Cougars edged by Patriots in tri-match

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

CLOVERDALE -- Sunny skies greeted Cloverdale, North Putnam and Owen Valley golfers at Clover Meadows Monday night as the three schools girls' golf squads met in competition.

Illness claimed enough golfers that Cloverdale could not field a full squad, though they would have the two lowest scores on the day. This allowed the visiting Patriots a chance to squeak by the Cougars for a 227-234 win.

Clover duo Sydney Shrum and Victoria Boyette carded the two lowest rounds on the day with a 43 and 48 respectively, with Anna Spencer coming in with a 65.

But without adequate numbers for the day, the meet became a race between the two visiting squads.

The Cougars were paced by Ellen Wilburn's 53, a score matched by the Patriots' low scorer Michaela Morgan.

Behind Wilburn, Val Scott shot 59, with Josie Parent and Megan Schutter carding dual 61's to round out the scoring for the Cougars. Courtney Smith carded a 63, with Olivia Zarate coming in with a 67 and Jessie Cox a 68.

They were edged by the Patriots, who added scores of 57, 58, and 59 through Olivia West, Casondera Lehmann and Kartina Dayhuff, respectively.

Cloverdale head coach Matt Langdon was impressed by the three golfers he had on the course Monday.

"Sickness with kids is something you can't control. But, the girls here today played well. Doing the math in my head, if we had our typical 55 from our number three, which we have been getting, we would have been around 220 today," Langdon said.

"That's where we've been playing at, where we've consistently been at. We'd like to be in the 210's, so 220 would have been a little bit high, but Sydney (Shrum) was the medalist again tonight. We've not had a dual or three way meet where she hasn't gotten the medalist this year."

"Victoria, it was nice to see her get back into the forties. She's had a couple of meets where she's struggled a bit, but she's determined to get those scores back in the forties and we'll see her going down from here," Langdon added.

North Putnam head coach Linda Patrick was happier than the prior week with her squad's output.

"Compared to what we did last Thursday on our home course, I'm happier than I was the other night. I have some girls that have some goals that they haven't quite met and thought maybe they'd meet them here tonight, even though Cloverdale has a good team, but they had some penalties that hurt them," Patrick said.

"Overall, I'm happy and pleased with it. I think the girls can do better. We're trying to prepare for county, and, yes, they go to see this course and we'll be playing the same (holes) next time, so we'll be a little more prepared for the water out there."

The Cougars will get a chance to further drop scores when they face Danville and Monrovia Thursday at Twin Bridges. Though Patrick won't be there, she was already eyeing where she thought the squad could be.

"We'll play Danville, and they're pretty tough. The have a couple of girls there, the Lucky girls, that is their last names, and they're pretty tough. It's our home course and I hope they can cut some strokes from last week," Patrick said.

"Against North Montgomery, we had a 242, which we haven't had since our first season. Even 234 here, which was better than we had last time, we really should be clear down around 210 or less. I'm hoping we can still do better than we did."

"We know Monrovia's got three girls who are pretty decent, maybe four. We're going to have our hands full and everything is going to have to work for them Thursday night," Patrick added.

An invite Saturday at Western Boone was a chance for Langdon and the Clovers to get a better look at future competition.

"It's a good tournament for us to be in. We're a smaller school and there will be some large schools there. It gives us a look at those future goals, maybe to compete at the sectional one day, and that's the kind of competition we'll face," Langdon said.

"It's an 18-hole meet, so hopefully we'll go up there and each girl can shoot their best and keep trying to get those scores lower. It's a good thing for us to be in each year, to see those big schools, because we want to be there someday."

At Clover Meadows

Owen Valley 227, North Putnam 234, Cloverdale Inc.

Medalist -- Shrum (CL) 43