SA fourth, Jay seventh at invite

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DECATUR — Both Seth Sprunger and Butch Gray agree it’s hard to gauge a season from the first tournament.

They’re simply hoping Tuesday was not a barometer for the rest of the year.

The South Adams and Jay County high school girls golf teams opened their seasons Tuesday as they finished fourth and seventh respectively at the Bellmont Invitational at Cross Creek Golf Club.

“We’re barely getting started,” said Sprunger, whose South Adams Starfire squad shot 442 and hosted the South Adams Invitational today. “There is hardly any time to get ready this quick. You get three practices in and off you go.

“There is no good excuse for it. We just have to get better and we have to get better quick.”

The Angola Hornets took home the team title with a score of 351. The host Squaws were second with 387 and Norwell shot 408 for third. Jay County totaled 523 to finish last out of seven teams.

“We’ve got to put in some time and we have to look at it and see what they need to do,” said Gray, Jay County’s coach.

Kaiti Gorrell, the No. 1 golfer for South Adams, paced the team with a 101, including a birdie on the par-3 14th hole. She just missed the top 10 as she was 11th overall. Gorrell made one of her team’s four pars, doing so on the par-4 fifth.

Bekah Schwartz played to her No. 2 spot, finishing one place behind Gorrell with a 105. She had a rough start to her round as she made the turn with 58, but rebounded to shoot 47 — including a pair of pars — on the back nine. Allyson Schwartz was third on the team with 117, and Shayla Welch made her varsity debut by completing the Starfires’ score with 119.



“(Kaiti) is going to do better than that,” Sprunger said. “Bekah is going to do better than that. Allyson is going to do better than that. I really think that both Shayla and Claire are going to do better than what they did.

“I think all of us have that capacity.”

For Jay County, only its No. 1 golfer, junior Madalyn Garringer, has varsity experience. Even then, she’s only competed in nine-hole matches. Playing in her first career 18-hole tournament, Garringer shot 136, tying with freshman Raquel Wehrly for third on the team. On No. 14, Wehrly made par, the only one for Jay County.

Sophomore Mackenzie Parks carded the best score for the Patriots, finishing 15th with 112. Fellow sophomore Eden Basford had 139 to round out Jay County’s team total.

“For some of them this is the first time they’ve been on a course other than Portland (Golf Club),” said Gray, whose team also played in the South Adams Invitational today. “They kind of got intimidated by that.”

But both coaches are hopeful for better scores as the season progresses.

“We seem to do this about every year,” said Sprunger, whose team is defending Allen County Athletic Conference champions and beat its three conference opponents on Tuesday. “For whatever reason that first tournament, we’re unsure. There isn’t a whole lot of confidence on the course. We don’t play as well as we’re capable of.

“(I) look forward to the season. I really do have high hopes for these girls. I’m not going to let this result determine what our capacity is. The girls aren’t going to give up and I’m certainly not giving up on them.”

Also competing but not factoring into the team score were Tea Nichols (146) for Jay County and Claire Sutton (129) for South Adams.