Sudbeck qualifies for next week’s State golf meet
NORFOLK — Delayne Sudbeck finished strong in Monday’s District golf meet to earn a trip to the State Golf Tournament.
She carded a 93 to finish in fouth place and qualify as an individual for State. As a team, Cedar finished in seventh place. The top three team finishers all qualify for State.
How good has Delayne Sudbeck been this year on the golf course?
Good enough to have the best year of her career and leave her head coach, Sheila Jueden, feeling pretty good about her linkster.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to coach girls that have been coachable the past 10 years,” Jueden said. “We co-oped with HNPS last year and that’s when Delayne came on board. She was a great addition to our team and was able to play varsity right away.”
Sudbeck qualified for the state tournament last year and this year, the senior has medaled at each invitational she has entered, winning the Wayne Invite with a 90 and she was the low scorer with a 40 at the team’s home triangular with Pierce and Wayne.
“Delayne is a very determined goalminded player,” Jueden said. “She has played with the best all year and has landed in the top six each meet. Even though I’m her third coach during her high school golf career, she has been taught well. I’m happy to be able to be part of her career. I have confidence she will do well at State.” Sudbeck isn’t one for hyperbole about her game but she admits that she has played well this season.
“It’s been nice,” she said. “I’ve put in a lot of work, so it’s nice to see that pay off. I wasn’t super awesome before, but I was getting to that point to where I knew I could play good. I was just not consistent, having a good front nine and back nine and put it all together.
“It’s nice that I can get those and that I can still improve from my front and my back nines.”
Sudbeck readily admits that the COVID-19 pandemic may have offered an indirect blessing in disguise.
“Even when the COVID hit right away, my grandparents were like ‘no you can’t go be with your friends,’ but the only way we could be with our friends was if we could go out golfing,” Sudbeck said. “We couldn’t be in the house with them or the car. My little brother, he’s a freshman … all his friends golf, so I’d go golf with them, and they would kind of push me to be better since they are pretty good golfers, too.
“I just go to work on my game by myself. I would shank one out of bounds and no one would see it and I’d pretend I didn’t hit that. Or I would hit 10 balls until I got the shot that I wanted. So, I worked that way. Also, playing with those boys, I got the competition – and I am a very competitive person – so I would try to beat them because they are showboats. My dad (Matt) always beats me by nine strokes so he also pushed me to get better.”
Sudbeck said the uncertainty of the season even getting off the ground, helped her want to go out and play her best every time, because one never knows if the golf will go away.
“When I fall short of that, I am very hard on myself,” Sudbeck said. “You’re like, ‘what if this meet gets cancelled because someone gets COVID?’”
Until that happens, Sudbeck’s short game has continued to improve even though she doesn’t think it’s “great,” and her drives have seen an uptick.
It all adds up to another trip to a state meet again. Last year, she made the Class C state meet and finished 60th which disappointed her.
“I was telling my dad … I could do pretty well at state this year,” she said. “Obviously I have to make it, but I can do well in our district I hope, and it would be nice to play at state again.”
Individual State Qualifiers:
1. Brook Diekemper, West Pt-Beemr, 80
2. Megan Lutt, Battle Creek, 87 3. Sarah Karnes, LCC, 92
3. Sarah Karnes, LCC, 92
4. Delayne Sudbeck, Cedar Catholic, 93
5. Alena Peters, Pierce, 96
6. Reghan Kerkman, West Holt, 96
7. Kailey Johnson, West Pt-Beemer, 96
8. Kaylin Gaughenbaugh, O’Neill, 96
9. Jadyn Kinkaid, LCC, 96
10. Carly Thramer, Norfolk Catholic, 97
Final Team Scores
1. West Point-Beemer, 377; 2. Battle Creek, 400; 3. Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, 402; 4. Norfolk Catholic, 419; 5. Pierce, 423; 6. O’Neill, 425; 7. Cedar Catholic, 431; 8. TC , 441; 9. West Holt, 468; 10. Elkhorn Valley, 507; 11. Stanton, 517; 12. Crofton, 543; 13. Ainsworth, 548.
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