After Portillo's Wild Ride, Edina Girls Lead AAA; Ledwein, Kim Are 1-2 Individually

By Mike Fermoyle (mikefermoyle@gmail.com) 

COON RAPIDS  -- Prior to the first round of the Minnesota state high school tournament, Christine Portillo's lowest score this spring was 75. 

The Edina senior -- and Univerrsity of Minnesota recruit -- chopped three strokes off that number on Tuesday on the opening day of Class AAA competition at Bunker Hills Golf Course, and her score should have been even lower than the 72 that she posted.

After shooting an even-par 36 on the front (East) nine, Portillo torched the first six holes of the back (West) side. She was already 2 under for the first four holes of the nine when she arrived on the tee at the 430-yard, par-5 14th hole (No. 5 West). Her second shot strayed to the right, into the trees, but from there Portillo hit the shot of the day. It didn't go exactly according to her plan. Instead, it bounced off a tree limb -- and went directly into the hole for an eagle 3.

"It was a miraculous shot," she said afterward. 

At the 368-yard, par-4 16th (No. 6 West), played more conventionally, hitting a 245-yard drive into the fairway and a pitching wedge onto the green, then draining a 20-foot putt for her second 3 in a row.

Suddenly, Portillo was 5 under for the nine and for the round. 

Her West Side story took a turn in the other direction on the last two holes, however, as she pulled her tee shot into a bunker at the par-3 17th, and she had some difficulty extracting herself from the sand. She ended up with a triple-bogey 6.

For the girls in the AAA portion of the state tournament, the 18th hole (No. 9 West) plays 294 yards. A carry of roughly 200 yards is required to clear the bunker on the left side of the fairway. Normally, that's no problem for Portillo, but she pulled her tee shot into the trees on Tuesday. From there, she tried for another miracle shot, like the one she'd made four holes earlier, except that this time it didn't turn out as well, and the result was a double bogey.

Yet despite her disappointing 6-6 finish, she posted her best score of the year, so far, and she's even par -- only one stroke out of first place in the individual standings.

New Prague senior Taylor Ledwein, the defending champion, is the highest-ranked player in the large-school class (she's No. 2 in the MGA rankings, behind only Detroit Lakes senior Kate Smith, the four-time defending AA champ), and she looked the part in the opening round. (Smith shot 69 and leads the AA girls field by two.)

Portillo was in the first group off the first tee (No. 1 East), and thanks to her 7:30 a.m. tee time, she was able to finish her round before the rain started. Ledwein, on the other hand, was in the last group off the first tee, at 9 a.m. That meant she played more than half of the holes in the rain. Even so, she was able to come back from a front-nine 37 with a 34 (2 under) on the back, and her 71 has her tied for the lead with Stillwater eighth-grader Cayla Kim.

Kim, who was the medalist by 12 shots in the Section 4AAA tournament, but with a 36-hole score of 79-82--161, also turned in a 34-37--71. Unlike Ledwein and Portillo, however, she did it in reverse order, starting on the West Nine and finishing on the East.  

Portillo's 72 put her in a tie for third, along with Julia Hall of Hopkins and Hanna Morin of Buffalo. 

Beyond that, Portillo's efforts helped Edina pretty much lock up the girls AAA team championship for the second year in a row, and the third time in four years.

The Hornets combined for a first-day total of 298 (four scores count). That's 12 better than the old one-day large-school class record that they set last year -- when they went 310-320--630 and won by 27 shots -- and it puts them in position to break the large-class 36-hole record of 622 that Wayzata established in 2014.

(Detroit Lakes has the overall records for 18 holes (293) and 36 (590), both of which were set at The Ridges @ Sand Creek in the Class AA part of the state tournament in 2014.)        

Forest Lake is a distant second, 19 behind at 317, and Stillwater is third at 322. Red Wing, the only team to have beaten Edina this year (the Wingers and Hornets were 1-1 against each other coming into the state tournament), is another stroke behind Stillwater, in fourth place at 322.

Before Tuesday, no team had ever had four scores in the 70's at Bunker Hills. Edina had five. One of the Hornets' other two seniors, Hannah Hankinson, who led after the first round last year and ended up tied for second, opened with a 75 this year, and so did junior Grace Kellar. The third Edina senior, Katie Engelking, contributed a 76. Junior Isabelle Ouyang shot 79, which would have counted for any AAA team in any other year, but the Hornets had the luxury of throwing it out.

The rain was a problem for the girls at Bunker Hills, but they were able to complete their session. The AAA boys weren't that lucky. They started on time, and the rain stopped for a while. But it came back later in the afternoon, and the play had to be stopped after only a few groups had finished.

Play will resume early Wednesday morning, and tournament officials hope the weather will cooperate enough for the boys to get their second round in later in the day.   


Minnesota State High School Tournament 

Class AAA

Girls 

At Bunker Hills Golf Course

Par 72, 5,551 yards

Coon Rapids 

First-round results 

1. Edina                298

2. Forest Lake      317

3. Stillwater           321

4. Red Wing          322

5. Chanhassen      327

6. Buffalo               339

7. Woodbury         341

8. Mounds View    350

Individuals 

T1. Taylor Ledwein, New Prague          37-34--71

T1. Cayla Kim, Stillwater                       37-34--71

T3. Christine Portillo, Edina                  36-36--72

T3. Julia Hall, Hopkins                          37-35--72

T3. Hanna Morin, Buffalo                      37-35--72

T6. Hannah Hankinson, Edina              38-37--75

T6. Nicole Miller, Eden Prairie              39-36--75

T6. Grace Kellar, Edina                        35-40--75

T9. Kristen Cash, Mounds View          37-39--76

T9. Katie Engelking, Edina                  39-37--76

T9. Ally Rogers, Spring Lake Park      39-37--76

T9. Molly Stevens, Northfield               40-36--76

T13. Heather Claussen, Forest Lake   36-42--78

T13. Katie McMillan, Minnetonka         41-37--78

T13. Stephanie Herzog, Red Wing      39-39--78

T13. Megan Welch, Lakeville North     38-40--78

T17. Annemarie Fisher, Woodbury      41-38--79

T17. Lexi Hanson, Chanhassen           42-37--79

T17. Taylor Minger, Champlin Park      41-38--79

T17. Kate Schaaf, Forest Lake            42-37--79         

T17. Isabelle Ouyang, Edina               39-40--79

T17. Sophia Yoemans, Red Wing       39-40--79

T17. Sofia Morin, Buffalo                     41-38--79