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SYRACUSE - Sporadic play was expected and delivered in the season opening match for the Wawasee, Whitko and Concord girls golf teams Tuesday at Maxwelton Golf Club in Syracuse, the Warriors home course.
Wawasee junior Kelsey McAdams led the Warriors with a team low score of 46. The rest of the team was consistent enough to win with a 192, good for a 22-stroke victory over second-place Concord's 214 and Whitko, which finished with a strong 217.
The Wildcats surprised and nearly pulled out a second place finish over Concord, which shot a practice round of 195 earlier in the week.
"It's a good start to our season. We're real young and need to work on our short game, but I think we're going to be all right. We're going to be real competitive when our short game comes around," said Whitko coach Randy Simpson.
Whitko is indeed young with only one returning senior, Cassie Graves, who shot a 54. The Wildcats were paced by junior Jayanna Bagley, a three-year varsity starter, who shot a 46 despite giving a few strokes away.
Lost strokes and missed chances was the mantra Tuesday as golfers shook off the proverbial rust. The rust removal was delayed for a half hour when the scheduled 9 a.m. tee time was pushed back to 9:30 a.m. due to a large group that began just minutes before the match was scheduled to start.
Wawasee's Jessica Rondeau was in the first group out in the morning along with Begley and Concord's Jessica Dooley. Dooley was the medalist with a 44 over nine holes. Rondeau struggled and ended the day with a 49.
"She had a bad opening round for her. She'll be fine. Sometimes you just have to get that first round out of you and then just play golf after that," said Wawasee coach Scott DeHart of his top golfer.
As just a freshman last year Rondeau led the Warriors with a 90.8, 18-hole average.
Lindsay Best, Hannah Scantlen and McAdams join Rondeau as four players who have played all 18 varsity matches last year. It appears that this year the onus will be less on one golfer and more team-oriented. The scores from the first match seem to indicate a three-stroke differential between the low and high score among the four.
"That's the neat thing about it. It's an individual sport but it's a team game. It's important to stress that we come into matches as a team," said DeHart.
After a 12-12 season in 2003 and four of the five starters from last year's team coming back, it appears that the Warriors are on the rise.
The Warriors play at the Huntington Invitational Thursday at Lafontaine Golf Club with a scheduled 9 a.m. tee time.
WAWASEE 192, CONCORD 214, WHITKO 217
Wawasee scores - Jessica Rondeau 49, Lindsey Best 48, Hannah Scantlen 49, Kelsey McAdams 46, Amanda Xanders 61.
Whitko scores - Jayanna Begley 46, Cassie Graves 54, Shelby Kreger 58, Katie Strandland 63, Gari Ratliff 59
Concord scores - Jessica Dooely 44, Brooke Dalton 55, Jamie Hahn 60, Jennifer Killian 60, Alli Hooely 55.
