THREE-PEAT: Girls Golf Team, Jenna Kim ’27 Win Third Straight Team and Individual State Crowns
By Dylan Howlett
2,474 words | 9-minute read
On the first day of their bid for a third straight state championship, the Durham Academy girls golf team lingered. They had arrived at Keith Hills Golf Club in Buies Creek before sunrise on Oct. 21, and they had — during the first of two championship rounds — built a 9-stroke lead over second-place Providence Day School. It wasn’t enough. At least by their metrics.
The Cavaliers had spent most of the 2024 season winning their matches by margins closer to 30 strokes. The year before, they had won a second straight state title by 61 strokes on the strength of Jenna Kim ’27, who also captured her second straight individual state title, and captain Saia Rampersaud ’25, a two-time all-state honoree. Yet there they were after this year’s first round, toiling away on the driving range hours after amassing a rather decisive first-round lead. The standards of a dynasty, after all, are not pedestrian.
“They weren’t taking this championship for granted at all,” said assistant coach and Upper School math teacher Tiffany Lim, who watched the impromptu practice session with admiration. “The whole team was at the range, but Saia and Jenna in particular were like, ‘We need to go and work on this. We can’t just expect that we’re going to win it tomorrow.’ All season, they haven’t taken it for granted and they’ve been pushing.”
“They have their own expectations and their own motivation separate from winning,” Lim said.
They’re also pretty gifted at winning. Again. And again. And again.
The DA girls golf team won its third consecutive team state championship Oct. 22 with a 13-stroke victory. It is the first DA athletics team in 20 years to clinch a third straight state title. Kim also claimed her third straight individual state championship with a six-stroke victory. “She is a machine,” Lim said. Of the 77 players who competed in the NCISAA (N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association) Division I girls golf state championships in 2023 and 2024, Kim is the only competitor to shoot under par in each tournament. Her average score from her three state titles is nearly 34 strokes better than the field’s average.
“I’m already telling friends and family, especially the Durham Academy family: ‘You want a picture with this young lady,’” head coach Kevin Wicker said, “‘because she’s going to be on TV, and she’s going to be successful.’”
But a singular talent can’t win a state championship — let alone three straight titles — on her own. For three years, Rampersaud has been one of the state’s best golfers. She has finished in the top 5 at states in each of DA’s title runs, and she will continue her playing career next fall at Indiana University. Chloe French ’25, an all-state selection in 2023, finished in the top 15 in each of her last three state championship appearances. Her closing round of 78 this year in Buies Creek staved off a final round charge from Providence Day.
“That team is just a powerhouse,” Lim said of DA. “I don’t know if we’re going to see a group like that for a while.”
What more is there to say, then, about a modern-day dynasty? DA Marketing & Communications gave Kim, Rampersaud and French the unenviable task of assigning superlatives to a team that has, it would seem, exhausted them all. But not, perhaps, by their lofty standards.
Most Likely to Request a Snack During a Round: JENNA KIM
Lim: “She snacks on everything. She’s the biggest snacker on the team. I feel very useful as a coach because every time I roll by, she’s like, ‘Do you have snacks? Do you have water?’ I’m like, ‘Yes! If anything, this is what I can help you with.’”
Kim: “Ms. Lim! Oh, my gosh. Ms. Lim continues to be like, ‘Jenna has asked for so many snacks. Whenever she calls us, it’s always for snacks. Jenna eats the most on the team.’ Ms. Lim has made it clear that I’m not only the most addicted to my phone, but I’m also the biggest eater on the team. I snack on the course a lot. I think snacks are essential to golf. I’ll get some Cheez-Its or some Goldfish or Welch’s Fruit Snacks to sustain me.”
Rampersaud: “Those Kellogg’s Special K Pastry Crisps? Oh, my God. They’re so good.”
French: “It’s a life-changer.”
Most Excited to See at the State Championships Turn: ANDY POGACH, Director of Athletics
In the midst of the three-peat, Pogach started a tradition of providing Chick-fil-A to the entire team after the conclusion of the ninth hole in each of the two state tournament rounds.
