Dodd shoots career best in victory

Kendra Dodd had never shot lower than a 48.
She had never earned match medalist honors either.
Tuesday, she did both.
Dodd, a Jay County High School senior, shot a career-best 41, earning match medalist honors while helping the Patriot girls golf team to victories against South Adams and Adams Central at Portland Golf Club.
“Pleasant surprise,” said JCHS coach Butch Gray, whose team shot a 203, one stroke off its season low. South Adams was second with 214, and Adams Central was third with 217.
“I knew after the first four holes she was two over,” Gray said. “She held it together.”
Playing the back nine, Dodd made par on her first two holes before bogeying the next two. On the 420-yard, par-5 12th, she chipped for par from the lower edge of the green, the ball stopped 2 feet to the right of the pin and she tapped in for bogey.
She had a bogey on the next hole as well before settling for a triple bogey on the par-5 14th.
Two holes later, she made a birdie on the 290-yard, par-4 16th, and finished her round bogey-par for a career-best 6-over-par 41.
Fellow senior Madison Brown shot a 51 — one off her career best — for the second consecutive match for the Patriots’ No. 2 score. She made par twice, had three bogeys and settled for a double-digit score on the par-5 14th, a hole on which the Patriots were a combined 20-over.
Cassie Reno and Carlie Wickey, both of whom are seniors, finished with scores of 55 and 56 respectively to complete the Patriots’ team total. Reno made par once, doing so on the 12th hole.
Gray said he is pleased with the improvement and consistency he is seeing out of some of his players.
“I’ve juggled the lineup a couple times and it’s just to see where I can get a comfort zone that they’ll be OK with,” he said. “The thing is to be peaking when you get to conference and sectional.”
Jay County (4-3, 2-2 Allen County Athletic Conference) hosts the conference tournament Sept. 10 at Golf Club of the Limberlost in Geneva. The sectional tournament is a week later.
Amy Schwartz and Becah Schwartz tied at 50 to lead South Adams, which is the defending conference champion. Becah Schwartz made par twice, and Amy Schwartz closed her round with her only par.
“We’ve had some inconsistency issues and they cropped up a little bit tonight,” said SAHS coach Seth Sprunger, whose team moved to 4-4 overall and 2-1 in ACAC play. “We need to have our top three golfers somewhere in the 40s. Didn’t have anyone there tonight. (I’m) not real happy about that.”
Kaiti Gorrell was third on the team with a 53, and Selina Jones shot a 61 to complete the Starfires’ team total.
“We’ve got things to work on,” Sprunger said.
The Starfires spent more time on the green than he would have liked.
“I’d like to see us improve on our short game,” he added. “You can beat a lot of people who out-drive you by just executing your pitch shots and your shots on the green better than what they do.”
Also competing for Jay County was Madalyn Garringer, who shot a 69. South Adams’ Katie Stiltner was two strokes better with a 67.
Jay County’s junior varsity team lost to Adams Central, 253-263. Individual JV scores were not provided.