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Free State’s Laurel Stancil hits a drive during Day 1 of the KSHSAA 6A girls golf state tournament Oct. 20 at Hesston Golf Course in Hesston.
For the second straight season, the Free State girls golf team clinched a trip to state. And for the second straight season, one Firebird made the cut to extend their time at state to Day 2.
But this year, that lone Free State golfer will actually be set to return the next year and will look to help the team try to build upon what is already proven to be a strong, young core for the Firebirds.
Free State sophomore Laurel Stancil led the way for the team at the 6A state tournament on Oct. 20 at Hesston Golf Course. Stancil shot a 90 on Day 1, allowing her to make the cut for Day 2 by a few strokes. Her score also tied for her second best 18-hole score this season after having notched the same score a month before during the opening round of Sunflower League championship tournament.
The next day at state, Stancil scored a 95 finish with a two-day 185.
Free State collectively shot a 397 on Day 1 of state, giving the team its eighth outing this season with a sub-400 score. But outside of Stancil, no other Firebird were quite able to make the cut.
Free State head coach Layne Meyer was still proud of his team’s overall performance.
“I know some of them would have liked to have played better,” Meyer said. “You always like to have your peak in the postseason. So some of them, I think, were a little disappointed with how they played. But I was proud with the way they competed.”
As for Stancil, she said she felt “pretty good” about her performance at state.
“I think that I could have done a little bit better, but there was definitely a lot more pressure than I was expecting,” Stancil said. “It was more stressful than some of the other tournaments, but I think that overall, I’m happy with how I did.”
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Claire Heinritz walks toward her ball to put during Day 1 of the 6A state tournament.
Late on Day 1, Stancil tried to focus on remaining consistent down the stretch.
“I just really focused on trying to do my best on each hole, even with the hard winds, to just try to get pars and bogeys so that I could stay close,” Stancil said.
By getting bogey on 12 straight holes heading into her final hole of the day, Stancil kept herself right at the cut line. She closed out the day by hitting par, which was her second par of the day, on the way to clinching her spot for Day 2.
But Stancil ended up competing on Day 2 alone after senior teammate Claire Heinritz fell three strokes short of advancing. Heinritz finished with a 25-over-par 96.
Sophomore Tola Jankowski took 62nd with a 102 while sophomore Mallory White finished in four-player tie for 74th with a 109. Senior Haylee Graham finished one stroke back of White to finish 78th. Junior Avery Lonnberg shot a 120 to finish in 86th.
Heinritz started her day at state strong, even scoring a birdie on her sixth hole of the day. But Heinritz had a tough close out on her front nine and the start of her back nine started to slide her down the leaderboard.
Heinritz had back-to-back triple bogeys on eight and nine, followed by a double bogey and finally going four over on 10. She strung together a couple bogeys before hitting double bogey on 13. Heinritz had another bogey before delivering just her fourth par-or-better hole by hitting par on 16.
Heinritz was still in position to make the cut until hitting another 4-over par on 17. She closed out with a par on 18.
Meyer said Heinritz played well with some tough results on a couple holes that ended up preventing her from making the cut.
“Golf is such a mental grind, and I know that she knew with her performance throughout the round, that she was going to be close to the cut line,” Meyer said.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Tola Jankowski hits a drive during Day 1 of the 6A state tournament.
Meyer said the coaching staff talked with her late in the day to know where she stood on the leaderboard and adjust accordingly.
“But ultimately she came up just a few strokes short,” Meyer said. “I know as a senior that was heartbreaking for her, but she handled it well.
“At the end of the day, I think she was proud that she gave it her best. We as a coaching staff were proud of her because she gave it her best.”
While Heinritz had a couple tough stretches end her state outing after 18 holes, Stancil advanced by finding a way to avoid those dips in her play.
“(Stancil) hit the ball well off the tee and she scored well because of her play around the green,” Meyer said. “She was able to be consistent for 18 holes, despite the conditions.
“She put together one of her better rounds of the season when it mattered most.”
Stancil had previously reached state as a freshman last year. She tied for 66th after shooting a 100 on Day 1. With a very stacked 6A tournament that year, the cut ended up being 93, a score which her teammate, then-senior Merrit Hale, hit to advance. As a junior that year, Heinritz tied for 72nd with her 103 on Day 1 of that state tournament.
Despite competing at state as a freshman, Stancil said this second trip felt like a completely new experience.
“As a freshman, I felt laid back, honestly,” Stancil said. “I didn’t feel like I really needed to do my best because there were other people on the team that were doing really good and I knew that I wasn’t going to make it to the second day anyway.
“So I was just having fun.”
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Haylee Graham hits the ball during Day 1 of the 6A state tournament.
This year, Stancil entered the state tournament with a clear goal of advancing to Day 2.
“There was definitely a lot more pressure for me to do that, and that was just a goal that I had set for myself,” Stancil said. “It was definitely more stressful, but it was still a lot of fun to achieve my goal.”
Stancil started to shred her laissez-faire approach toward postseason play fairly quickly after her freshman campaign ended. With Hale graduating, Stancil said she knew she’d need to step up this year to help lead the team alongside Heinritz.
“I honestly felt like it was part of my responsibility since I was in the second spot,” Stancil said. “To take on more responsibility and do my best so that I can help everyone else do their best on the team.”
Stancil recognized the importance of the team having strong leaders, having already spent her freshman year looking up to both Heinritz and Hale, who Stancil described as being “inspirational to me.”
