Starting her high school career, OH sophomore Alli Wiertel has gained national popularity due to her impressive golf accomplishments. With conference champs 1x and regional champs 2x, Wiertel has led her team to amazing results.
This season, she was the individual Southwest Prairie Conference (SPC) girls’ golf champion. At the conference tournament, she fired a 68, which secured her the win by 11 strokes. The top individual scored a 65 at the regional championship; at sectionals, she placed second.
Wiertel has practically been playing golf for her entire life. “My dad got me into golf,” said Wiertel. “I started when I was four years old and started my first tournaments when I was eight.”
Oswego’s Co-Op girls golf team Head Coach Brian Chandler shared his insights on Wiertel’s amazing golf talent.
The entire 2025 season, Alli has been playing extremely well. Earlier this year, she scored a course record 59 at Whitetail Ridge.
“Each match, we don’t worry about the past or future; we try to focus on the task at hand, but obviously, it was very neat for everyone at the tournament to see [a course record] happen,” said Chandler.
As golf is a team sport with individual scores, Chandler explained the team pride in this individual accomplishment.
“The accomplishment of shooting a 59 at Whitetail Ridge was incredible, but didn’t mean much to the team,” he added. “I don’t say that in a bad way, but it was more of a personal goal [for Alli].”
Wiertel is a natural-born leader who brings positivity and helpfulness inside and outside of golf practice.
“Alli brings consistency and an amazing work ethic,” said Chandler. “She practices the right way and prepares properly. She’s actually taken the initiative to show the team drills she’s learned over the years as well.”
On October 11, 2025, Wiertal participated in the IHSA state finals—a two-day tournament featuring other amazing girl golfers.
Wiertel finished -7 on the day with a two-day total of 136, dominating the competition by five strokes to claim the state championship.
Wiertel believes that how she got to the state championship is simply “hard work.” She said, “I put a lot of work into golf, practices, and my routines, that’s what led me to it.”
Winning state was a high school goal for Wiertel, and “I’d like to go play golf in college [too],” she added.
Hello! My name is Madi Young! I am sports editor here at 42fifty! You can contact me by emailing 42fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
