Jefferson Girls Golf

Furnish wins title at Pleasant Valley

IOWA CITY - Cedar Rapids Jefferson junior Megan Furnish fired a 2-over-par 38 Thursday to claim medalist honors at a quadrangular golf meet at Pleasant Valley.

Iowa City High won the meet with 188 shots. Jefferson placed second at 202, followed by Bettendorf (207) and Davenport West (243).

Emily Aukes shot a 50 for Jefferson. Leah Groe shot a 53 and Hilary Harriman had a 61.

Furnish wins the round, Askelson the title

There are two names to remember when it comes to girls golf in the Metro area this year.

They are Kimmy Askelson and Megan Furnish, and they both distinguished themselves Monday at the Mississippi Valley Conference division meet at Twin Pines Golf Course.

Askelson won the Valley Division title with a 36-hole score of 77-78-155 to claim medalist honors, while Furnish tied for the day's low round at Twin Pines with a 3-over-par 76.

Askelson won the MVC Valley title on the strength of her 77 at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville at the MVC Super Meet last Monday and her 78 at Twin Pines in Cedar Rapids on Monday. Furnish shot an 82 at Brown Deer for a 36-hole total of 82-76-158, good for third place overall.

Askelson was named the MVC Super Meet champion last week and the MVC Valley Division champion on Monday. She also was named the Valley Division Athlete of the Year.

"I like it. Yeah, it feels good," she said after winning the first MVC titles of her career.

Askelson, a senior at Xavier High School, was not entirely happy with her two-day scores in the MVC meets, however.

"I was with the 77 at Brown Deer, because that was tough, but not today," she said after her 5-over 78 at Twin Pines. "This is my home course and I scrambled the whole day."

The players had to endure a 45-minute rain delay Monday morning before finishing their rounds.

Furnish, a junior at Jefferson High School and the Valley medalist and Athlete of the Year a year ago, toured Twin Pines in 37-39-76 to share medalist honors with Megan Miehe of Dubuque Hempstead. Miehe had a 36-hole performance of 81-76-157 to finish third in the Valley standings, two shots behind Askelson and one shot ahead of Furnish.

Furnish hurt her chances of winning the Valley title by taking a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 13th hole at Brown Deer last week when she pulled her tee shot with a 5-wood into the water.

"It's a little disappointing, but it was a learning experience," she said. "Course management on that hole came into effect. I just made a wrong decision."

Furnish was happy with her 76 Monday.

"It was a lot better than the last round," she said. "You just have to forget about last week and play it as a new round."

Cedar Falls destroyed the competition in the Valley Division with a two-day score of 655, which boils down to an average score of 82 for all its golfers on two different courses. Xavier finished a distant second in the Valley standings at 744, a full 89 shots behind Cedar Falls.

Valley Division Standings

1. Cedar Falls 324-331-655, 2. Xavier 379-365-744, 3. Iowa City West 389-370-759, 4. Jefferson 422-387-809, 5. Prairie 421-399-820.

Individual Results
36-Hole Totals
1. Kimmy Askelson (CRX) 77-78-155; 2. Megan Miehe (DH) 81-76-157; 3. Megan Furnish (CRJ) 82-76-158; 4. Allison Rolinger (CF) 79-82-161; 5. Sonja Przybylski (CF) 83-79-162; 6. Megan Brewer (CF) 80-84-164; 7. Taylor Roberts (CF) 82-86-168; 8. Madison Goodfellow (ICW) 85-84-169; 9. Samantha Heinen (CF) 89-94-183; 10. Jehri Wagner (CRP) 86-98-184.

Monday's Results
At Twin Pines
Par-73

Cedar Falls (331): Sonja Przybylski 79, Allison Rolinger 82, Megan Brewer 84, Taylor Roberts 86.

Xavier (365): Kimmy Askelson 78, Grace Winker 94, Maddie Bertsch 96, Lisa Olberding 97.

Iowa City West (370): Madison Goodfellow 84, Alyssa Adamec 90, Madyson Boardman 93, Olivia Ewing 103.

Jefferson (387): Megan Furnish 76, Leah Gore 95, Emily Aukes 107, Hillary Harriman 109.

Prairie (399): Kerstin Flugum 95, Jehri Wagner 98, Emily Perrin 102, Jess Boldt 104.

Furnish wins, J-Hawks 3rd at Ellis meet

Megan Furnish shot a 38 to take medalist honors Thursday in a five-team girls golf meet at Ellis Park Golf Course.

Dubuque Wahlert won the team title with a 185. Linn-Mar was second at 191, Jefferson third at 194 and Kennedy fourth at 206.

Dionna Jensen shot a 46 to lead Linn-Mar. Ali Lindo's 47 paced Kennedy.

Team Scores -- 1. Dubuque Wahlert 185, 2. Linn Mar 191, 3. Jefferson 194, 4. Kennedy 206, 5. Dubuque Hempstead 224

Medalist -- Megan Furnish (CRJ) 38

LINN-MAR (191): Dionna Jensen 46, Rachel Thrune 47, Katie Harding 48, Julie Pople 50
JEFFERSON (194): Megan Furnish 38, Leah Groe 48, Hillary Harriman 51, Emily Aukes 57
KENNEDY (206): Ali Lindo 47, Paige Ermer 51, Sadie Schultz 54, Haley Corkery 54

Furnish ties for 6th at MVC

CORALVILLE - Xavier High School senior Kimmy Askelson tore a muscle in her right calf last spring and had her appendix removed last November.

