Lady Cats win state golf

The Thermopolis High School Golf Team headed to Newcastle last Thursday to compete in the 2023 Class 2A State Golf Tournament. The event was hosted by Upton High School on September 15 and 16. Thirty six holes were played over the two day tournament. At state, each team is allowed up to five players on each of the boys and girls teams, with team scores determined by the best three players on the girls team, and the best four players on the boys team.

Play commenced with a shotgun start on Friday at The Newcastle Country Club - a nine hole, semi-private facility, which first opened in 1966. Interviewed earlier last week, Beau Garcia, coach of the Upton team, commented that the Newcastle Course boasts of a degree of difficulty in play - composed of long par threes, and plenty of penalty areas to avoid. Thermopolis coach, Brandon Deromedi, echoed those thoughts stating, "The course was very challenging – even deceptive, with greens that began to play faster on Saturday (after rain in the area earlier in the week), and that were very difficult to read."

The Lady Cats State Team is young this year, with just one senior, Maggie Landon, and two sophomores, Lilly Johnson and Madison Shaffer. Although the three girls comprised the minimum number of players to compete in the state girls tournament, their play at state was both remarkable and winning. The Lady Bobcats team brought home the first state championship since 2008.

On the boys side, once again the state team is young – comprised of three juniors, Hayden Overfield, Van Epperson and Zerrian Stone and two freshman, Hayden Johnson and Camden Weyer. While the difficult course proved the predicted challenge on day one for the boys, all team members improved their scores on Saturday, with the top three players finishing: 5th Hayden Overfield (173); 26th Hayden Johnson (221); and 29th Zerrian Stone (224).

Five teams competed for the Girls 2A State Championship, with the Thermopolis girls team coming out on top with a team score of 653 – just one stroke better that the second place team from Sundance. The Lady Cats improved their Saturday scores remarkably, having finished the day Friday sitting in third place at 339, behind Sundance (317) and Wright (334). Lilly Johnson (208), and Madison Shaffer (221) finished in fifth and sixth place, with Maggie Landon just one place back, tied for seventh, at 224 for the tournament. On Saturday, Lilly Johnson scored an impressive 92, shaving 24 strokes off her first round, to lead the Thermopolis Lady Cats and helping to secure the State Championship.

Coming into the tournament, the Thermopolis boys team had claimed five straight state titles - covering seven of the last nine state tournaments. This year the Bobcats finished eighth in the boys team standings. Van Epperson and Zerrian Stone each played in their first state tournament, after competing for the first year.

Coach Deromedi remarked that the Bobcats have historically been a "Day Two Team", improving their performance in the second round of play, and this year proved no exception. Overall, coach felt that Lilly Johnson and Zerrian Stone had made the greatest improvements in their game over the course of the year.

Coach Deromedi has now brought the Thermopolis teams to five state championships – four for the boys and now one for the girls. "The teams did everything I could have asked of them at the tournament, and I am very proud of them," he said. "I never brag that I did well. When they win, it's due to their own effort and skill. These are all awesome kids, and I really enjoy coaching them."

Looking ahead, coach Deromedi advises that the spring season begins in April and notes that he's already seeing some intriguing players coming up from the middle school next year.