By Reagan Hoverman

After a successful 2021 season, River Falls junior Mahlia McCane made competing in the 2022 state tournament the biggest goal of the penultimate season of her high school career. She did exactly that at University Ridge in Madison on Monday, Oct. 10, and Tuesday, Oct. 11.

McCane posted an opening- round score of 91 and followed it up with an 83 on the second day of competition. Getting to state was essentially house money, but that didn’t make the nerves go away, especially on the first day. She spoke about how the nerves impacted her on Monday morning.

“It was fun, but it was defi – nitely scarier on the first day. The second day was better because I felt more comfortable with the course,” Mc-Cane said after her second round at University Ridge. “I was really nervous (on day one) because we were one of the first tee times so there were a lot of people watching. Today on the back there weren’t as many people.”

While the nerves certainly played a factor in the eight- shot diuerence between the first and second day of ac tion, simple course knowledge and experience also helped McCane post one of the better individual scores on Tuesday afternoon.

University Ridge is famous for positioning, wheth- er that be ou the tee or on the green. Knowing where to miss is almost as important as hitting a good shot. For McCane, that proved to be true after having 18 holes of experience.

“Just knowing the course more and knowing where to hit my ball and where not to be long,” McCane said. “Just being able to play the course was important.”

For River Falls head coach Tim LaVold, getting to Madison – even if it’s just one individual – means that the year has been a success. A lot of teams never get the chance to have one of their players compete in the annual state tournament. He spoke about having a player make it to Madison.

“It’s incredibly exciting and it’s the goal of the season to get here,” LaVold said. “From that point, we’ve never played the course. There is no question that yesterday we struggled in certain areas because we didn’t know the course. Today that was a lot better.”

For LaVold the turnaround in McCane’s score was a testament to the challenge that University Ridge presents every high school golfer who qualifies for the state tourna – ment, especially a first-timer like McCane.

“It’s such a hard golf course,” LaVold said. “We proved yesterday that if you get out of position, it’s tough to score. Today, we proved that if we want to compete with the best, we still have a lot of work to do to get better – and that’s OK. We’re going in the right direction.”

While there are some juniors on the River Falls roster including McCane, Ellie Krueger and Aili Lassi, two of those varsity spots will be available because of the graduation of seniors Mollie Schmidt and Alisha Latham.

Both Schmidt and Latham made the trip to Madison to support McCane during the two-day state tournament. LaVold spoke about having seniors there to support her, as well as the influence that both Schmidt and Latham had on the Wildcats’ golf program.

“For our seniors, it’s super awesome that they’re here supporting Mahlia (Mc-Cane),” LaVold said. “It’s sad because they’d like to be a part of this, but they are and whatever we build in the future, they’re going to be a part of it and that’s awesome.”

Throughout the season, the River Falls coaching stau stated that the roster is built to win next year. The best players on the roster will have developed further and some of the top talent from around the Big Rivers will have graduated.

Getting the Wildcats’ best player to state for the 2022 State Tournament made it feel like River Falls is that much closer to getting to state as a team. LaVold spoke about generating some of that buzz around the golf program.

“The excitement that we’re generating for next year, we have hopes to get the whole team back here,” LaVold said. “We know we have a chance next year. It’s exciting, especially with Ellie (Krueger) here. She wants to be a part of this.”

River Falls certainly knows that it can play with some of the best teams on this side of the state. At the Division 1 Sectional at Troy Burne, the Wildcats finished in fourth place with a score of 374.

They beat strong programs including Hudson and Chippewa Falls and showed that on a good day, a trip to state isn’t out of the question. It’s not just LaVold who wants to get back to state, McCane is already eyeing University Ridge for next season.

“Yeah definitely (we want to get back to state), hopefully as a team,” McCane said. “That would be fun.”

After LaVold, McCane and the rest of the Wildcats’ roster got back to River Falls, they had one final practice the following day just for fun to ovcially end the 2022 season. The girls will have a chance to improve through- out the ouseason before be ginning next season in August 2023.

Mahlia McCane of the River Falls girls’ golf team hits driver off of the second tee at University Ridge in Madison. McCane shot a 91 on the first day of competition, Monday, Oct. 10, and an 83 on day two, Tuesday, Oct. 11. It was her first time qualifying for the state tournament. Photo by Reagan Hoverman