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CANFIELD -- Throughout the fall season, the Canfield girls golf team had plenty of reasons and excuses not to make it back to the state golf tournament.
Before the season began, the storm damage at Mill Creek Golf Course from earlier this summer left the Cardinals without a home course. Plus, Canfield battled plenty of rainouts and weather-affected events throughout the season.
Yet, the Cardinals still persevered, and after finishing third at Tuesday's Division I Northeast district tournament, they earned their second straight trip to the Division I state golf tournament, just their fourth state appearance in program history.
"I think the key to our season this year was resilience and mental toughness," Canfield head coach Dean Conley said. "It was just constant changes, there was no real stability the whole season. The fact that they were able to block that out and go perform at a high level is like nothing I've seen before, and I've been coaching my entire life.
"They just stayed the course. They knew what they wanted for themselves, and this season just has an incredible cherry on top with getting to [state]."
As a team, Canfield shot 331 on Tuesday at Tanglewood Golf Club, beating out fourth-place North Canton Hoover by one stroke. Rocky River Magnificat won the district title with a 285, while Walsh Jesuit shot 313 to take second.
Seniors Aubree Philibin and Alex Conley led the way for the Cardinals, with each shooting 80 to tie for 15th. Laney Kleeh was right behind them with an 82 to tie for 18th. Then Sophia Didomenico and Rhyloh Turpack shot 90 and 89, respectively, to earn a top-50 finish.
"I'm so blessed and grateful to be on this team and to be where I am right now," Turpack said. "It truly, it just makes me really happy. I will say, it did bring us all together. Our coaches are amazing, and the way that they push us through, it'll always stick to me that we did go to state as a team. We did really well, and I'm proud of every single one of them, especially myself."
Since starting its tournament slate back at the end of July, Canfield has put together a banner year for the program.
The Cardinals won five tournaments, including the district preview at Tanglewood, the Arrowhead Co-ed at North Canton, the Oak Tree tournament at West Middlesex and a two-day tournament at Erie McDowell in Pennsylvania, and the All-American Conference tournament, breaking a school record for most tournament wins in a season.
However, they didn't do it on the backs of one or two players. Dean Conley said different people stepped up in each tournament victory. Canfield also set several school scoring records during rounds throughout the year.
"The tryouts for the team were at the end of July, and since then we just haven't skipped a day," Kleeh said. "We've been doing stuff every day, whether it's practice or practice rounds or matches, lots of 18-hole tournaments in August, so it's been a really busy season. Really, really tiring and a lot of hard work, but it's been really fun. So I'm glad we get to put an end to it this way at state."
Three of the Cardinals, including Philibin, Kleeh and Alex Conley, were part of last year's state-qualifying team that finished 10th.
That helped them gain valuable experience to be successful during this time of year, and it allowed them to help guide the team's two newcomers, Didomenico and Turpack.
"Having experience through districts and being able to make it through last year definitely helped because we all knew how to handle the pressure and take it one shot at a time," Philibin said. "If we have a bad hole, you just have to forget about it because the team needs us to all be able to hit the best shots we can.
"Having state experience, it can be nerve-wracking being with the best teams because it's a much more serious tournament. So having that experience, it'll be less stressful and easier to go through the two days."
Now that they've achieved their goal of getting to state, the Cardinals are playing with house money.
They're not burdening themselves with lofty expectations, they just want to try to do better than they did last year, as they make the long trek down to NCR Country Club's North Course in Kettering this weekend.
"Our goal is to go down there and let it fly. There's no pressure on us," Dean Conley said. "There are teams like Magnificat and Dublin Jerome that have won several state championships. The pressure is on them. We can just let it fly and be proud of ourselves.
"Our goal is to go down there and maybe spend a little more time enjoying the process. Last year, it was so business-like. Now we have a little bit of knowledge on what this is. We're going to enjoy what we've accomplished, and we're going to spend some time appreciating what they've done this year."
INDIVIDUALS HEADED TO STATE
In addition to the Cardinals and the Poland boys golf team, several local individuals also qualified for this weekend's state tournaments.
For the Division II girls, Champion's Avery Robinette, Lakeview's Olivia Norris and Mineral Ridge's Savannah Turek each qualified for state with top-seven finishes at the Northeast district tournament at Good Park.
Then for the boys, Cardinal Mooney's Tyler Guerrieri qualified for state in Division II, while Western Reserve's Joey Thomas qualified in Division III.