Menu
Lady Tigers place third at WCC tournament
Hosting the West Central Conference tournament on Wednesday, the Nevada Lady Tigers placed third at the 18-hole, three-team event.
Warrensburg High School carded a team score of 345 en route to the conference championship. Smith-Cotton High School finished 22 strokes back of Warrensburg, with a team score of 367, while Nevada placed third, tallying a 408.
Warrensburg’s Kayla Kimberly carded the low individual score, a 5-over-par 77. Kimberly fired a 39 on the Frank E. Peters front nine, and finished out with a 38 on the back nine.
St. Michael’s Academy was represented by one player — Vera Bohning, who placed runner-up with a 12-over-par 84.
The Lady Tigers had a pair of players net All-Conference honors with top 10 individual finishes. Senior Mandy Crews tied for the seventh, concluding the event with a 97; while junior Grace Palmer tied for 10th, with a 103.
Nevada senior Lily Quitno finished just outside of the top 10, carding a 104, which placed her in a tie for 12th with teammate Kaitlynn Vincent. Quitno shot a 51 on the front nine and 53 on the back nine, while Vincent recorded a 56 on the front nine and a 48 on the back. Lady Tiger senior Sammy Gundy, finished in 18th with a 118.
“Kaitlynn and Lily both have kind of brought it on the last couple of weeks,” said Nevada golf coach Brian Leonard.
Leonard added that he was pleased with the performance of his team ahead of Monday’s Class 1 District 4 tournament at Cassville Golf Club.
“This was the best score we’ve shot all year as a team,” said Leonard. “It’s always nice heading into the districts, getting everybody down to about the target score for qualifying for sectionals.”
Leonard said the top two teams plus top 15 individual scores (outside of the top two teams) move on from the district to the sectional tournament, with the latter to be held at Frank E. Peters.
“I’m estimating (the target score) to qualify for sectionals will be 112 to 115,” said Leonard. “I think if we can get some girls qualified from the districts to the sectional level, having home course (advantage) would make it a little more comfortable, and they might be able to shoot good enough to qualify for state.”
Leonard said Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course played tough on Wednesday.
“It was due to the wind plus the hot weather,” said Leonard, as temperatures soared into the high 80s. I thought the hot weather played a factor. With the teams we had there with Sedalia and Warrensburg, they’re not teams like Carl Junction, but they’ve got some quality golfers.”
As the host school, Leonard said he made sure everybody stayed hydrated.
“I made sure everybody had plenty of water and Gatorade,” he said. “Usually the last four holes are the ones that really get them. And it was the same thing with the boys (team). They get fatigued, and they mentally sometimes, can loose it — and that makes mistakes happen and drives the scores up.”
