NAPPANEE – Wawasee and NorthWood went into Thursday evening’s high school girls golf match with Northridge tied for the lead in the Northern Lakes Conference regular season standings at 5-0. The Lady Panthers simply outplayed the Lady Warriors 165-187 to claim the title. Northridge came in at 240. NorthWood’s Linnzie Richner was the medalist with a 1-under 35 at McCormick Creek Golf Course, eight shots better than the nearest competitor. Teammates Summer Stillson and Madison Richner shot 43s for NorthWood, while Mackinzie Weaver’s 44 matched the best Wawasee score on the Lady Panthers’ home course. Wawasee was paced by Mikala Mawhorter’s 44 and Aubrey Schmeltz’s 46. Kylee Rostochak carded a 47, Madison Beaman a 50 and Kamryn Foy a 53. It wasn’t a meltdown in the heat, or a matter of having played for the third time in three days for Wawasee. Instead, head coach Steve Coverstone felt like it was particular places on the front nine that hurt his squad. “The tricky holes really got us tonight,” he said. “We scored really bad on those holes. I don’t know really why; it’s one of those things we’re going to have to look at, if we’re not playing the holes right or if we just had bad shots on those holes.” While Wawasee still has a tournament and two other matches in the interim, Coverstone said his squad is already looking forward to the NLC tourney at Middlebury’s Meadow Valley Golf Club on Sept. 12. “These girls have worked hard all year and we still control our own destiny. We just have to go to conference and win the conference tournament,” he said. “It’s tough to beat NorthWood on its home course. We didn’t have our best night, but even if we did, they had (Linnzie Richner) shoot 35, and I don’t know if we could beat that anyway. “Part of it was NorthWood got on a roll. Their No. 4 (Madison Richner) was even par through four or five holes, their No. 1 (Linnzie Richner) was 2-under through seven. When that happens you start pressing, maybe try to get (the ball) a little closer, and you start making mistakes.” Wawasee travels to Swan Lake Golf Club for the Culver Academies Invitational Saturday afternoon.
