• Results: Class B state tournament

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GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Annie Pearson's title was the last, and most unexpected, piece to Elkhorn South's first championship in girls golf.

She went to the 18th tee Tuesday trailing Gering's Kaitlyn Krzyzanowski by two strokes and McCook's Megan Vetrovsky by one. She walked off the green with the win.

Pearson made a routine par-5 on the hole, which either leader wishes she could have gotten.

Vetrovsky hit two drives out of bounds and made a triple-bogey 8. Krzyzanowski four-putted from inside 10 feet, also taking a triple bogey.

"I'm a little shocked," Pearson said. "I thought I was going to get third place."

The Storm, last year's runners-up, added five strokes on the final day to their three-stroke lead on McCook by shooting 326 Tuesday at Riverside Golf Club.

"It was a stroke here and a stroke there," said Storm coach Mimi Ramsbottom. "That's really what you want in a tournament."

Pearson improved from a first-day 82 to the tournament's low round of 75. Fourth-place Kim Barmettler went from 84 to 77, 10th place Brittany Holen from 91 to 85 and 11th-place Alexa Ruwe from 90 to 89. Lindsey Thompson, the only freshman in the lineup, tied for 25th.

"The girls knew they had to bring their A game,'' Ramsbottom said. "I still remember at our first team meeting, when the girls wrote down their goals for the season, Annie wrote, 'Win district. Win state,' and put her pen down.

"And as you see, she's not a braggart. This is what they wanted all season."

Pearson stayed close to the lead by shooting a 1-over 38 on the front nine. Vetrovsky had taken a two-stroke lead on Krzyzanowski, who shot 42 on the front nine, and led Pearson by three.

On the back nine, Pearson made seven pars and two bogeys.

"My putting was really good there,'' she said. "I wasn't sinking a whole lot, but I had a lot of tap-ins for par."

Vetrovsky wasn't out of the lead on the back nine until taking a double-bogey 6 on the 16th hole. Krzyzanowski bogeyed it, but led by one. Both parred the 17th.

"I feel bad for both of them,'' Pearson said.