A brother and sister from the North Woods School dominated the Section 7A golf finals late last week and are both headed to state along with the entire North Woods boys team.

Senior Tate Olson and his sister, sophomore Nicole Olson, each took first in the section finals held in Virginia. Tate thoroughly dominated the field, scoring a combined 139 in the two days of play, besting the second-place finisher by an astonishing 17 strokes, and putting Olson in contention for the state golf title. Last year’s top score at state in boys golf was 139, shot by Cecil Belisle, of Red Wing.

Tate’s performance, combined with exceptionally strong outings by teammates Sam Frazee (160), Ian Olson (166), Chase Kleppe (173), Davis Kleppe (175), and Blake Scofield (177), left the Grizzlies boys golf team at the top of the field and headed for state. The Grizzlies’ team score of 638 topped the second-place team by 108 strokes. North Woods dominated the top spots in the competition, posting six of the top ten scores in the event.

“Tate had an outstanding section tournament,” said Head Coach Will Kleppe. “He dominated from wire to wire and he had some great support from his team who all shot below their averages to guarantee we advanced to state.”

Meanwhile, Nicole Olson tied for first in the event, with a combined two-day score of 169. Her teammate, sophomore Kylie Parson tied for third with a score of 183 and will join Olson in state competition to be held June 12-13, at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Becker. The North Woods girls did not have enough members to qualify as a team for state play. The team’s only other player, Haley Bogdan, is still an eighth-grader.

Head Coach and mom Kandi Olson said Nicole, who goes by Coley, was excited headed into sections. “She played both rounds with one of her all-time rivals, Heidi Schultz. Coley led after day one and ended up tied with Heidi for first at the end of the tournament.”

While Coley’s performance has been steady all season, it’s been something of a breakout season for her teammate and fellow sophomore Kylie Parson. “Kylie has been on a steady path of improvement all season,” said Olson. “Every week we would watch her scores drop and I knew that she might have an exciting finish in the section tournament. During the tournament she shot one of her personal best scores to help her qualify for state.”