The All-District golf team has been dominated by boys for the past five years. Seeing a girl make the fifth or sixth seed is unusual and any seed higher is an outlier. Junior Jane Thompson is an outlier. Thompson is the first girl in Harrisonburg golf’s history to make the first seed on the All-District team, beating the second seed by a mere stroke.

Thompson didn’t stumble upon this success, it came with sacrifice over her summer.

“Coming into this season I was really excited. I had been working all summer, not really towards any specific goals, just to improve my scores. I would go to the range for an hour or two and then play 18 or 27 holes depending on the day. I played at least five days a week,” Thompson said. “I didn’t get to hang out with as many people as I would have wanted but it was worth it because I came into the season pretty confident. [The sacrifice] was worth it because golf means a lot to me.”

Thompson worked with golf pros at Spotswood Country Club. She took private lessons and played with the pros to better gauge her overall performance.

Her short game became the focus of her training, especially her putting. Thompson made a stroke and grip change on her putter and some of her low irons.

“The best part of my game right now is my low irons. My nine iron is the best club in my bag,” Thompson said.

After coming into the season with a strong sense of confidence, Thompson saw her game’s quality degrade.

“I played the best earlier in the season because I was still pretty fresh. I actually think I’ve gotten worse as the season has progressed but we’re back on the grind,” Thompson said.

Thompson hit her second wind just in time for the regional match at Heritage Oaks in which she shot a 71, tying for first at the tournament and earning her the first spot on the All-District team.

“It felt pretty good to win. I was the only girl out of the six on the district team and I was first. Honestly, it would have felt the same if they were all girls. They’re just competitors,” Thompson said.

Thompson still has high hopes for the remainder of the postseason.

“My first hope is just to qualify for regionals. We’re just taking it step by step and tournament by tournament,” Thompson said. “States is obviously the end goal.”