Dana Finkelstein ninth at state

Kelsey Lawson
November 19, 2009
Filed under Sports

Girls golf standout junior Dana Finkelstein had an impressive season, finishing ninth in the individual state tournament. However, this was not her most impressive achievement.

Throughout the season, Finkelstein won seven individual medals and two tournaments, including the Tempe Invitational and region.

Finkelstein said her biggest accomplishment this season was winning region as a team and individually.

“She was awesome,” coach Pat Reed said. “She was very, very consistent and dependable. I was able to count on her.”

Finkelstein was a leader on the team not simply because of her results on the course.

“She was a leader by demonstrating,” Reed said. “At practice she would practice, and she listened. She was the first one to volunteer if someone needed help.”

Finkelstein headed into this season hoping to win region individually and as a team, a goal that was met.

“The girls stepped up from last year,” Reed said. “After losing three starters from last year, and I purposefully gave us a hard schedule, we did really well.”

This year in state the team finished fifth. Reed has high hopes for next year, considering the team has numbers one through four returning.

“If everybody improves as much as they did this year, we can improve on our fifth place finish from this year,” Reed said.

Finkelstein hopes to attend a DivisionI college to play golf. As a junior, college coaches can start contacting Finkelstein through emails and letters.

“Coaches from NAU, San Diego State, New Mexico State, UNLV and Oregon State have emailed,” Finkelstein said.

But before thinking of college, Finkelstein still has one more season to play.

“My goals next year are to win region and state individually,” Finkelstein said.