Gunbarrel golfers perform well at state

The Fairview High School girls golf team took three girls to the 5A State Championship, two of whom are from Gunbarrel.

Senior Maddy McCambridge and sophomore Kelsey Webster, who live in Gunbarrel, competed at state along with freshman teammate Sophie Nelsen. The two-day tournament was held at Common Ground Golf Course in Aurora, on Monday, May 23 and Tuesday, May 24.

At the first day of the tournament, McCambridge finished with a score of 80, Webster came in with a score of 90, and Nelsen finished with a score of 106.

During that afternoon a big rain storm moved through the Denver area, bringing with it strong winds and cold weather that made it harder to play at times. But the girls pushed through and finished strong the first day, and gearing up for their second and last day of the tournament.

McCambrdige came in 12th place overall with a second day score of 79, and Webster finished in 42nd place with a second round score of 84. Nelsen finished her second round with a score of 101 and came in at 80th place.

“I expected Maddy [McCambridge] to play well,” Head Coach John Zerwin said of his top player. “We were hoping she would get up in the top 10, but she didn’t quite get there. Sophie [Webster] I expected to play a little bit better than she did, but it was a very tough course.”

Zerwin explained that the course was longer than the girls are used to playing and the thick grass surrounding the greens made it more difficult.

“If you hit it in [the rough] it took a lot to get out,” Zerwin said of the tough grass.

Zerwin said it’s hard to be 100 percent happy with how every hole is played and there were some holes the girls wish they could redo. But in the end the three girls were happy with how the tournament went.

“I think overall they were really happy,” Zerwin said of the girls. “Maddy had a good year. She didn’t play as well as she had hoped. Last year she won our league and finished seventh in state. This year she did not win the league, but was first in all-conference and came in 12th at state, which is very solid.”

Coach Zerwin has high hopes that Webster and Nelsen will return to play next year since they are still young in their high school careers. He hopes they can just add to the great foundation they’ve already started.

“Kelsey is only a sophomore and Sophie is a freshman, so I believe they will come back next year and play,” he stated. “Hopefully [we will] get that much better and go from there.”

Zerwin mentioned the weather had some effect on the tournament, but it wasn’t something that only impacted his team.

“Both days had weather that interfered with play, but everybody basically got part of it,” he said. “It was never a situation where nobody got inclement weather, everyone got a little bit. It’s just part of golf. Everybody has to play in the conditions.”

The girls golf 5A State Championship was comprised of 84 girls from 16 schools that each qualified a team, and some individual players. Zerwin was surprised to see higher scores than he expected, but knew the course wasn’t easy.

“I was surprised a little bit,” Zerwin said. “Scores in general were a little higher than I thought they’d be. The good players, the top five players, shot pretty low scores but beyond that they were higher than I expected. But that’s a pretty difficult golf course.”

Overall Zerwin is happy with how his team played, and is proud of the work and dedication they put in this year.

“I was very pleased with how they played,” Zerwin said. “They did a great job. They all worked really hard all year, and it was a really good year.”

Zerwin will be losing McCambridge, who is graduating this year and will be playing golf at the University of Wisconsin-Stout next year. He said she’s looking forward to her new adventures and challenges in the years ahead.

“She’s excited to move onto the next level and looking forward to playing golf at college,” Zerwin said.

“It was a nice surprise to have a freshman make state and the experience will just help her in the future,” he added of Nelson. “I’m looking forward to where we can go with the team next year.”