Two Wichita golfers etch names in Kansas high school history as 3-time state champions
A pair of girls golfers from Wichita are etching their names in the Kansas high school history books.
With their third straight individual gold medals won on Tuesday, Maize junior Kinslea Jones (Class 6A) and Collegiate junior Margaret Ulrich (Class 3-1A) joined an exclusive club of three-time champions, a list that only featured six golfers in state history before Tuesday.
Both are top performers on the American Junior Golf Association, which has steeled their nerves for making history during their high school seasons in Kansas.
“I don’t necessarily feel like there was pressure, but it felt like everyone was rooting for me and wanting me to win,” Ulrich said. “So that made me feel like I needed to win.”
“There really wasn’t a lot of pressure,” added Jones, who erased a one-shot deficit after the first day of the state tournament to win by three strokes on Tuesday. “I knew what I was capable of and I knew I could pull it together, so I really wasn’t nervous about it.”
Jones became the first three-timer to win individual medalist honors in different classifications, as Maize jumped to 6A competition this fall after competing in 5A for Jones’ previous two titles.
Entering the final round down a stroke and not playing with the leader, Hadley Neese of Blue Valley, another skilled golfer in the summer circuit from Kansas City, Jones knew she needed a low score to pull out another gold. She delivered a 5-under round of 66 at Emporia Municipal to finish off a 36-hole total of 137 to win the tournament by three strokes.
“In my 20 years of coaching, I’ve never had a player anywhere close to this,” Maize coach Ben Harlow said. “Kinslea’s body of work started a long time before she got to high school. She was already well-accomplished when she got here. She comes from a golfing legacy (her grandfather is Wichita golf legend Grier Jones) and it was taught to her at a very young age how to handle yourself in all situations. I don’t think very many girls have the composure that she has.”
Composure is a trait both golfers have in common, as Ulrich once again kept a calm demeanor in winning her third straight Class 3-1A title at Hesston Golf Course. She built a seven-shot lead after the first day and cruised to the gold with a 36-hole total of 154 strokes, which was six clear of the field.
“Margaret never really gets too high or too low, she just stays even-keeled and that’s always been her strength,” Collegiate coach Hans Widener said. “She wasn’t really concerned about what anybody else was doing, she was just out there playing the course. Fairways and greens, that’s her mentality.”
“I honestly can say that every club in my bag felt solid,” Ulrich said.
While Ulrich’s lead was never much in doubt, Jones wasn’t sure where she stood entering the final holes of her round on Tuesday because she wasn’t playing with the Day 1 leader.
Staring down a 20-foot birdie putt on her second-to-last hole, the par-3 No. 8, Jones finally requested an update from her coach and learned she was one shot up. Not knowing how Neese would finish the final hole, Jones drilled the birdie putt; she didn’t know it at the time, but it all but sealed her victory.
“I had a good look at it, and I just gave it a good roll and it happened to fall in,” Jones said. “It was definitely a good feeling because I knew going into the final hole, I didn’t need to do anything fancy. Just get a par and call it good.”
While their victories on Tuesday gained them access to a rare club, they also opened the opportunity next fall for them to join the most exclusive club of them all as four-time champions.
Only two others golfers in Kansas history have achieved the 4-for-4 feat in Jill Simpson of Columbus (1992-95) and Julia Misemer of Blue Valley West (2018-21). The other three-time winners include Deb Richard of Manhattan (1978-80), Becky Turner of Lyons (1978-80), Cathy Stevens of Kapaun Mt. Carmel (1983-85) and Gianna Misenhelter of St. Thomas Aquinas (2007-09).
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 8:27 AM.
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