the day with a team score of 250, falling short of Lawson’s team total of 201. Lawson’s score was made up of four strong individual rounds and proved to be too much for the Panthers to overcome.
DeBord once again led North Platte, posting the team’s low round of 58. Sipes followed with a 61, Goodlet carded a 64, and Comer finished with a 67.
The Cameron Dragons placed third with a team score of 257.
Although the Panthers did not get the team result they were hoping for, the young North Platte squad continues to gain valuable experience during its inaugural season of girls golf.
North Platte will return to action Wednesday, September 30, at the KCI Girls Golf Tournament hosted by Hamilton at Veterans Memorial Golf Course in Cameron.
The tournament will mark a milestone for the KCI Conference, as this will be the first year the conference has had enough schools participating in girls golf to make it an official KCI Tournament event. All KCI schools now participate in girls golf with the exception of Lathrop and West Platte.
With each match, the Panthers continue to gain experience, confidence and knowledge of the game — and the historic win showed just how quickly the program is developing.