GENOA - A season-long goal was finally realized by the Galena High School girls golf team on Thursday afternoon when the Grizzlies shot a school-record 418 to lock up third-place at the NIAA/U.S. Bank 4A State Tournament at Genoa Lakes.
Chandeni Gill shot even-par 72 to earn a third-place tie with Wooster's Aislyn Nelson on the leader board to help the Grizzlies post their 418 and finish the 36-hole tournament with an 854 total.
For Galena, this marked an improvement from last year's fourth-place finish at state.
"We had a good two days and I'm especially happy about their round today," Galena coach Keith Mussallem said. "We've been shooting for 420 all year and we finally got it today. That 418 is a good score; to get there, you've got to have four or five girls shoot well."
Ardea Canepa shot 84 and Brandi Blume 85 - both personal record rounds - and Kristina Ely shot another career-best 80, just as she had done in Wednesday's opening round. Gill's 145 was a lifetime best for a 36-hole tournament, although it was hard to tell by listening to her afterward.
"I struggled with my putting both days; I had five three-putts for the two days combined," said Gill, who was also named to the all-state academic list.
She didn't mind settling for the third-place tie with Nelson, either. The two started a playoff to decide third-place, but the playoff was called off after one hole because of darkness.
"This was for the better," said Gill, who played at state in each of her four years at Galena (she shot 101-98 as a freshman).
"We'll take this. We've been playing against each other since our freshman year, but there's no rivalry at all. We're completely friends," said Nelson.
Durango shot 786 to capture the school's first state girls golf team championship, 22 shots better than Bishop Gorman. Four-time defending state champion Green Valley finished sixth at 906.
Durango junior Whitney Welch finished at 5-under 139 to earn individual medalist honors, two strokes ahead of Gorman's Danielle Reilly. Welch shot 68 on Wednesday and followed up with a 71 on Thursday.
Ely finished at 160, Canepa 173, Blume 185, Shandra Cipriano 191 and Ryan Binker 202 to round out Galena's scoring.
