The Minnewaska Area girls golf team was one of six Laker teams advancing to the state tournament over the last year, joining the boys tennis team, trap team and girls track team (True-Team) from last spring, the girls cross-country team from this past fall and girls basketball team from this winter.

The Lakers not only won the Section 3AA golf title last season, it dominated the tournament, winning by 88 strokes.

Last year’s state girls golf team included one junior (Arivia DeBoer), one sophomore (Ava Kollman), one ninth-grader (Annika DeBoer) and three eighth-graders (Kyra Nelson, Lillie Ogdahl and Anna Kollman) among its top six.

The Lakers, coached by Tony Janu and Jenna Janu, also won all eight WCC meets to add a WCC title to its list of accomplishments.

This year’s girls golf team is set to open up the schedule Friday, April 11 at a pair of WCC meets at Montevideo and BOLD.  

Minnewaska Area also hosts a girls invitational, Friday, May 16.

BOLD placed second at every meet last year to place second overall with 56 points, followed by Melrose (48), Montevideo (27), Benson and Morris Area (both 24), and WCA and Sauk Centre (both 23).

At the state meet, the Lakers placed third overall with a 518 total (345 and 173).  Earning first was Detroit Lakes (486), while Lake City was second (499).

The Lakers are set to host a WCC meet at home, Wednesday, May 7, also playing at Benson that day, while the start of the Section 3AA Tourney is set for Wednesday, May 21 with the preliminaries at Buffalo Lake.

•  All six members of last year’s Laker girls golf team earned All-Conference honors by placing among the top 15 individual golfers in the conference. 

BOLD’s Kenna Henriksen earned WCC medalist honors for the season with a 39.17 average, while Arivia DeBoer was second with a 39.5 average and Annika DeBoer was third, averaging 40.17.

In addition, Ava Kollman placed fourth overall with a 41.33 average, Kyra Nelson was sixth (45.0), Anna Kollman was 12th (48.83) and Lillie Ogdahl earned 14th (49.17).

The 15-member All-WCC team included six from Minnewaska, five from BOLD, three from Melrose Area and one from WCA.

One year earlier, in 2023, Ava Kollman was first in the conference, Annika DeBoer was second and Arivia DeBoer finished third in the league standings.

•  At the state tourney last year, Ava Kollman led the Lakers with a 27-hole total of 120 (81-39) to tie for 10th overall, while Annika DeBoer was next in 31st place with a 128 total on rounds of 85 and 43.  The state tourney was shortened to 54 holes last year due to weather.

Lake City’s Jordana Windhorst-Knudsen made up four strokes the second day to win the Class AA individual girls’ title.  She had a 78 the first day and 36 the second for a 114 total to win by one stroke over Kelby Anderson of International Falls (74-41–115) and Elizabeth Fong of Holy Angels (74-41–115).

Also golfing for the Lakers at state were Arivia DeBoer in 42nd (87-46–133), Kyra Nelson in 52nd (92-45–137), Lillie Ogdahl in 71st (103-49–152) and Anna Kollman in 84th place (109-56–165).

In 2023, Arivia DeBoer and Ava Kollman also earned individual state berths.  During the state tourney, DeBoer had a total of 167 over 36 holes (rounds of 84 and 83) to place 25th overall out of 88 golfers, while Kollman had a 187 total (98 and 89) to place 57th.

•  Annika DeBoer and Ava Kollman had the low 18-hole rounds for the Lakers last season with 75s at the Minnewaska Invitational, while Ava Kollman also had the low 9-hole round with a 35 at Montevideo followed by two 37s by Arivia DeBoer at Melrose and Montevideo.