Last week the LHS Girls Golf Team made history by winning the league championship for the first time ever in LHS history.
Zoe Bar-Or, Claudia Jones, Audriana Perez and Annika Heimbigner played in the tournament and Maddie Kusner was the alternate. Cumulatively their stroke count was 296.
Junior Bar-Or won the Jeffco league MVP and 1st team all-conference for a 3rd straight season. Annika Heimbigner, Audriana Perez and Claudia Jones were named 1st team all-conference for the 1st time! The Lions took 4 of the 8 all conference spots. Girls golf regionals is May 13th!
Coach Jared Prince is very proud of the girls hard work throughout the season, and the big win at League.
“The season was the most successful in school history. We won our first league championship, and we have probably the best golfer in the state today. We had two regionals in state, probably looking to win an individual state championship, hopefully, and then qualify as a team for state for the second time ever.”
All golfers who played in League were super excited for the big win. Not only was league super exciting and fun to play in, but the whole season has been too.
Audrina Perez said, “I think I played the best that I could’ve in the moment.”
Bar-Or said, “Individually I did well overall in our league tournaments. I shot in the 60s in a few tournaments, but 70s in most. I individually won almost every tournament this year. I plan to win regionals and state this year as well.”
Not only is Bar-Or one of the best players in the whole state but she also supports her teammates and people around her.
“I can see a huge improvement in my teammates this year, it’s clear everyone wants to get better. I love my team, they are all great people.”
While the lions spend a lot of time practicing and competing, there are a lot of moments for team bonding as well.
“I think our teamwork has been actually very good. We’ve all been very supportive. We’ve all like made sure to give each other tips on how to be better and just really cheered each other on even in like the harder situations,” said Perez.
Some of these girls have spent years mastering golf and all its techniques while others recently picked up a golf club in high school.
When asked about experience and skill level in gold, Perez said, “I started playing three years ago, so my freshman year, and that was the first time I ever picked up a golf club. I love golf, I personally really like it because it’s very freeing. I like that it’s not as competitive, like aggressively as most other sports are. My mentality has just been way better like the at the beginning of the year it started off pretty rocky, and then by the end of it, I’ve been feeling very good.”
Bar-Or said, “I’ve been playing golf almost every day since I was 9 years old. Over the years, golf has become my entire life. I’m so addicted to it and can’t go a day without a multiple hour long practice, it’s what makes me happiest. I absolutely love to compete. Winning is what drives me to practice and to work as hard as I do because I am so competitive and hate to lose.”
Heimbigner said, “ I love golf. I’ve been golfing for three years now, and the team and the community is just so amazing.”
“I’ve been playing golf for two years. I started last year and I really like the coaches and teammates. I was able to make varsity and especially for starting only like one year in advance! I think I’ve grown a lot in my overall gameplay, and just understanding the mental side of golf because it’s not like that athletically challenging but like mentally challenging,” said Jones.
Not only are these girls talented and driven, but they also strive for improvement.
“This year I have started working more and more on my mental game because in my opinion, golf is over 50% mental. This fall I was selected to be part of Team Colorado by the United States National Development Program which has recognized me as one of the best golfers in Colorado. The team board has taught me a mental strategy called Vision 54 which has improved my game immensely. I have also been working with my swing coach and a new short game coach that has contributed to my improvement throughout the year,” said Bar-Or in terms of improvement over the year.
“At league I played like the best I’ve played so far. I shot the best score and I was super nervous, but I kept calm. I did a little breathing exercise when I got kind of nervous and I was able to play the best I played, which helped me get into the first small conference cause I was like right on the edge on that. It’s hard to have a lot of teamwork during actual tournaments because you’re separated, but I think we had a lot of teamwork during practices like my coaches and my teammates always would help me like if a coach was unavailable. One of my teammates would come and help me if I was struggling with some with my swing or with any like putting and what not,” said Jones about improvement over the season.
Besides winning league, the team has had many highlights this whole year.
“Definitely, the highlight has been, like, [League] for sure, because getting to win league for the first time ever has been awesome. But also, winning the HAL Cup, against Arapahoe and Heritage, because we’re not known as a sports school, so getting to really get to have like a leg up kind of thing has really been awesome with just the whole team and everything. I love my whole LHS team and everybody is so awesome and so sweet and kind,” said Heimbigner.
The LHS Girls Golf Teams is a super talented and kind hearted group of girls who work hard at practices and tournaments alike. Make sure to check out how they place at regionals on May 13th!
