South Putnam places second in WCC tournament match

Monday, September 10, 2012

CLAYTON -- The 2012 WCC girls' golf match at Deer Creek Golf Course was a two-team race between Monrovia and South Putnam on Saturday afternoon.

In the end, Monrovia took the team title with a score of 386 to South Putnam's 400. Cascade finished third with a score of 427, followed by Greencastle's 434, Cloverdale's 445 and North Putnam's 463.

Monrovia's Jessica Smyth led the all-WCC team and captured her fourth straight individual title with a round of 73. Cloverdale's Sydney Shrum was second with a round of 82, followed by Monrovia's Chrislyn Church and Meredith Knieper with rounds of 83 and 90 respectively.

South Putnam golfers took three of the next four all-WCC slots with Madison Cash fifth with a round of 93, Caitlyn Boyce sixth on 96 and Kyndra Boyce eighth after a round of 102.

Lauren Bridgewater of Greencastle placed seventh with a 101. Rounding out the all-WCC list, Monrovia's Erin Hayes took ninth over North Putnam's Josie Parent on tiebreak with both golfers shooting 104.

The four county coaches each had at least one golfer in the all-WCC team but had mixed reactions to the round.

"We played great. We thought coming in if we shot in the low 400s, then we'd have a chance to win. With the conditions the way they were, we figured the low 400s would win," South Putnam head coach Brian McClure said.

"We shot 400, which was about as good as we could shoot on 18 holes, but you have to give credit to Monrovia, who played a great round. They've got a good 1-2 punch and that was too much to overcome today."

"It was a bit of a mediocre performance today," Greencastle head coach Brad Kingma said. "I feel good for Lauren. We had three girls who could have made all-WCC but Lauren's game has really come on and I think she's seeing what she can do when she dedicates herself to the game."

"Kenzie (St. Marie) had a couple of penalties on the back nine that knocked her back. Liz (Johnson) was pretty consistent with her scores and played a lot better, as did Lokysa. I'm happy with that."

"We would have liked to have been more competitive," Cloverdale head coach Matthew Langdon said. "We know we can shoot better than this. For a few girls, this was their first time playing here and in the WCC match."

"We'll take this as a learning experience. Sydney's been here and she didn't play bad today but didn't have some shots fall to challenge Smyth."

"I'm glad Josie did make the all-WCC team.," North Putnam head coach Linda Patrick said. "She worked hard for this and it was one of her goals this year. It was also good she beat out a couple of county girls to the spot."

"The rest of the girls did the best they could with the conditions we had today. They haven't played very often on wet surfaces and that had an effect on their golfing today."

The four schools will reconvene on Thursday for the Putnam County match and all four coaches look at the match as one their squads can win.

"We're looking forward to it. If we come out and play at county like we did at the start of this round, we'll be tough to beat. We can take a lot of positives from today," McClure said.

"But no one is going to hand the title to us so we've got to play well. We're looking forward to Thursday and see how things play out.

"It's a different kind of course. We did better there than we did at conference last year so we need to focus mentally. I'm not sure we were in this one all 18 holes," Kingma said.

"One of our goals this year was to come out of the county match a winner. Today's scores don't show a lot about that but we're only playing the front nine and the four seniors are familiar with the course," Patrick said.

"We want to get a round in down there and know it like the back of our hand. Our seniors want to go down there and do well. The other gals are helping out; we just need to get everyone's scores down at the same time."

"As a younger team, we feel more comfortable at home and we know we can compete there. We've had close rounds with all three county schools, within five strokes of each team," Langdon said.

"It's nice to be playing at home and we feel we can be very competitive. Last year, three teams were separated by a stroke. We think it can be that close this year and we want to be the ones on top this time."

At Deer Creek Golf Course

2012 West Central Conference Match

Monrovia 386, South Putnam 400, Cascade 427, Greencastle 434, Cloverdale 445, North Putnam 463

Medalist: Jessica Smyth (CA) 73

All-WCC Team: Smyth (CA) 73, Shrum (CL) 82, Church (M) 83, Knieper (M) 90, Cash (SP) 93, C. Boyce (SP) 96, Bridgewater (G) 101, K. Boyce (SP) 102, Hayes (M) 104, Parent (NP) 104

Team Scores

Cascade: Smyth 73, Archer 110, Flannigan 114, Archer 130

Cloverdale: Shrum 82, Spencer 113, Moore 119, Dorsett 131, Fuetter 134

Greencastle: Bridgewater 101, Johnson 105, St. Marie 106, Scheuermann 122, Cash 163

Monrovia: Church 83, Knieper 90, Hayes 104, Thom 109, Russell 121

North Putnam: Parent 104, Wilborn 116, Zarate 120, Cox 123, Rees 127

South Putnam: Cash 93, C. Boyce 96, K. Boyce 102, Woodworth 107, Perry 138