The Wawasee High School golf team cruised to its fourth sectional championship Saturday at Stonehenge Golf Club in Warsaw.
Led by foreign exchange student Sathita Cheeranont's 79, the Lady Warriors won the Warsaw Sectional with a 344, while Warsaw shot a 366 and Plymouth came in third with a 387. The top three teams advance to Saturday's East Noble Regional at Cobblestone Golf Club in Kendallville."We played well today," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said. "There's a couple shots the girls would like to have back and there's a couple I'd like to see come back. The nice thing I saw was, when they'd make a bad shot, they'd come back and make a good one after that."
Winning the school's first sectional crown since 2007 was nice for DeHart, but any placing in the top three seemed to be fine with him.
"The goal was to get out," DeHart said. "We live to fight another day and move on down the food chain."
Warsaw coach Chris LaLonde was also looking to fight another day, and her Tigers achieved that.
"I was thinking we'd shoot in the 360s, because last week (at Stonehenge for the Northern Lakes Conference Match in the rain) we shot a 388, and I thought would have a 20-stroke difference," LaLonde said. "We had a 22-stroke difference, which was a good round."
At the NLC Match, Cheeranont took home the medalist honor with a 77, so she seemed a bit disappointed with her 79 on the par-71 course Saturday, though it was good enough to make her the sectional champion.
"She's a good player and she's earned it," DeHart said about Cheeranont. "(She's) brought everyone's level up. We had a good, solid team. (Her) coming in has just brought everybody's level up a notch."
Behind Cheeranont's 79, Wawasee got an 82 from Krista Zurcher, who had three birdies and finished third overall. Alexis Linnemeier shot a 91 for the Warriors, followed by Cortney Rassi's 92 and Cayla Hilgenberg's 99.
"We're at a point where we're playing golf against the course and we're just playing our matches," DeHart said. "We're not worried about who's in front of us and who's behind us."
Warsaw was behind Wawasee, led by senior Kayla Hutcherson's 81 and junior Sarah Hartle's 84, finishing second and fourth overall, respectively.
"We needed the leadership, and Sarah and Kayla came through, which was great," LaLonde said.
The two scores were big for the Tigers, who got a 99 from freshman Nikki Grose, sophomore Morgan Sands's 101 and freshman Nikki LaLonde's 131.
The Triton Lady Trojans placed sixth at the tournament with a 438, but did have Emily Duff advance on to the regional with an 89. Other Triton scores were Aubrey Boardman's 107, Sydney Gochenour 111 and Sabrina Kaufman's 131.
Whitko and Tippecanoe Valley shot 500 and 541, respectively.
While Triton, Whitko and Valley had their seasons come to a close, the Lady Warriors and Lady Tigers move on.
"It's not going to get any easier from here-on-out," DeHart said. "What you can't do is get frustrated. We've had a lot of success this year, but success is only as good as your next match. I think these girls are focused. They have their eyes where they need to be."
WAWASEE 344, WARSAW 366, PLYMOUTH 387, CULVER GIRLS ACADEMY 397, COLUMBIA CITY 416, TRITON 438, ROCHESTER 452, WHITKO 500, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 541
(Stonehenge G.C., Par 71)
Top 5 - 1. Sathita Cheeranont (Waw) 79, 2. Kayla Hutcherson (War) 81, 3. Krista Zurcher (Waw) 82, 4. Sarah Hartle (War) 84, 5. Erin Kinney (P) 87
