SA second with Heritage, Jay Co.

GENEVA — The Starfires hoped their familiarity with the course would work to their benefit.

For the second time in less than a week, they were chasing Heritage.

The South Adams High School girls golf team opened its nine-hole schedule by finishing second in a three-team Allen County Athletic Conference match with the Heritage Patriots and Jay County Patriots on Monday morning at Golf Club of the Limberlost.

“We knew it was a pretty big match for us today,” said SAHS coach Seth Sprunger, whose team shot 204 in the ACAC opener. “If we get this one we are in a pretty good spot for the conference (round-robin title).

“We knew being on the home course that would be to our advantage, but we just didn’t quite have enough to keep up with Heritage today.”

The Patriots from Monroeville won with a 194 total. The Jay County Patriots were third with 249.

“Slowly getting it,” said JCHS coach Butch Gray, whose team has only one player with varsity experience prior to this season. “They are learning that you have to score. We’ll just keep plugging away.”

Kaiti Gorrell, a South Adams senior, shared match medalist honors with Karlee Fackler of Heritage. They both fired 46.

Gorrell made par on both the 236-yard, par-4 fourth and the 406-yard, par-5 eighth holes. She had four bogeys, including both par 3s, and was one shot over on both the fifth and sixth holes, which are par 4.

“I like Kaiti Gorrell’s work ethic,” Sprunger said of the team’s No. 1 player. “She continues to show signs of what she can do.”

Becah Schwartz and Allyson Schwartz each had a pair of pars. The former was second on the team with a 51 while the latter shot 53 for the squad’s third-best score. Shayla Welch shot 54 to complete the team total.

“We are right there,” Sprunger said. The Starfires (1-1, 1-1 ACAC) finished behind Heritage during the invitational it hosted Wednesday. “We have a lot of girls that are in that range of getting into the 40s. We’re right there. The goal is to get three girls in the 40s. We’ll see what we can do to work there.”

Mackenzie Parks led Jay County (0-2, 0-2 ACAC) for the third time in as many tries this season. She made the only par for the Patriots from Portland, doing so on No. 4. Playing in her first career nine-hole match, she finished with 55.

Maddie Garringer and Sierra Caster both shot 61, and Raquel Wehrly had a 72 to complete Jay County’s score.

“Again, we are very, very young,” said Gray, whose team has its home opener at 4:30 p.m. Thursday against Muncie Central at Portland Golf Club. “Some of them (have played) only two or three matches.

“It is different when you’re playing the team concept and you’re paired with girls from other schools that you don’t know. It’s not like practice where you’re at ease. It’s going to be interesting to see what we do Thursday night when we play at our place. See if we score better.”

Also competing but not factoring into the team score were Claire Sutton (68) of South Adams and Tea Nichols (75) of Jay County.

Both South Adams and Jay County brought junior varsity players, but there weren’t enough to make a four-player total. Millie Gaskill led the Starfire reserves with a 52. Maggie Evans and Hannah Neuenschwander had 71 and 79 respectively.

Abby Huey led the Patriot reserves by totaling 66. Gabi Paxson was two strokes behind, and Erika Heitkamp shot 83.