As girls’ golf prepares for state in the coming weeks, they can look back on their season and see the path they’ve forged for themselves. From shattering expectations to prepping for state to breaking records, they have a lot to be proud of and look forward to.

NNHS Varsity coach Greta Williams had already set high standards for the golfers, but it became obvious early in the season that they were determined to pass them.

“One of the goals that we set for ourselves was to break one of the school records this year and we did it,” Williams said. “I set the expectation really high and they’ve met all of them so far this year. Our next goal that we want to met is to make it to state, and we’re just at the beginning of that.”

Junior Mara Flaherty touched on the effort they’ve been putting in in preparation of state.

“Well, state series is our biggest concern all year so everything up to now has just kind of been a warmup. This is when we have to play our best golf and to get ready to do that our coaches usually leave practices open for us to work on things we think we need to work on,” Flaherty said.

After a lot of build up throughout the season, the Huskies were finally able to break through and set a new course record against Wheaton Warrenville South on Sep. 19. Sophomore Emily Nay, who swung her way to a 39, explained how much of an accomplishment and goal it was for them.

“We broke the nine hole record [against WWS] by five strokes,” Nay said. “It’s been a goal that we’ve had for a long time, and we were really happy as a team to break that record.”

Williams echoed Nay’s excitement, saying, “We’ve come so close so many times and it was a matter of everyone played well on the same day. That made a huge difference and it finally clicked in our last match.”

Regionals went great for the Huskies on Wednesday, as the team won and tied a school record of 306. Individual placers included Senior Lauren Nay (2nd) and Sophomore Hannah Martin (4th). Also moving on to state include Flaherty, Emily Nay, Junior Avani Shah, and Sophomore Emma Lin.

The state meet will be at the Red Tail Run Golf Course in Macon County on Oct. 13 -14.