CHURCHILL — It’s been a good two seasons of high school golf for Manhattan Christian’s Caidin Hill. The pressure was on last week at the state tournament in Seeley Lake, but the Eagles’ sophomore fired a 74 in the first round to lead the field by nine strokes.
“I felt very confident that I was going to win, but having said that, I still had to do my part and still go out and play the second day because it wasn’t just going to be a cake walk. There’s a lot of good golfers out there that I had to go beat,” said Hill.
The sophomore rose to the occasion in the final round, shooting an 81 to win his second straight individual state title. But what’s more important to Hill is that he and his Eagles teammates won their second consecutive state team title.
“Winning individual, that goes down in history as your name. But when you win as a team, it’s like everybody on that team gets to be a part of that and gets to have their name down as a state champion,” Hill said.
He celebrated with teammates Trevor VanDyken, David Aamot, and Cullen Visser, who played a big part in this championship. Winning comes with a price, and Hill, who also won a state basketball title this year, pays it every single day of the week.
“It’s after school from 3:30 p.m. until about 6 p.m. every day for basketball or golf and then coming in early in the mornings to work out and lift and get stronger and build your body. But it’s just hours a day and that skill pays off,” Hill said.
With three Eagles returning for two more years, and two individual championships already under his belt, Hill’s next goal is to sweep state golf all four years.
“We’ve got very good coaches in Tom Hubers and Jeff Bellach and a lot of good young talent from the kids,” said Hill. “I want to try and keep it up and win two more, but it’s going to take a lot of work and I’m going to have to play well. It’s not going to come easy for me.”
