Four time state champions

The Bobcats won the 2A state boys golf team title for the fourth straight year, the sixth time in the last eight seasons, during state golf on their home course.

After they were tied with Kemmerer following the first day, Thermopolis won by 40 shots in the team standings finishing with an overall score of 690. Kemmerer came in second with an overall score of 730.

Thermopolis senior Hardy Johnson capped off his high school golf career with a dominating effort on his home course for a fourth straight state championship.

After an opening-round 77 and an eight-shot lead, Hardy blistered the Thermopolis Golf Course with a final round 68. He won by 19 shots over his younger brother, Hadley Johnson. Hardy finished with a two-round total of 145, while Hadley came in at 166, nine shots under third place.

Will Clark shot a 183 to tie for 6th place, Seth Weyer shot a 196 and Jonah Needham shot a 217.

"What a crazy season!  This season saw so many unexpected twists in such a short period of time but I am so happy with the way that our athletes ended their season. After our digital learning phase where we had to practice individually, we were thrust right back into the season with only four days to prepare prior to the 2A state golf tournament. We were especially fortunate that we got to host the state event since we missed two of our six events for the year," said coach Brandon Deromedi. 

This year, the state tournament had lots of story lines and many included the Bobcats. 

The tournament had tough conditions such as quick greens and a lot of wind that was not normal for Thermopolis. Going into the tournament the boys were looking to repeat for the fourth championship in a row and Hardy was looking for his fourth individual championship. 

"At the conclusion of day one, I think most of the kids were feeling down about their performances but I thought the results were respectable given the conditions of the course. I felt that the boys' competition (Kemmerer) played some really good golf on day one that kept them tied with us going into day two.  Hardy kept the lead throughout most of day one but also wasn't thrilled about his round," said Deromedi 

He added, "As we met after day one I told the kids that we just have to be better than yesterday, going into day two. Our theme all year has been "intentional" and we discussed how and what intentional would look like on day two if we were to win.  I asked them to each do what they could to improve by two strokes on day two.  Not only did they rise to that occasion but they knocked it down in the first six holes and kept improving all day."

By the end of day two, Hardy had improved from day one by nine strokes, Hadley improved by four strokes, Seth improved by ten strokes, Will improved by seven strokes and Jonah improved by seventeen strokes, For the girls, Ki Krashaar improved by 15 strokes.

"I was blown away. This helped propel our kids in all areas of the results." said coach Deromedi.

He added, "Ki scored her personal best on day two of the state tournament by posting a 126 and I am confident she is setting herself up for a great career in years to come.  We look forward to seeing more improvement and more accolades in 2022.  Go Bobcats!"

Hardy, Hadley and Will were named to All-State Golf.