Jirele Wins Girls AAA Title, But with Help

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COON RAPIDS -- If you shoot the low score on the first day of a 36-hole tournament, the best way to make sure you'll win the tournament is to shoot the low score again on the second day. 

That was pretty much what Torger Ohe was thinking when he started Wednesday's second round of the Class AAA boys portion of the Minnesota state high school tournament at Bunker Hills Golf Course, and that was exactly what he did. The last thing the Edina junior -- and prized University of Minnesota recruit for 2025 -- wanted to do was fall into the trap of just trying to make pars. 

"I wanted to make some birdies early," he said, "especially on the par 5s."

Of course, it helps if you can hit your driver 300 yards or more, and that's not a problem for Ohe. On the first hole (No 1 East), he hit a pitching wedge to 15 feet and made the putt. At the 486-yard, par-5 fourth, he bombed a drive and hit a pitching wedge onto the green for a two-putt birdie, and he had only 73 yards left after his tee shot at the 385-yard, par-4 fifth hole. From there, he hit a lob wedge to 20 feet and made that putt, as well.

Going 3 under on the first five holes of the final round is a great way to protect a lead. 

Ohe made his only bogey of Wednesday's round at the 220-yard, uphill par-3 seventh hole, but he made up for that  by hitting a 160-yard 9-iron second shot to within 18 feet  at the ninth, and converting that birdie putt. His best birdie of the day, however, came at the 240-yard, par-3 17th. Ohe was able to get a 5-iron to the green on Tuesday, but the wind was into him on Wednesday, and he needed a 4-iron for the tee shot. He hit it to 15 feet and made the putt for what was essentially a clinching birdie.

His par at the 18th hole (No. 9 West) gave him a 4-under 68 to follow the 67 he shot Tuesday, and the resulting 36-hole total of 135 (9 under) was good enough for a three-shot victory. 

It was the third consecutive state tournament round in which Ohe shot the low score or tied for the low score of the day at the AAA tournament. He shot 68 on the second day last year and finished third at 140.

Centennial sophomore Cooper Daikawa duplicated his first-round 69 on Wednesday and finished alone in second place at 138. Sam Udovich, who won the Class AA title in 2022, when he was a freshman at St. Croix Lutheran, has been at Cretin-Derham for the last two years, and he tied for third at 140, having closed with a 72. He tied Jacob Wilson, the Mahtomedi junior who shot 70 both days. 

Fifth place was an All in the Family affair, as the defending Class AAA champ, Spring Lake senior Jake Birdwell, bounced back from a first-round 74 with a 69 on Wednesday, but his younger brother, freshman Chase Birdwell, matched Ohe for the low score of the day with a 68, and he and his older brother tied at 145. Last year, Birdwell won by two shots over Cretin-Derham Hall's Joe Honsa with a 136, and Honsa (138) finished two ahead of Ohe (140). This year, Honsa strugggled with his game both days and tied for 49th at 158 (79-79). 

Even though he won the individual title Wednesday, Ohe was still feeling the sting of not being at the state tournament with the Edina team, and he still feels guilty about not playing all that well in the Secion 6AAA tournament. He needed to make a 15-foot putt on the last hole of the sectional to spare himself from having to go into a playoff just to get the last individual spot available for the state tournament.

How much pressure did he feel when he was standing over that 15-footer in the sectional?

"Actually, not that much," was his surprising answer. "The main thing I knew was that  we weren't going (to the state tournament) as a team, and that still stings. So that putt didn't mean nearly as much to me as it would have if it had mattered for the team." 

Like Ohe, Daikawa got the last available spot in the state tournament in his section, 5AAA. 

On Tuesday, he was playing with Ohe, and he kept pace early on, birdying the 368-yard, par-4 second hole and the par-5 fourth. He hurt his chances to catch Ohe when he bogeyed the other par 5 on the front nine, the 535-yard sixth. But he birdied the 540-yard, par-5 11th and the par-4 13th (370 yards). That got him to 3 under for the day and 6 under for the tournament, putting him two behind Ohe. But that was as close as he got, and Ohe essentially closed him out with his birdie at the 17th.  

In the absence of the 2023 team champion, Edina, it seemed that last year's runner-up, Maple Grove, was the heir apparent, and the Crimson led the team standings after the first round -- but not by much. And on Wednesday, they had a bad day, combining for a score (316) that was 11 shots higher than the one they posted on Tuesday. That enabled Benilde-St. Margaret's, the team that dethroned Edina in Section 6AAA, and 2AAA champ Waconia, to move to the head of the pack. In the end, it was BSM, which started the day in fifth place, that emerged with the team championship -- by a single stroke, 596 to 597 over Waconia. Maple Grove was third at 599. 

The Red Knights' charge on Wednesday was led by sophomore Patrick Hastings, who tied for seventh with Waconia junior Riley Baisch at 145. They both shot 73 on Tuesday and 72 on Wednesday.  

Maple Grove didn't leave Bunker Hills without a championship trophy, however. The Crimson won the girls title for the second year in a row. After taking the lead on Day 1 -- by one shot over Wayzata -- with a first-round 305, they pulled away on Day 2 with a 306, and won by 15 shots over the Trojans, 611 to 626. Minnetonka finished third, but was only a speck in the rear-view mirror for the Crimson and the Trojans, at 650.  

Randy Glasmann has been the Maple Grove girls coach since the school opened in 1997, and it took her 26 years to win her first state team championship. Now she was two in a row. "And we get to try for a three-peat next year."