Just imagine how good she'll be if she stays healthy for an extended period of time.

Askelson fired a 6-over-par 77 Monday to win the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet by two strokes on a sunny, breezy day at the Brown Deer Golf Club.

Askelson's calf is not fully healed, but she does stretching exercises to keep it loose and limber for meets. She struggled a little with a 40 on the front-9 Monday, but was a model of consistency with a 2-over 37 on the back-9.

Askelson said she felt "pretty good" about her 77.

"This course isn't easy, especially with the wind out there," she said. "I'll take it."

Amy Ihm of Dubuque Wahlert and Allison Rolinger of Cedar Falls tied for second place with 79s. Megan Furnish of Jefferson tied for sixth place with an 82 and Jehri Wagner of Prairie placed 10th with an 86.

Askelson stands only 5-foot-5 and 105 pounds, but Xavier Coach Julie Kadlec said her star golfer has "bulked up" since last year.

"It doesn't look like it. She's so slight, but she really has," said Kadlec, laughing. "She's gotten stronger."

Askelson said she began serious weight-training last fall, then had to take a break following her appendectomy. "I couldn't lift more than five pounds for a couple of weeks," she said. "I had to take it really easy."

Askelson can smack a golf ball, but two of her biggest strengths Monday were course management and a deft touch on the greens. She avoided all the water on the back-9 and softly rolled downhill putts within a few feet of the cup.

"Kimmy is just really meticulous," Kadlec said. "She just has a knack for knowing exactly how far she's going to be able to hit each club.

"She's fun to watch. She's one of those girls that even if you knew nothing about golf, it would be fun to follow her and watch how it's done."

Askelson had two opportunities on the back-9 to hit the ball over water and try for a shortcut, but both times elected to play it safe. It resulted in the conference title.

"Course management is huge. Just give myself the easiest next shot," she said. "I told one of our girls, Maddie Bertsch, to avoid trouble here. Don't go for it, because you don't get rewarded too often. So I followed my own rule."

Practice rounds are different. "Yeah, I would go for it," she said. "It's so tempting."

Askelson, who has signed to play golf at Drake, finished fourth at the state meet last year despite battling her calf injury at the time. She said her calf "felt better" Monday with the temperature hovering around 60 degrees.

Cedar Falls won the team title with an outstanding total of 324 based on rounds of 79, 80, 82 and 83 by Rolinger, Megan Brewer, Taylor Roberts and Sonja Przyblski. The Tigers won the championship by a whopping 38 strokes over Dubuque Wahlert.

MVC SUPER MEET
At Brown Deer Golf Club
Par 71

Team Standings

1. Cedar Falls 324, 2. 2. Dubuque Wahlert 362, 3. Xavier 379, 4. Iowa City West 389, 5. Linn-Mar 396, 6. Iowa City High 401, 7. Dubuque Senior 404, 8. Prairie 421, 9. Jefferson 422, 10. Kennedy 434, 11. Waterloo West 440, 12. Washington 461.

Top 10

1. Kimmy Askelson (Xavier) 77, 2. (tie) Amy Ihm (Wahlert) 79, Allison Rolinger (Cedar Falls) 79, 4. Megan Brewer (Cedar Falls) 80, 5. Megan Miehe (Hempstead) 81, 6. (tie) Megan Furnish (Jefferson) 82, Taylor Roberts (Cedar Falls) 82, 8. Sonja Przyblski (Cedar Falls) 83, 9. Madison Goodfellow (85), 10. Jehri Wagner (Prairie) 86.

CEDAR FALLS (324): Allison Rolinger 79, Megan Brewer 80, Taylor Roberts 82, Sonja Przyblski 83.
WAHLERT (362): Amy Ihm 79, Hilary Wareham 93, Lauren Gonner 95, Kaitlyn Burds 95.
XAVIER (379): Kimmy Askelson 77, Maddie Bertsch 97, Grace Winker 101, Lisa Olberding 104.
IOWA CITY WEST (389): Madison Goodfellow 85, Alyssa Adamec 95, Madison Boardman 102, Olivia Ewing 107.
LINN-MAR (396): Dionna Jensen 97, Rachel Thrune 99, Emma Lopez 100, Sarah Tegtmeier 100.
IOWA CITY HIGH (401): Elizabeth Wheeler 96, Katherine VanderWoude 98, Jordan Theisen 103, Emily Koepnick 104.
DUBUQUE SENIOR (404): Jordan Engelken 94, Jordan Hoftender 97, Kalyn Shutz 103, Molly Timmerman 110.
PRAIRIE (421): Jehri Wagner 86, Alyssa Beisker 105, Jess Boldt 114, Emily Perrin 116.
JEFFERSON (422): Megan Furnish 82, Leah Gore 109, Emily Aukes 112, Hillary Harriman 119.
KENNEDY (434): Ali Lindo 101, Paige Ermer 104, Sadie Schultz 113, Emily O'Brien 116.
WATERLOO WEST (440): Jordan Johnston 91, Lucy Dahl 114, Kaleigh Ubben 115, Lauren Denning 120.
WASHINGTON (461): Dani Willson 110, Abby Overland 112, Katie Rohde 117, Becca Herron 122.