Lim: “Andy has been a big saver with the Chick-fil-A at the turn [end of the ninth hole]. On the front-9, every time I see them, they’re just asking if they’re going to get Chick-fil-A at the turn. ‘Yes, it’ll be there. You’ll have all of the sauces.’ And he came in clutch both days [of the state championships]. It was exactly what they needed.”
Rampersaud: “All of the other teams were so jealous.”
Kim: “They’re like, ‘How are you getting Chick-fil-A for lunch?’
Rampersaud: “We were the only team on the course that got it. That’s probably why we won.”
Best Shot of the 2024 Season: JENNA KIM’S HOLE-IN-ONE
Kim’s hole-in-one at the Palmetto Invitational in September was the seventh of her lifetime. She made her first hole-in-one at 8 years old.
French: “It has to be Jenna’s hole-in-one, doesn’t it?”
Rampersaud: “Oh, yeah! Hole-in-one!”
Kim: “It was the third hole of the Palmetto Invitational at True Blue Golf Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. It was really short — about 100 yards over water. I hit a 50-degree wedge, had a little bit of backspin and it went in.”
Most Impressive Thing about Jenna Kim: POSITIVE ATTITUDE
French: “I really admire her attitude. You can never tell if she’s — in her eyes — playing poorly. You can’t ever tell what kind of round she’s having until she tells you. I feel like that’s really important in a person. One thing that Coach Wicker tells us a lot is you don’t want to be able to tell if you’re having a good or bad round. Jenna does a really good job of that. Say I had a bad round, she’s always the first person to comfort me about it. She’s just really positive. She brings so much joy to the team.”
Rampersaud: “How humble she is. She doesn’t talk about winning ever.”
Lim: “She’s also really fun. Some of the really good golfers, it’s kind of stressful watching them. They’re not really positive. But Jenna’s very positive and uplifting. She’s really fun to chat with in between holes. She’s chatting about school, she’s chatting about boys, she’s chatting about everything.”
Wicker: “How nice is it to have a three-time state individual champion? And you would think at some point in time that there would be a little arrogance. But Jenna is so down-to-earth and so easygoing that she makes even the developing players more comfortable being around her just because of the way she carries herself.”
Most Appreciated Captain: SAIA RAMPERSAUD
Chloe: “She’s meant so much. She joined the team a year earlier than I did, and the entire relationship of the team has completely changed over the years. I became best friends with Saia through the golf team. Even when she wasn’t a captain during her beginning years, she’s always been a good leader.”
Kim: “She means a lot to me as well. I joined in seventh grade when she was a freshman. I obviously didn’t know anybody, and I was really nervous. But she was very welcoming and just made me feel like I was part of the team. Even when I would play rounds with her when I was in seventh grade, she would just make me feel really welcomed and was super sweet to me. We’ve grown a lot closer throughout the years, and she’s such a good golfer. She’s a big part of our team.”
Lim: “She’s an amazing captain. She’s pulling the coaches aside all the time to talk about her teammates to say, ‘Hey, did you hear about what happened with Jenna? Chloe needs you here.’ She’s always asking about her teammates and asking us to check up on them, and she’s checking up on them herself.”
Wicker: “With Saia, it meant so much to her when we won our first state championship that when she finally got her hands on the trophy, she didn’t let go of it for over an hour.”
Most Valuable No. 3 Player: CHLOE FRENCH
A golf team can’t win a state championship without a reliable “No. 3,” a third player who can bolster her team’s top-2 performers with highly competitive scores of their own. For DA’s three-peat attempt, it was Chloe French.
French: “I’m not gonna lie: This year, I was really scared going into it. I’ve always been used to having a safe No. 3 on our team. I kind of knew that I would have to step into that role. Because Jenna and Saia are guaranteed to do well, it kind of depends on how the third person does usually. It kind of worried me a little bit, but as the season went on, everyone did a really good job of reminding me that it’s not a super individual sport. It’s not like everything is on me, and I’m just playing for everybody out there — and we’re just doing the best we can. At the end of the day, how I score during a match isn’t going to change the world.”
Wicker: “She’s always been third fiddle to Saia and Jenna because of how good they are, but we had to actually convince Chloe that she was All-State material, too. And she finally bought into what we were talking about and started carrying herself a different way on the golf course and in practice. We knew right then that Chloe was going to be OK.”
