Mandan girls golf dominating WDA tournaments so far this fall

MANDAN, N.D. (KFYR) - The WDA has held five golf tournaments so far this fall. Mandan finished first in all five events. The Braves have won those tourneys by an average of 22 strokes.

“It’s been a joy to watch them work, and I’ve never had a group of kids work this hard,” said Dean Johs, Mandan’s head coach.

Hard work is paying off for the Braves. Mandan has won every WDA golf tournament so far this fall.

“Our group of seniors, I remember sitting them down when they were 8th graders and painting the picture of where we thought they could go, and it’s coming true. It’s probably better than what we thought,” said Johs.

“When we were starting in 8th grade, it was said our senior year is going to be a big year for us and that we need to put in the work and keep working hard so we can have the best year possible,” said Rylee Myers, Mandan senior.

Anna Huettl, Mandan senior, has earned medalist honors in every conference tournament. As great as that is, Coach Johs says he can rely on the whole team to contribute.

“The hard part to the depth is it’s hard having all those girls fighting for positions, because I have 10 that really could play varsity and they got to fight for six spots and they’re doing that every day,” said Johs.

“On each team, there are six golfers that they can take the score from, and the top four scores, and it doesn’t matter the ranking, but the top four scores are what they take. And as the team score, that’s what you total,” said Ruby Heydt, Mandan senior.

The total that counts the most is three weeks away at the Class-A state tournament at the Grand Forks Country Club.

“We went down there in the summer to see the course and practice there. I played there a couple of times over the summer. I played in a tournament there, and I know we’re planning on going down there as a team to play there and get ready for state,” said Huettl.

Winning the title will be tough.

“We pull us after each tournament. We pull us, the scores of Red River and Davies. And we go, we have a way to go because they’re ahead of us still, their average is better than us,” said Johs.

There are three more conference tournaments on the schedule before the West Region at Tom-O’Leary Golf Course later this month. The Class-A state tournament in Grand Forks is October 2-3.

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