SYRACUSE — Playing its third match in three days, the Wawasee girls golf team got right into the swing of things Thursday – no pun intended. The Wawasee Lady Warriors (3-0) defeated Columbia City Tuesday, then finished third at Wednesday’s Huntington North Invitational, before it knocked off Concord (1-1) and Whitko (0-2) Thursday at Syracuse’s South Shore Golf Club. “It is a fast start to the season,” Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone said. “We only had a few practices. Some of the girls were a little rusty. Our short games weren’t where they needed to be. Bunker play also isn’t where it needs to be.” Despite their shortcomings, the Lady Warriors shot a 194 on the par-36 course, followed by Concord’s 201 and Whitko’s 235, improving to 3-0 on the year. “We’re always happy with a win, but a 194 on a course that we know – that’s not really very good,” Coverstone said. “We have to do better than that.” The girls may know the South Shore course, but not as well as they know their actual home course at Maxwelton Golf Club. Because of a scheduling conflict, the ‘home’ match was moved to South Shore, but Coverstone wasn’t complaining. “A couple of our girls have played here quite a bit,” Coverstone said. The top performer of the day was Wawasee sophomore Mikala Mawhorter, who carded a 45. Mawhorter, a regional qualifier a year ago as a freshman, led the young Wawasee squad, as junior Elizabeth Jackson finished with a 48, followed by junior Kamryn Foy’s 49 and 52 each from junior Courtney McDaniel and sophomore Kylee Rostochak. Having only graduated Alex Goralczyk from last year’s team, Coverstone is optimistic the girls can build on what they did in 2012, which included a fourth-place finish at the Warsaw Sectional. “Obviously, we want them to be better this year, and I feel they are,” Coverstone said. “Kylee’s swing is a whole lot better this year. It hasn’t shown up in her numbers yet, although she’s had some good rounds in practice. Courtney McDaniel’s being playing well too. We’re still young though. We don’t have any seniors on the team, with just a couple juniors. We’ll see what happens.” While Wawasee was wrapping up a busy week, Whitko was playing its first match, giving coach Bryan Sprunger a glimpse at what he’s got this year. “I really didn’t know (what to expect), because we played three freshmen,” Sprunger said. “We have a benchmark now, so we have to work to improve. We’re going to try to work our way down.” Whitko’s low score was a 52 by junior April Bishop, who will be looked to as the leader this year. “She played No. 1 for us last year, and we need to get her down into the 40s,” Sprunger said. “We’re all trying to work down.” Along with Bishop’s performance, Whitko’s other scores were freshman Kennedy Krull’s 58, junior Elizabeth Gensch’s 64, junior Kirsten Crawford’s 71 and freshman Claire Reiff’s 73. Whitko visits Rozella Ford Golf Club Monday to take on North Miami and Triton, while Wawasee’s next match is Tuesday at Maxwelton against LaVille.
