FRENCHTOWN — Katie Lewis won the State A golf tournament last weekend in Hamilton, and the success the sophomore from Frenchtown experienced is still setting in.
"It's still coming in at like different parts even when the days go on," Lewis said. "It's crazy."
But Lewis didn't just win the tournament for her first individual state golf title, she completely blew out the rest of the competition.
Lewis shot a five-over par 77 on the first day, good for a nine-stroke lead over the second-place competitor.
And her strategy going into the second day was about as simple as it gets.
"I thought, 'Yeah OK, I've got a lead but it's golf, it's the most unpredictable game in the world, anything could happen on Day 2,'" Lewis said. "So I just sat there, I hit a golf ball into a hole and hoped for the best."
On the second day, she shot a 76, and ended up winning the tournament 17 strokes ahead of the next best placer.
Her performance was also historic, as it was the first time Frenchtown had a state golf champion in school history.
"I think my thoughts were just work hard, take it shot-by-shot and don't worry about the small things," Lewis said. "I could have a bad iron, but then the next shot I could have a perfect wedge and put it to like a foot-and-a-half. And so just thinking about that and making those ho hum pars is just sweet."
And Lewis didn't come out of nowhere this season.
She finished in third place at state as a freshman last year, and thanks to a long offseason of preparations, she was able to find her groove heading into this fall.
"I think the main thing was just putting in the work to get to there," Lewis said. "Like my freshman year, I knew that I had a shot, and I said OK I got to do this to make sure I could do this next year and so I started working on it right after state last year."
Lewis now has two more high school seasons to add to that success, but last weekend's victory will be tough to top.
"It felt great because I put in a whole lot of work this summer with it," Lewis said. "I went all over. I went to California to do a tournament, I did stuff in Missoula and to see all of that hard work actually come to my dream at the end of the season was great."