The Crimson lost a couple of seniors from last year's roster, but their top two players from the 2023 championship team were both juniors -- Amelia Morton and McKenna Hogan. So they were back for their senior season this spring, and both finished in the top 10 on Wednesday. Hogan shot a valedictory 76 and finished seventh at 149.

Morton was ranked No. 2 in the state for the entire season, and it looked for a long time Wednesday as though she would win the individual championship. She was leading for most of the day -- but she has never felt all that comfortable on the 360-yard, par-4 16th, mainly because of the water hazard to the right of the fairway, and it was the 16th that did her in, enabling Owatonna sophomore Carmen Jirele to claim the individual title.

It was that same water hazard at the 16th that undid a charge by the defending champion, top-ranked Simley senior Reese McCauley. McCauley, who shot 74 on Tuesday, had birdied the 430-yard, par-5 11th hole, the 312-yard, par-4 13th and the 368-yard par-4 15th on Wednesday afternoon. That got her to 2 under for the round, and back to even par for the tournament -- and within range of the leaders. She could have used another birdie, or two, but she flaired her tee shot at the 16th to the right -- and into the hazard. The 2024 Ms. Golf had to make a 10-foot putt just to salvage a bogey on the hole.

McCauley probably mis-clubbed her tee shot at the daunting, 180-yard, par-3 17th, which was playing into a wind that was picking up in velocity (to about 12 to 14 mph, and gusting to more than 20 mph) as the  afternoon wore on, and the two-time Class AAA champion (2021 and '23) had to save par with a 30-yard bunker shot and a 15-foot putt at the 17th. Then she had to save par from a bunker again at the 18th, which she did, thanks to a first-rate bunker shot and a 6-foot putt. As a result, McCauley, the Gophers' prize recruit for 2024, ended up with a 71 and tied for third at 145 with Orono junior Ava Hanneman, who had the second-best score of the day, a 69.

(Apple Valley senior Avery Johnson closed out her high school career with a bang. She followed her Tuesday 84 with Wednesday's low score, a 68, and moved up to 11th place with her two-day tab of 152.)

First place in the AAA came down to a contest between Morton and the first-day leader, sophomore Carmen Jirele of Owatonna. Last year, Jirele tied for 34th at the state tournament, but she worked on her game over the summer, and was much improved this  spring, so much so that she was the medalist in the Big 9 Conference tournament and in the Section 1AAA tournament. She led the AAA girls tournament after shooting a 69 on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, she followed a birdie at the 405-yard, par-5 fourth hole, with bogeys at the 475-yard, par-5 sixth, the par-3 seventh  (170 yards) and the par-4 eighth (320).

So she was 2 over for the round and 1 under for the tournament, and stayed that way by parring the next six holes, but then made a gorgeous birdie at the par-5 14th, where her wedge shot from 70 yards landed 3 feet right of the pin, but spun left and hit the pin pretty softly. It almost went in for an eagle 3. Instead, it ended up a few inches from the hole, and Jirele tapped in for her  birdie. She, like McCauley, bogeyed the 16th, and that dropped her back to 1 under overall.

Unlike McCauley, Jirele hit the 17th green with her tee shot, although she was in the back left corner, about 40 feet from the cup. It wasn't all that easy a two-putt from back there. Basically, the shot that won the tournament for her was the next one -- her long, curling putt that disappeared into the cup for a birdie and got her back to 2 under. Jirele parred the 18th and finished with a 73, and a two-day total of 142.

Meanwhile, Morton, playing several groups behind Jirele and McCauley, had taken the lead by shooting 34 (2 under) on the front (East) nine, thanks to birdies at the fourth, seventh and eighth holes. She birdied the par-5 11th (West No. 2), but bogeyed the 12th, which didn't really change anything. She was still 3 under for the tournament -- and leading Jirele by one stroke.

Then came her disaster at the 16th. Morton lost her tee shot to the right, and the ball went into the water. She got a drop from there (with a penalty stroke), but needed five more shots to get her ball into the cup and made a triple-bogey 7.

That reversed the status between Jirele and Morton. Now it was Jirele, sitting in the Bunker Hills clubhouse, who had the lead, by two strokes. Morton birdied the 18th hole, but she couldn't overcome that triple. After spending most of the previous two hours at 2 under for the round and 3 under for the tournament, Morton ended up even par for the round, with a 72. That put her at 143 for the two days, and that was one too many. Having led Maple Grove to a second straight team title, she had to settle for second place individually.
  


Minnesota State High School Tournament

Class AAA Girls

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 72, 5,605 yards

Class AAA Girls

Final results  

1. Maple Grove            305-306--611

2. Wayzata                  306-320--626

3. Minnetonka             326-324--650

4. Alexandria               346-336--682

5. Northfield                 349-338--687

6. East Ridge               353-339--692

8. Elk River                  362-336--698

8. Mahtomedi               355-350--705


Individuals 

1. Carmen Jirele, Owatonna           69-73--142

2. Amelia Morton, Maple Grove       71-72--143

T3. Reese McCauley, Simley          74-71--145

T3. Ava Hanneman, Orono              76-69--145

T5. Saachi Deshmukh, Wayzata      71-77--148

T5. Jovie Ordal, Lakeville South       71-77--148

T7. McKenna Hogan, Maple Grove    73-76--149

T7. Briana Simek, Two Rivers            75-74--149

T9. Briana Simek, Two Rivers            75-76--151

T9. Abigail Labrador, SMA                 76-75--151

11. Avery Johnson, Apple Valley       84-68--152

12. Lauren Chambs, Wayzata           74-79--153