Left to right: Camila Quinonez, Mya Walter, Brianna Edwardson, Ava Beck, Tylie Brodina, Karlyn Rardon, Julia McIvor, Abby Troy (Not pictured: Jackie Juarez)
Devils Lake has a new team this fall.
The school reinstated a golf program this year, which got going for the girls in early August. The boys will compete in the spring.
The team began before any other fall team did — even before the football team started practicing. The first meet was on Aug. 12, and the birds were thrown right into the fire with six days of golf over an 11-day period.
The top golfer for Devils Lake has been sophomore Ava Beck. She posted the Firebirds’ best individual score in each of the first five meets of the season. She broke 100 for the first time on Aug. 12, in the first round of the East/West Classic in Jamestown, with a 98. She broke her personal best a week later on Aug. 19 in the Grand Forks Central Invitational with a 96.
On Sept. 4, in the Red River Invitational, Beck soared to even greater heights with an 84. Not only was it her new best score, but it qualified her for the state golf meet.
Right behind Beck has been her basketball and softball teammate Tylie Brodina. She’s come in no worse than third place among the Firebirds at each meet. She set her personal best on Aug. 28 in the Edgewood Invite with a 107, then beat her best score once again with a 103 at the Red River Invitational.
Besides Beck and Brodina, two other golfers have competed in every meet thus far: Jackie Juarez and Camilia Quinonez.
Juarez shot a 126 on Aug. 13 in the second round of the East/West Classic. It was her best score at the time, on a day when all six Devils Lake golfers posted their personal best. Juarez went on to get even better two days later with a 117, narrowly behind Beck’s 115 that day. She’s since come really close to breaking her record again, with scores of 118, 120 and 117 again.
Quinonez, meanwhile, shot a 113 on the day when everyone beat their best score. Her previous record had been 114. After back-to-back 118s, she set another personal best with 112 in the Grand Forks Central Invitational. She shot a 116 in the Edgewood Invite — continuing a model of consistency.
It hasn’t just been those four who’ve gotten a chance to compete.
Abby Troy debuted with a 133 in the Valley City Invitational, then improved with scores of 105 and 112 in the East/West Classic. Karlyn Rardon also competed at the first meet and posted a 141, then improved to a 126 in the first round of the East/West Classic.
Brianna Edwardson didn’t debut until the third meet, when she posted scores of 155 and 159. She returned two meets later at the Edgewood Invite and shot a personal-best 136.
Julia McIvor, who’s teammates with Beck and Brodina on the softball team along with being on the hockey team, has also competed in two meets. She shot a 111 in the Grand Forks Central Invitational, good for third out of six Devils Lake golfers. She improved in the Red River Invitational with a 102.
As a team, Devils Lake’s total scores have usually stacked up near the bottom. It’s part of the growing pains of developing a new team from scratch, especially when competing against some of the biggest schools in the state who already had golf teams.
The highest Devils Lake has placed overall in a meet was 10th out of 12 teams in the Valley City Invitational. It came in second-to-last twice, and last place two other times. The team’s personal-best score so far was +140 at the Grand Forks Invitational, which was the fourth meet of the season.
It’s all a continuing part of what’s most important for this team right now: improvement. Success isn’t going to come immediately for any brand-new team, regardless of what sport. But the Firebirds have been taking it day by day, meet by meet, and just trying to get better, whether it’s trying to beat individual records or working towards broader team goals.
And ideally, the future of Devils Lake girls’ golf will only grow stronger because of it.
