In the gorgeous weather Wednesday at the West Liberty Golf Club, the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls golf program saw the last two seasons plus pay off. The time these Hawks spent on the driving range, chipping and putting greens, grinding out rounds in miserable weather and as a young taking their lumps, all turned into celebration, accolades, and a bright green banner. Mid-Prairie qualified as a team for their first state tournament since 2014, with a round of 392, finishing in second place in the regional final tournament. Anamosa won the title with their team round of 384. Madi Davidson led the Golden Hawks with her round of 92, Olivia Hines of Mediapolis was meet medalist with a 91. Other scores for the Hawks included Madelyn Bender 98, Elliot Debler and Addison English each at 101, Gabi Robertson 102 and Alexa Huber 106.

Head coach Tracy McArtor joined KCII sports to talk about the day, the team’s progress this season and what it means for this group to make the state tournament. “I told them how proud I was of them. These last two weeks they have done exactly what you would expect of them, shooting their best rounds of the year at the regional tournaments. Putting their game together. I look at it as unbelievable. I have never had a team this young, excel that quick, but you could kind of see it in them coming up last year. The experience that they got. They got thrown in the fire right away and it was sink or swim. They ran with it and said ‘bring it on, we’ll play against anybody’. Why not these kids? They’ve worked hard for it. I’m super proud of them, they have done a great job.”

The Golden Hawks will be in action at the Class 2A State Golf Tournament May 26th and 27th at Pheasant Ridge Golf Course in Cedar Falls. Catch comments from all of the Mid-Prairie girls and head coach Tracy McArtor on the KCII PM Sports Page.