Lim: “Her playing partners and the parents of her playing partners make it a point to tell us how kind Chloe is and how positive she is. Even when she’s having a bad hole, she’s being exceptionally kind to other people in her group.”
Kim: “Chloe’s meant so much to us. She’s always bringing energy to our matches. She’s very reliable, and we just know that she’ll be able to pull through even if she’s having a rough day. She’ll be able to finish the round. I think it’s just really helpful to have that kind of comfort on her team.”
Rampersaud: “Oh, my gosh. From a team perspective, she’s meant so much. She has definitely grown as a player and as a person throughout the years. I think the golf team has been really good for her overall. But she’s my best friend. I don’t think that we would have been friends without golf. The golf team has just meant so much to me and the friendships that we’ve formed, especially with Chloe.”
Most Unsung Heroes: THE REST OF THE TEAM — Gabriella Chumpitazi ’29, Lilly Jones ’26, Kenzie Kim ’26 and Elizabeth Mead ’30
Lim: The rest of the team is grinding out there, too. They’re really proud to be associated with this group.”
Wicker: “There are four other girls on the team, and they were equally important. They all encouraged each other, pushed each other, laughed together. To be successful and to have such a close group was probably more of my win than the state title — seeing the girls, how they handled being together and having success.”
French: “Especially because it’s my senior year, this season has been extremely special to me. I really feel like I’m just out there with my friends. We all know each other so well, and we work really well together even if it’s on the course or just in a social setting. We always find a way to have a good time, and we always just enjoy each other’s company.”
Most Likely to Send Motivational Quotes to Teammates: SAIA RAMPERSAUD
Rampersaud: “One day, I was like, ‘We need to get hype.’ And so I just started sending inspirational quotes. Sometimes they were funny. I don’t know if they were actually inspirational or more to make them laugh. But I laughed finding them. I enjoy sending them.”
Kim: “On Monday [the first day of the state championships], she sent: ‘Nothing is impossible. The word says: I’m possible.’ I don’t really know what that means.”
Rampersaud: “I’m possible. That’s ‘impossible.’ You don’t even read my quotes!”
Kim: (Laughs) “I don’t think I did.”
French: “A bad attitude is like a flat tire: You won’t get anywhere until you change it.”
Rampersaud: “I liked that one, too.”
French: “She also sent a voice memo of her reading it to us, so that made it even better.”
Rampersaud: “What timestamp is on that?”
French: “12 a.m.”
Most Likely to Say the Right Thing at the Right Time: KEVIN WICKER
Rampersaud: “He’s just so supportive. We were actually talking about this [on the team]: He’s just so nice to us. I couldn’t have asked for a better high school coach.”
Lim: “I think Wicker is one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen in terms of managing a team and managing high school players — and making them feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. His impact can’t be overstated.”
Rampersaud: “If we go to practice and talk about having a bad day, his first reaction is not to just get straight to golf: It’s to talk about and resolve how we can feel better individually. I think that’s really helpful.”
Fondest Memories: FRIENDSHIPS AND TROPHIES
Rampersaud: “It means a lot. Obviously, we’ve done so much with the team. But I think the true experience is the friendships that we’ve made throughout the years. Being on such a small team, everyone gets connected in a very different way. Nobody on the team was ever in the same friend group, and we’re all in different grades. We were able to bond in such a different way. I think even compared to other sports teams that have bonded, I think golf has such a small team and has been really able to form a true friend group and a true friendship with each other. That’s probably been the most impactful thing for me.”
French: “It is really crazy to think about. High school sports can seem like having fun and whatnot. But when you think about it, having a strong enough team to be able to win three state titles in a row means so much. It’s kind of reassuring that all of this work and effort that you’ve put into this sport really is paying off — and especially for your school.”
2024 Durham Academy Girls Golf Team NCISAA Division I State Champions
Gabriella Chumpitazi ’29, Chloe French ’25, Lilly Jones ’26, Jenna Kim ’27, Kenzie Kim ’26, Elizabeth Mead ’30, Saia Rampersaud ’25
Head Coach: Kevin Wicker, Assistant Coach: Tiffany Lim