October 20, 2026

Written by Chandler Sjoerdsma

TEMECULA:  The King Wolves, along with the rest of the Big VIII, descended on Cross Creek Golf Club in the Temecula mountains on Monday for the first round of league competition. Thirty-two golfers from the six teams in the Big VIII teed off beginning at 11am on a short but convoluted course. With beautiful temperatures and hardly any breeze, it was a shootout for the top of the lineups and an excellent chance for the newer golfers to shoot some record lows. And the King players certainly took advantage of that opportunity!

Emilyn Czaplicki led the team with a colorful round of two-under 69, finishing in second place after the first day behind Santiago’s Finlay Nihei, who shot a lights-out eight-under 63, setting a course record in the process. Sarani Yapa was close behind in third with a two-over 73, taking advantage of her distance as well. Addison Ruan and Alyssa Christensen both shot their personal lows over 18 holes for this season, both making the 16-player cut for the second day with a 90 and 91, respectively. Georgia Herbon and Journey Reish, despite not making the cut, also performed extremely well, shooting their personal best 18-hole true scores of 103 and 128, respectively.

Coach’s Take: Today was such an encouraging demonstration of how much the players’ hard work this season has been paying off. Our younger players’ individual seasons might be over, but the team’s spirits and morale were high today especially in part to Georgia’s and Journey’s presence and success. For being brand-new golfers who’ve only competed this one season, the girls have shown remarkable improvement over the course of the last three months.

Addy and Alyssa making the cut essentially on the line was quite exciting, and excellent proof that every stroke matters out there. The top eight from Wednesday will move on to CIF individual qualifiers, and it would be so incredible if these two can keep their focus and overcome any highs and lows to battle all the way to the end.

Emilyn and Sarani, at the top of the leaderboard, have their own unique mental-game strategies to plan for Wednesday. They had great days today on an opportunistic course, despite never playing the course before. Now, they’ll have the experience of chasing down the leader. The pressure will be on Finlay to follow up that incredible performance, and with any luck, both King girls can duplicate their success from Monday and trust that their steadiness will provide them an opportunity to walk away on Wednesday with the league individual championship.

The four King players will return to competition on Wednesday, 10/21, to play in the league finals back at Cross Creek Golf Club.

Season Record: 10-4

League Record: 7-3