×

Vest heads strong group of seniors for MHS girls golf

Kassy Vest and Emily Hass

The season start has already been delayed a bit for the Marshalltown girls golf team due to the winter weather still lingering.

While some coaches might be concerned about a lack of ability to practice on the course before getting started, Bobcats head coach Lucas Johnson said he isn’t sweating the bad weather because of the core group of experienced seniors he has at the top of the lineup.

“They know once we get out there what to expect,” Johnson said. “We don’t have to do quite as much work when it comes to rules, we don’t have to do quite as much work when it comes to course strategy and preparation because the girls have played the courses, so that’s a benefit.”

Heading that list of returning seniors is Kassy Vest, the lone state qualifier from last year’s team. Johnson said Vest, who placed 26th at the state meet in 2017, should be in for another good year.

“She is going to be a key contributor for us, I definitely expect her to be in the mix individually in a lot of meets,” he said. “We also have Emily Hass, who is a four year varsity player. She along with Kassy has played on every varsity meet since she was a freshman, so those are two tremendously experienced players at the top of our lineup. Both of them have shown a lot of growth and improvement over the last three years.”

Following just behind Vest and Hass will likely be senior Bella Russell, who is entering her third year competing on the varsity level.

“She has gotten a lot more consistent with her game,” Johnson said of Russell. “If you look at where she was at as a freshman to where she is at now as a senior she has shown a ton of growth as a golfer so I am looking forward to seeing her continue growing this season.”

Rounding out the group of seniors is Ciara Feldman, who Johnson said hasn’t been playing as long as the other girls but is likely the best athlete.

“Ciara came out for golf for the first time last year so she doesn’t have quite the same experience but she is someone who is super athletic and she got a lot better over the course of the season as it went on last year,” Johnson said. “She is still learning strategy-wise and just getting a feel for courses, she is still playing on new courses, so those extra two years that some of our other seniors have help them but Ciara is a quick learner and can make that up.”

While it will be the seniors leading the way, there is still a good crop of youth talent that will contribute for the Bobcats this season. Johnson pointed at sophomores Taylor Naughton and Emma Younkin as two girls that got some experience on varsity last year and will likely increase their roles this season.

“They are both fairly new to the game but they have family that play so they got some exposure that way,” he said. “They got a taste of what it was like last year, Emma played in two varsity meets last year and filled in for a couple of girls when they were sick, she knows what it takes to compete in a varsity meet.”

There are also a couple of brand new faces who Johnson is high on, particularly freshman Kyra Feldman, who he got to see in practice quite a bit in her final year in middle school.

“Having her as an eighth grader practice with us last year helped us a lot,” Johnson said of the younger Feldman sister. “She is someone who I looked at a lot last year and said if she comes out for golf as a freshman she will contribute, so we were really happy to have her come out because I think she is someone with a really high ceiling.”

Another newcomer looking to contribute in her first season is freshman Maggie Augustine, who Johnson said could see some varsity playing time.

“Maggie is someone who has just picked up the game in the last couple of years and she is very athletic too so I think we will see a lot of improvement,” he said.

Athleticism is a theme that most of the Bobcats have this year, as many of the girls are multi-sport athletes. Johnson said he loves that his girls are contributors in other sports for Marshalltown, and it ultimately makes them better on the course.

“I really like the fact that when you look at our senior girls, for the most part they are captains on multiple teams,” he said. “Ciara and Emily are leaders on the volleyball team and they know what it means to have success and work hard that way. Kassy Vest was a leader on the basketball team and I give her credit for fighting through, she’s a leader and she wants to experience success and she did last year as a state qualifier.”

There is a bit of a change to the golf outlook as a whole this year, as the girls have moved down from five classes to four. That means there will be more girls compete against for possible state positioning, but Johnson said he likes what the change does for his girls’ chances.

“They went from eight qualifying teams to ten, so that gives us a little bit more of a chance to sneak in as a team,” Johnson said. “It still comes down to who you are paired with and how the seeding goes, but I’d like to think that if we can improve like I think we can this season we will be in the mix for one of those team spots.”

Of course Johnson knows what it takes to be successful as a team at the state level, considering he and the MHS boys are coming off a state championship win at Elmwood Country Club in the fall. The girls’ state meet will also be at Elmwood this season, so Johnson said of course the ultimate goal would be to get his girls onto that stage as well, but he’s not putting that kind of pressure on the girls to match what the boys accomplished.

“One of the things I think is cool is the fact that anyone around the golf course knows there’s nothing secret going on,” he said. “There’s no magic pill that people are taking to make themselves better, they know that it’s hard work. A few years ago we had the phrase on the back of our shirts ‘the secret is in the dirt’ and that’s a Ben Hogan quote that means you have to dig. You have to take a lot of divots over the course of your career and eventually it will pay off.”

As for where he would like to see the girls finish this season, Johnson said obviously he would love a state berth for this team as well, but there are other smaller goals that they are more focused on reaching.

“We usually start the season wanting to get under the 200 mark from a four-scores perspective, we know that will put us in the mix in a lot of meets,” he said. “If we can get four girls that are shooting between 45 to 50, that will put us in a spot where we will be in a conversation. We have a little more leeway depending on who has a good day.”

The other encouraging thing about how much MHS brings back this season, Johnson said, is what the other teams around the CIML Iowa Conference lost.

“I think from a conference perspective, when we look at our dual meets I think they are all winnable,” he said. “Johnston is going to be the toughest dual meet, Mason City and Dowling both lost their top girls and both of them are DI golfers who went to UNI. They are going to be less formidable than they were in years past.”

The Bobcat girls golf team will start off the season next Tuesday when it takes on Dowling Catholic in a dual meet at the American Legion Memorial Golf Course, starting at 3:30 p.m.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today