Welch shares medalist, SA second

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Through the first three tournaments of the season, Shayla Welch played from the No. 1 spot for the Starfires.

Following a death in the family, South Adams coach Seth Sprunger moved her down a notch to help free her mind.

The senior had the best match of her career.

Welch shot 51, sharing medalist honor as the South Adams High School girls golf team finished second in a four-team Allen County Athletic Conference match at Portland Golf Club.

“To come through and tie for medalist is just great,” said Sprunger, noting Welch's grandfather passed away recently. “Thrilled for her. First time she’s ever been a medalist in a match.”

South Adams totaled 228 as it was runner-up to the Heritage Patriots, who shot 211. Host Jay County finished with 235 for third, and Woodlan, which is playing its first season in program history, was fourth with 290.

“My goal here was to take two out of the three,” Sprunger added. “To be able to go 2-1 on a day where two of the players probably didn’t play their best golf is a pretty good accomplishment. The other two just carried the team.”

Welch switched spots with classmate Katie Stiltner, and they had matching scores through the first two holes. But the third hole is where Welch started to pull away from her teammate. Welch’s best performance came on the 401-yard, par-5 fifth hole, during which she had the Starfires’ only par of the round.

Alexa Zelt of Heritage also carded 51, sharing the top spot with Welch.

Junior Maggie Evans, the No. 4 golfer for South Adams, was second on the squad with 56, and classmate Millie Gaskill was three strokes behind. Stiltner completed the team score with 62.

While Sprunger knows Gaskill and Stiltner still have room to improve, he is hopeful they can help close the gap against conference favorite Heritage.

“Outside of Heritage being the top mark we can compete with everybody,” he said. “We’re going to have to do better against Adams Central and we’re going ot have to continue to do better against Jay County.”

The Starfires finished behind Jay County in the Bellmont Invitational on Tuesday, but topped the Patriots a day later at their own invite.

Jay County junior Mackenzie Parks began her round by shooting par on the 275-yard, par-4 first hole, and rode that to a team-best 54 from the No. 2 position.

Parks played No. 1 for most of her sophomore season, and JCHS coach Butch Gray has noted increased confidence in her play since she chose to play No. 2 this year.

“I think it’s how she starts,” he said. “If she starts halfway decent she plays halfway decent. That’s like anybody else. Anybody else that has a bad start usually plays that way the rest of the day.”

Sierra Caster, a senior, was consistent in her play in terms of score by hole as she needed six strokes to complete six holes. She ended with a 59, one stroke ahead of sophomore Abby Huey.

But Huey had a couple penalty strokes and at times struggled on the greens.

“I look at a couple of them with the penalty strokes they had, they take those out and the three-putt greens, they play a lot better,” Gray said. “We could be down there to get closer to South Adams.

“Heritage has a good team. All of their girls were in the low 50s and that’s good.”

Raquel Wehrly, another sophomore, completed the Patriots’ team total by finishing with a 62.

“It’s a work in progress,” Gray said. “We’re getting there one step at a time. I thik as we go through the year, I like to peak at conference time and sectional time. That’s when you want to be playing your best.”