“Broke my scale,” Manning said of the pressure. “I’ve never been through anything this nerve-wracking and this, like, ‘Oh, my God,’ I have to control my emotions.”
Manning and two others shot 79 at last week’s district tournament at Heatherwoode Golf Club in Springboro. As the tournament wound down, Manning thought she would be in a playoff with Botkins’ Lydia Dietz to determine medalist and that both had already earned of the two individual state qualifying spots. That sounded like fun. No real pressure.
Middletown Fenwick’s Sophie Rush also shot 79 but everyone thought she was going to state with her team. Then everything changed. The Falcons dropped into a tie for second place and lost the tiebreaker to Cincinnati Seven Hills for the last team qualifying spot behind first-place Alter.
Now, Manning, Rush and Dietz would play off for two spots.
“We got by ourselves and just started thinking through things,” said third-year Trojans coach Matt Harner. “Whatever she needed, helping support her through that, telling her to breathe every once in a while. And telling her to stop being so nervous because she’s going to make me nervous.”
Dietz parred the first playoff hole, the par-4 first, to win medalist while Manning and Rush bogeyed. Manning hit a good drive but bladed her second shot with a pitching wedge over the green. She duffed a chip, which she almost never does, and when she got on the green faced a slightly downhill eight-foot putt that she made.
“I was standing over that putt thinking like this isn’t going to go in and it’s over, but somehow I made it,” Manning said. “So that was pretty cool.”
Relieved, she went to the next hole, the par-3 No. 17, and hit her tee shot beside the green pin high, the same place she was earlier in the day. Rush didn’t hit a bad shot, Manning said, just one that wasn’t in an advantageous position. Manning chipped past the hole, putted again from about eight feet and tapped in for bogey. Rush faced a 15-footer for bogey and missed and Manning advanced to her first state tournament, a 36-hole event on Friday at Saturday.
Her teammates came running down the fairway and other family and friends were there to celebrate the moment.
“Seeing my team and my family, that’s something that will always stick with me,” she said. “I’ve never felt more loved and supported. And I wouldn’t be sitting here saying I’m going to state without my coach calming me down.”
Manning’s goal has always been to go to state, but she finished four strokes short last year.
“Over these last three years she has really grown and matured a lot in some areas and struggled in other areas,” Harner said. “Then seeing her face and the embrace that we had when she did make it was super, super awesome.”
Manning is the first Southeastern girl to make state, but she is the second in her family. Her brother Avery Green made it as an individual in 2014 and 2017 and led the Southeastern boys team there in 2015. He was runner-up in the Division III tournament as a senior in 2017. To reach state as a senior, he won a one-hole playoff with a birdie.
Green went on to play collegiately at Northern Kentucky. Manning also wants to play in college and has heard from smaller schools such as Tiffin and Concordia in Ann Arbor, Mich. But for now she just wants to play at state, enjoy the two days and not feel the pressure of trying to advance.
“I feel like it still hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said last week. “It’s surreal in a way, just the way it happened. I went from thinking I’m going to lose the playoff to going through to state. So it’s really been a whirlwind. I can’t describe it other than I’m grateful for the chance.”
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