State golf: Hale, Erie sweep 4A state championship with Holy Family in tow
May 21—COLORADO SPRINGS — Three years into its girls golf dynasty, it's almost a foregone conclusion that Erie will win a state championship. Tuesday at the Country Club of Colorado was no different.
Despite two days of unforgiving, windy and stormy conditions on the undulating course under Cheyenne Mountain, the Tigers ascended straight back to the top of Class 4A, for the third consecutive year, with a historic 60-stroke margin during the CHSAA state championships.
They crowned senior Logan Hale for the second year in a row, after she shot even-par 142 through two rounds and beat out second-place finishers — junior teammate Hadley Ashton and Windsor's Macy Kleve — by 16 strokes.
That, too, had never been done before, according to head coach Brandon Bird, who went so far as to dig through the Denver Post archives at the Denver Public Library to compile a historical record of every Colorado high school girls state championship.
"I am a numbers nerd like that, for sure," he said through a laugh while pulling up a spreadsheet on his phone. "It looks like Colorado Academy won by 52 strokes back in 2018. That's kind of the number that I'm looking at right now, which, I guess, is a little ironic because we talk so much about not looking at the scoreboard, not looking at the leaderboard, not worrying about anyone or anything external."
His research indicated that the previous, largest individual scoring deficit belonged to former Jefferson Academy golfer turned pro, Jennifer Kupcho, in 2014. Chasing history didn't seem to faze Hale much at all. Neither did the lightning delay toward the end of her round.
"I didn't know that until he came out to me and said that," Hale said. "I wasn't even thinking about that. Today, my goal was to just go out there and, again, just kind of play my game and see whatever I can do. It's surreal. I don't feel like I played amazing today, but I can't complain. This course, it'll get to you. You just can't let it get under your skin. It's going to be tricky, especially when you add the wind into it."
The Tigers placed three of their four scorers in the top five, with junior Taylor Hale claiming that fifth spot behind her sister and Ashton. She carded a 160, and senior Hollyn Drennen rounded out the team's effort with a 194, which was good for 45th.
The Tigers, while dominant, weren't the only cool cats from the region to flex their collective muscles. Holy Family earned the runner-up honors with 520 collective strokes, led by sophomore Steffi Heitz (168) and freshman Acadia Curtis (171) at 10th and 11th.
Heitz attributed her Tigers' big jump to head coach Heikke Nielsen, who worked with the girls on their mental game and enthusiasm on the course. His mantra resembled that of Ted Lasso's goldfish, by having a short memory after a tough hole.
There were plenty of those at Country Club of Colorado — for the entire field.
"We've really improved a lot. I'm so proud of them all and, hopefully, we just continue to improve next year," Heitz said. "He talks all the time about positivity and just focusing on the next shot, even if the last shot was bad.
"All the winds, and then the pin placements definitely made it a really tough course for everyone, honestly. I pretty much took the wind into account, aimed for the wind, and then I tried to land it shorter or longer, depending on hills or slope or anything like that."
Freshman Danikka Nielsen (25th, 181) and junior Fiona Holmes (30th, 186) took it home for Holy Family.