Both of those two older players served as role models to a very young squad that included three freshmen, something her coach said is not a common circumstance for the Firebirds.
“There’s only been a handful of freshmen competing at the varsity level in the history of our girls golf program,” Meyer said.
Jankowski and White joined Stancil to complete the freshman trio competing on varsity that year.
With Hale graduated, it was Heinritz who was the first one to step up into a leadership role, or at least a bigger one that she had in previous years.
Heinritz, who is a third-year varsity player, took on her leadership role despite not necessarily being the most natural vocal leader.
“She doesn’t have a really outgoing, rah-rah type of personality,” Meyer said. “But what she does do is works hard and sets an example. As a veteran, you know how to go about practicing and preparing.”
With Heinritz setting the tone, Free State started this season with tremendous promise.
But Stancil said the Firebirds really started to feel optimistic about the postseason potential after the Lawrence Invitational on Oct. 1 at Eagle Bend Golf Course in Lawrence.
Free State shot a 371, a few strokes shy of the team’s top mark this season of 369 just two weeks earlier in the opening round of the Sunflower League championship tournament. That was the team’s fourth straight sub-400 stroke performance, a streak the team would ultimately extend through the end of the season.
“We realized we had a pretty good shot of making it to state,” Stancil said. “When we found out the region that we had, it was a region that it would be definitely be within reach for us to make it in the top three.”
The Firebirds accomplished just that.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State’s Laurel Stancil hits a putt during her last hole on Day 1 of the 6A state tournament.
Free State took third at their sub-state tournament with a 367, clinching a spot for the team at state. Every Firebird except one ending up taking home a top-20 finish. The lone exception was only two strokes away from joining her teammates as a medal winner in that one.
Heinritz led the way in that one by shooting an 87 to take ninth. Stancil shot a 91 to finish 13th. White finished 17th with a 97 while senior Haylee Graham landed in 19th with a 104. Lonnberg shot a 109 to finish 21st.
Meyer pointed to that sub-state experience as being the highpoint for his team this season, and Stancil agreed.
“It felt amazing to perform really well as a team and to get third place,” Stancil said. “To know that we were going to get to go to state and to qualify for something that was so exciting for us, there was definitely pressure. But we all decided as a team that we were going to try our best and we were just very happy that we were able to make it.”
Meyer said the team will often spend road trips listening to their own music, but the players were not as quick to pop in the AirPods on the drive back home from regionals.
“It was a lot of talking and reflecting on the day’s events, things like that,” Meyer said. “For a good portion of the drive home with them, it was kind of all talking about the day and reflecting on things, the excitement of going to state.”
Stancil added: “We enjoyed talking a lot about how we did and how the tournament went. I think that since that was one of the more important tournaments, we definitely talked more about that.”
Although the Firebirds did not turn to music in that moment, Stancil said she still popped in her AirPods prior to hitting the course at state, a common routine for her at most tournaments.
“I’ll listen to some music that gets me excited and happy,” Stancil said. “It just helps me not focus too much on my nerves or anything. I can just be in a good place for the tournament.”
Sometimes Stancil and her teammates listen to the music together. She said that it’s common for a pair of players to each share an AirPod playing from the same phone.
“One of my friends, we listen to a lot of Sabrina Carpenter, like her pop-hype songs, to get us excited,” Stancil said.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Free State golfers Haylee Graham, Laurel Stancil, Mallory White, Avery Lonnberg, Tola Jankowski and Claire Heinritz pose for a picture after complete Day 1 of the 6A state tournament.
But for Day 2 of state, she wouldn’t have any music to help her during her toughest stretches on the course.
Instead, Stancil turned to her coaches to help calm her nerves.
“My coach helped remind me that it wasn’t the end of the world,” Stancil said. “There was still two more years and I didn’t have to stress about it too much. I just had to get out of the headspace because it was definitely very stressful for me, having the whole team watching me and being the only one for my team out on the course.”
She needed that advice after running into a few problems early on during that second day. After her consistent play produced only bogeys or better the previous day, Stancil ended up getting a 4-over for the Par-5 on Hole 5.
To start that hole, Stancil hooked her drive away from the green.
“I had a few shots that weren’t as good, and a bad chip or two,” Stancil said. “Then putting was also not super great for me on that hole.
“It was definitely a challenging hole.”
Her quadruple bogey put her in a position that could have made for a very long day.
“But after that, I realized that I needed to focus and stay in the game,” Stancil said. “I turned it around a few holes after and I was able to recover from it.”
Stancil ended up finishing with a 95, meaning that her one bad hole accounted for nearly all of her slip in score between her two days at state.
Meyer said he gets the sense that his players, most of all Stancil, will definitely see this state performance as something to build on.
“I know that Laurel is not satisfied with how she did this year and how her season finished this year,” Meyer said. “She will work hard to improve and come back next year, hopefully improve on her finish to this year and do better next year.”
With that mindset being one shared by Stancil, her fellow upcoming-juniors and the upcoming senior in Lonnberg, Meyer is very excited about what this group has in store for next year, and the one after that.
“It’s very exciting as a head coach to have good young talent in your program from a depth perspective, and then also to grow the program and know that those types of athletes you can have for four years,” Meyer said. “That’s incredibly exciting for a coach and a program.”
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Free State’s Laurel Stancil and Tola Jankowski hug after they finished Day 1 of the 6A state tournament, watching as Claire Heinritz finished her final hole of the day.
