Girls Golf Team, Jenna Kim ’27 Repeat as State Champs
Story by Dylan Howlett | Photo by Dave Guyer
More than 48 hours before the Durham Academy girls golf team would clinch its second consecutive state championship in October 2023, a murmur swept over the grounds of Keith Hills Golf Club in Buies Creek, N.C. The tournament director told the six assembled schools, and 38 student-athletes, that the golf course for the championships would stretch 6,200 yards — or about 1,000 yards longer than the average layout for an NCISAA 4A event.
Players and coaches alike were dumbfounded, even panicked, with the notable exception of two competitors. There was Saia Rampersaud ’25, the season’s No. 3-ranked golfer who would go on to finish fourth in the state tournament. And there was Jenna Kim ’27, the gifted ninth-grader whose prodigious skill precipitated the unexpected course lengthening.
A year before, Kim was an eighth-grader when she became the youngest-ever girls golf individual champion in NCISAA (N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association) history. This year, the venue for the state championships would be toughened, and elongated, in deference to Kim’s talents — not unlike the measures once taken by championship courses to neutralize an ascendant phenom by the name of Tiger Woods.
David Flowers, the NCISAA assistant director, said as much in a conversation with DA head coach Kevin Wicker, who led the Cavs in 2022 to their first-ever girls golf state title in his first year as head coach. “Look, she can shoot 69,” Flowers said of Kim. “Everybody else is just gonna have to catch up.”
In the opening round, Kim indeed shot a three-under-par 69. And, as it turned out, everybody else couldn’t catch up.
By the conclusion of the second and final round, the Cavaliers had bested second-place North Raleigh Christian Academy by 61 strokes, a staggering margin paced by Kim’s successful defense of her individual state title. Of the 38 student-athletes in the field, Kim was the only competitor to shoot under par (-4) on her way to a 14-stroke rout.
“Of course she’s got the talent, but her mindset is just different,” Wicker said of Kim, who wasn’t aware that she had inspired the course changes. “She strives for excellence, and she doesn’t really waver on that.”
Kim had ample help from Rampersaud’s fourth-place finish (+14), and Chloe French ’25, who tied for ninth place (+21). The Cavs also enjoyed stellar bounce-back performances from a pair of seniors in their final round as Cavaliers: Riley Kim was 15 strokes better than in her opening round, and Evelyn Guyer had improved by 12 strokes.
Head Coach Kevin Wicker, Jenna Kim ’27, Chloe French ’25, Saia Rampersaud ’25, Lilly Jones ’26, Evelyn Guyer ’24, Riley Kim ’24 (Not Pictured: Assistant Coach Tiffany Lim).
“This group is just such good friends that they just bond well together,” Wicker said. “They laugh together, they play together, they grind together, they fight together. It’s just kind of a whole team effort that made everyone feel comfortable to just go play. Each one had each other’s back.”
Most of them will, too, in the 2024 season, when the fearsome trio of Jenna Kim, Rampersaud and French return with designs of winning a third straight championship. “I have pretty high expectations,” Kim said of the fall 2024 team. “Saia is obviously an amazing golfer, and Chloe is too. Knowing that we have three pretty strong players, I think we’re going to do well.” And it isn’t lost on the opposition. Following the final round of the 2023 championship, head coaches from other schools spoke with Wicker and lamented the unenviable task — with or without outsized course lengthening — of defeating DA’s best.
“We’re still smiling from this year’s victory, and they’re already disappointed for next year,” said Wicker, laughing. “I’m excited. They’re such a good group of kids. You just want to be around them. You just enjoy it, and you love watching their success.”
Ali Laros ’25 Repeats As State Pole Vault Champ
Kim wasn't the only Cavalier to repeat as an individual state champion in 2023–2024. In May, track and field athlete Ali Laros '25 won her second consecutive NCISAA 4A state title in girls pole vault. Laros, whose 2023 mark of 11'6" remains the second-best pole vault in school history, also won two TISAC conference titles — the girls triple jump and as a member of the girls 4x100-meter relay team — a week before the state meet.