Willis wins ACAC tourney

Sydney Willis is the top golfer in the Allen County Athletic Conference for the second straight year.
Willis, a South Adams junior, tied her season-best score of 77 for 18 holes on Saturday to earn medalist honors in the ACAC girls golf tournament at Portland Golf Club.
The Leo Lions won the tournament with a 344, and also took the round-robin title for the top regular-season conference record.
South Adams was second with 375. Jay County, led by senior Maddison Baughn’s season-low score of 98, placed third in its first season in the ACAC with a team score of 414.
Jaci Gorrell, a South Adams junior, fired a 94 to place seventh overall, joining her classmate Willis on the all-conference first team.
“Obviously (I’m) very pleased with two girls that are getting the all-conference honor,” SAHS coach Seth Sprunger said. The top seven golfers are named to the first team, and those placing eighth through 15 are given honorable mention. “Always thrilled to see Sydney be able to get that low. She’s used to that kind of success.”
Willis began her round with a birdie on the 289-yard, par-4 10th, then followed it up with a par and a double bogey to sit 1-over-par after three holes. She then made three straight birdies before closing out the back nine with three straight bogeys.
“I felt like I played pretty solidly,” said Willis, who has been the medalist in nine of her 10 matches this season. Her only loss was Thursday to Brook Moser of Leo, who was fifth overall with a 90. “I’m hitting the ball well.”
Willis was able to play more consistently on the front nine. After making the turn, she recorded pars on all but three holes, and nearly converted a birdie of the round on the 401-yard, par-5 sixth.
Her third shot stopped rolling about 10 feet from the pin, and her subsequent birdie putt missed just inches to the left.
Alleigh Wingler and Amy Schwartz turned in scores of 101 and 103 respectively as the Starfires’ No. 3 and No. 4 golfers. Wingler, who had a birdie on the par-3 eighth hole and two bogeys, finished 12th while Schwartz was 13th.
Jay County’s Sydney Mathias (103) and Baughn also earned honorable mention, and coach Butch Gray said they should be pleased even if their scores were a little higher than they would have liked.
“Right now they may say they could have done better, but they’re all-conference honorable mention,” Gray said.
Baughn, who shaved five strokes off her previous season-best score of 103 set Aug. 7 at Crestview, was quick to point out how she could have done better.
“My putting kind of killed me on the front,” she said.
On the sixth hole, though, she almost didn’t even need to use her putter.
Her tee shot put her on the left of the fairway but without a clear view of the green. Instead of trying to go over a set of trees, Baughn hit up the fairway into an opening, setting up a chip shot from about 50 yards away. From there, she watched as her chip shot rolled up the green toward the pin, missing an eagle by less than a foot.
“I had a really good drive and a really good second shot,” Baughn said. “My chip was super close. It just kept rolling … it was just a few inches (away) and I putted in for birdie.”
Gray said Baughn, who broke 100 for the first time this season and had been averaging 51 for nine holes, has become a more consistent golfer for the Patriots.
“She’s back to being the Maddie she’s been for the last two or three years,” he said. “It’s nice to see. That’s that nice senior leadership.”
Jay County’s Malarie Houck and Brooke Sanders rounded out the team score for the Patriots with scores of 106 and a 107 respectively. Sanders, a junior, made par on the 125-yard, par-3 15th hole, and had three bogeys on the front and back nine.
Houck, in her first year competing as a golfer, sandwiched a par on the 11th hole between two double bogeys, and struggled the rest of her round with five double and five triple bogeys.
“It’s been a while since we’ve played 18 holes,” Gray said, noting it was good to get back playing a full course with the sectional tournament slated for Sept. 20. “I was not disappointed at all. I thought the girls played well.”