The Kimball High Boy’s Golf Team had a top three team finish at last week’s Nebraska State Tournament with the Class C Tourney held at the Kearney Country Club Course in near perfect weather conditions both days.

Coach Aaron Delhay was quite pleased with the final results as his team reached a goal that Delhay had set.

“In pre-season, I told the kids that I thought we could be state champions. Later I realized this was possible, but with the number of outstanding teams in our class, I felt a top five finish would be nice, but then I settled in at shooting for a top three finish,” said Delhay.

Kimball reached that goal by finishing third with 631 strokes, only 7 strokes back of the winners, Sutton, and just 4 strokes out of second place with Fremont Bergan shooting 627 and Sutton 624. The Longhorns were 10 strokes better than fourth place Kearney Catholic.

The Horns shot 319 on day one and were sitting in fourth place and 9 strokes back of the leading Sutton team, but came back on day two to shoot 312, the best score of the day, to close the gap on the leaders.

Michael Robinson, the lone senior on the Kimball team, closed out his high school career in grand fashion by finishing sixth in the top 15 individual medal group. On day one he fired a 78 round and then blistered the course on day two with a 71 for a 149 two day total.

Sophomore Jeff Greenwood was just 4 strokes out of a top 15 finish with his rounds of 79-80=159 as he played consistent.

Kendall Ferguson, a junior, was 1 stroke back of Greenwood with his rounds of 82-78=160, a bit back off his average on the season, but still a great second day to help the Horns move up.

Sophomore Todd O’Hare stepped up his game at the state level shooting 80-83=163, and sophomore Landon Smith also played strong at Kearney with his rounds of 86-89=175 as he shot better than 40 state golfers and finished 55th in a field of 95 class C golfers.

With everyone returning other than Robinson, coach Delhay is very optimistic about the program and yet another return trip to the state tournament.

The Kimball boys have now recorded seven consecutive state qualifying seasons and the future is bright with four returning state qualifiers off of this year’s team with other letter winners ready to move into the vacated spot, and also some very solid incoming freshmen players ready to challenge for a varsity spot.

As Coach Delhay talked about the state tournament, he recalled the play of Todd O’Hare as being very important in the success of the team as he played better than his average.

“Todd really stepped it up for us and everyone else more or less played about their average,” said Delhay.

“We could have put ourselves in a stronger position if we had played a little bit better the first day, but the way we came back the second day speaks volumes about this group of young men,” he said. Delhay pointed out that the score shot by Kimball this year was better than 31 of the past 39 state champions and was 11 strokes better than last year’s state champs. Kimball’s state champion team of 1993 shot 351, back when it was a one day tournament. This year Kimball shot 319 and 312.

This year’s team has to be one of the best ever to wear the Longhorn colors. Congratulations on a Great Job!