The girls golf and boys tennis teams finished their seasons with trips to state competitions. They did not win in the state tournament; however, the participants had nothing but positive feelings about the seasons. 

Girls golf state was held on Oct. 8 and 9 at the Norfolk Country Club. Junior Samantha Randels participated in state and finished 43 out of 75. During the tournament, the athletes had to deal with high winds and frigid temperatures.

“I don’t think I did that well,” Randels said. “Judging the conditions I can’t be too hard on myself.”

Although Randels was not content with her placement, she plans on returning to the team next year. She does not know if she wants to play at the collegiate level, but she knows she wants to continue.

“It depends on how my senior year goes but I’m going to try to work for it,” Randels said. “I still would like to golf because I think it would be fun and a way to hang out with friends.”

In addition to girls golf, the boys tennis team competed in the state tournament. It was held at the Koch Family Tennis Center on Oct. 17 and 18. Everyone lost in the first round, except for junior Micah Bernal, who lost in the second round. However, Bernal was not disheartened by the outcome

“I felt pretty good because I didn’t think I was going to get five-game wins against Millard West, but we ended up only losing 5-12,” junior Andrew Pick said. “I’m pretty sure everyone kind of expected the result that we got.”

However, just because the outcome was not the best, the team was still happy with what they had accomplished. Improvement was one of the main goals of the team. This goal was chosen because over half of the varsity team was made up of freshmen.

“My favorite part is winning, I mean like progressing,” Bernal said. “I loved playing at state. I beat the number nine seed (Elkhorn), I lost to him 8-0 in the season, and then I ended up beating him. It was kind of a big win. Then I played Elkhorn, and I almost beat him. Improving was probably the best thing that happened to me this year. And I could tell at state tennis.

Similarly to Randels, Bernal also does not think he will stop playing. He is less optimistic about college but looks forward to playing in the future.

“I don’t know if I will go far with it,” Bernal said. “I don’t think I will even make it that far, but I could see it happening if I really wanted to. Just for fun, I’ll probably play all the time, I don’t know. It’s fun, it’s not like it has to be competitive. I can just go out and play, I have a tennis racket, so that would be really fun.