Fernley golfers finish season with eye on next year

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

A mostly new group of players this season focused mostly on learning the game leaves the Fernley High School girls golf program looking forward to better days next season.

The Vaqueros finished fifth in their last Northern 3A League meet of the season on Oct. 14 at Sierra Sage Golf Course, hosted by North Valleys.

Fernley posted a team score of 555, and while that was significantly behind the other four schools that fielded complete teams, it’s the experience and improvement each player showed that made coach Brian O’Neill happiest.

The team was made up of sophomores Haeley Diehl and Teagan Summers, juniors Laney Miller and Josey Youngs, and Leonie Dechant, an exchange student from Germany.

“Each athlete improved as the year went on,” O’Neill said. “This year’s returners showed considerable growth and understand what they have to do before next season. There is no reason that they won’t compete for a position in the state tournament field next year.” 

Diehl had the best score of last week’s final round, at 121.Miller shot 138, Youngs finished at 146 and Dechant checked in at 150.

Elko won the meet with a team score of 404, while Truckee’s Ryan Flynn continued her domination of the league as the low medallist at 78. Flynn finished as the league MVP with an average round of 75.6, while Elko, Truckee and Spring Creek were the three teams that qualified for the State meet.

There, Flynn fired a second-round 66 to finish with a two-day total of 143 to win the 3A state championship, while Elko placed three players in the top 10 to win the team championship with a two-day score of 743.