Emery girls golf win 2A State Championship

By Gary Arrington
Sports Writer

It was a story four years in the making but last Thursday the Emery High Lady Spartan golf team completed their goal of a State Championship. In 2014, Sydnee Guymon, Taijah Price, Sarah Swasey and Sydney Timothy joined the first-ever girls golf team at Emery High as freshmen. At the end of that season, the team played at the 2-A State tournament in Richfield at Cove View Golf Course and finished third. In 2015, at the St. George Golf Course, the team finished third again and last year at Soldier Hollow by Midway, the team jumped to second place behind Rowland Hall. Now they have the title.
Four freshmen, four years of golf, had a dream and now it is reality. Teams play six golfers in each meet and so each year the team needed to more players to assist them. The last two seasons those players have been Lainee Jensen and Erin Oliverson. Lainee is the only non-senior of the regular varsity players.
Guymon finished fourth individually behind two girls from Rowland Hall and a girl from Beaver. Guymon had a score of 77 under the Stableford scoring system. The players ahead of her shot an 83, a 79 and a 79. Price was in fifth place with a 75. Last season, Price finished third and Guymon was fourth. Two years ago Guymon was sixth and Price was eleventh. Jensen shot a 68 and finished ninth and Swasey shot a 65 and finished fourteenth. Timothy shot a 63 and Oliverson shot a 43.
The Emery team score, which is the total of the four best scores of a meet, was 285. Rowland Hall finished second with a score of 276 and Beaver was third with a score of 263. Grand was fourth with a score of 259 followed by Delta, Providence Hall, South Sevier and Millard in the top eight spots. Congratulations to the players and to Coach Tom Hansen for a job well done and congratulations to the Emery School board for allowing this to become a sport at Emery High in time for these girls to do their thing and bring home the trophy.
Coach Tom Hansen had this to say about his team. “It was a great accomplishment and reward for the group of girls who started the team four years ago. Five of the six players on the team are seniors four of them competed at Emery’s first state championship. The team arrived at Mountain View golf course the day before the championship for a practice round. As they were leaving the high school one of the players received a text from her sister showing the course covered in snow. When they teed off at 1:30 that afternoon, it was expected that several teams would be playing that course that afternoon. There was still patches of snow
but the team decided that they could handle it and wanted to experience some of the conditions they may encounter the next day, so they golfed 18 holes. No other team showed up to brave the elements for a practice round that afternoon. Emery High Girls golf were the only ones on the course.
“The girls had a great practice round. They hit different clubs, especially on the par threes, to get their distances correct for the next day. It was breezy but that helped us prepare because Thursday’s conditions mirrored Wednesdays practice round. We were ready to play.”
Scott Lofley has been the assistant for the past three years and said, “This is a great group of girls. It is great to see them do so well and accomplish their goals of a state championship.”
“Coach asked me to win my group and that’s what I did.” said Erin Oliverson the only Senior not to compete in Emery’s first state tournament four years ago at Cove View golf course in Richfield, where in their inaugural season the team placed third in state. This year would be a different story for a team that placed third, third and second the previous three years.
“I couldn’t hit my driver as well as I usually do. But, I was hitting my irons solid.” said Lainee Jensen who was the only junior on the varsity team this year. Laniee played in the three position and won her group by 10 strokes. Helping give a cushion for the final two girls, Lainee was key to the team victory.
“We worked on my drives on the range before the round and I hit the ball well. I really putted the ball well today. I just don’t think putting is that difficult.” said Sydney Timothy. Sydney battled hard and had her best outing of the season. She also won her group. Sydney has been on the team for four straight years. She is easy to get along with and stays even keel and calm in all circumstances on the course.
“I have been working on slowing my swing down and not getting too worked up over one hole or one bad shot. I knew I needed a 65 today for our team to have a good chance of winning a championship and that what I did. Kasey Eddgehouse at the golf course has helped me improve and I am grateful for all my coaches help.” said Sarah Swasey. Sarah had a rough state tournament last year in terrible conditions at Soldier Hollow. On this day, her final day of high school golf, after four straight championship appearances, she dominated her group, hitting towering drives down the fairway. “I knew we could do this. We are a hard working group of girls this has been such a great experience. I just stayed consistent all day and did what I could to help the team win. The parade and greeting we had when we got home was awesome.” said Taijah Price.
She won the region Tournament shooting for 74 points in the stableford scoring system where a higher score is better and 90 is a scratch round of golf. She followed that up with 76 points at the state site. She was the fifth place medalist individually and helped lead her team to victory. Taijah rarely gets rattled and really performs well under pressure on the golf course. Sydnee Guymon, playing in the last group of the day as the first place overall medalist from region 15, said “I fought through a lot of emotions out there on the course today. There was a lot of adversity and it was not easy. I just tried to stay mentally tough and kept thinking of all the hours and hours of practice that had brought me to this point. I knew I had prepared and done all I could to get a state championship. I knew we really deserved this and I was not going to let down no matter what.”
Sydnee had to fight through a two stroke penalty for fixing a hole that was in disrepair due to a flag-stick that had damaged the rim of the hole. She also had a dog in a yard next to the course barking loudly in her back swing and cell phones going off while trying to hit the ball. She showed extreme mental fortitude to battle though the adversity and stay even with all the region champions. She would have finished tied for second without the two stroke penalty, but with it still shot a team best 77 points which earned her fourth place overall individually. For four years this championship was the goal. For three years that goal
was just out of reach. This year they would not be denied. As a team, they achieved the ultimate reward as State Champions at Emery High.
Congratulations to the team. We need to thank our many sponsors who help fund the green fees, balls, hotel rooms and other needs of the team. We would also like to thank our parents they supported us all along the way. In our region the teams loved coming to Millsite, because our parents would cook them a meal that would allow the girls to socialize after the round and make life long friendships. The team would especially like to thank the first responders that met them at the county line. The ride from there to the High School was a highlight they will not soon forget. Our community supports each other so well. No Salt Lake area team could ever get the feeling of love and appreciation that we did as we returned home to Emery County.