SYRACUSE – Wawasee’s girls golf team didn’t play as well as coach Steve Coverstone would like, but the Lady Warriors still easily handled Concord 169-211 Thursday afternoon at Maxwelton Golf Club. Whitko sent four golfers and wound up with a team score of 257. Mikayla Mawhorter and Aubrey Schmeltz led the way for Wawasee, each carding a 40. Kylee Rostochak checked in with a 43, with Kamryn Foy and Madison Beaman recording 46 strokes each. Coverstone said home-course advantage came in to play, but most of the Lady Warriors could have gone a little lower. “This is a course we know, and we have to play well here,” he said. “Kamryn really played better than her 46; she played well tee-to-green but she had a five-putt and a four-putt in there the last couple of holes. Mikayla hasn’t been hitting it as well as she’d like, but she got around in 40. Aubrey doubled a pretty easy hole No. 7.” Still, it’s early in the season, and Coverstone wants to use these early-season competitions as a tool for feedback. “All-in-all you want to peak at the right time. We’re playing OK. We played OK at the Huntington Invite (Wednesday). We’d like to be playing a little better, but we really want to be playing well later in the year when the events are bigger,” he said. “These matches show where you need to improve, and whether we can improve or not will determine what kind of season we’ll have.” Whitko came a bit short-handed, bringing only four golfers to the course. Lady Wildcat head coach Mike Hanback said he, too, is in evaluation mode. “Because this is our first match, I wasn’t worried about scores,” he said. “I wanted to see where we are. We’ve got two juniors and three freshmen on the team; we had two and two tonight, and tonight I was more interested in getting baseline data. I know what they’re all capable of, and I’m actually comfortable with the scores tonight. “The primary focus this year will be the short game. Most of the girls can get it tee-to-green, or close to the green. From there is where I want to focus because that’s where our scores go up.” WAWASEE 169, CONCORD 211, WHITKO 257 (Maxwelton G.C., par 72) Wawasee – Mikala Mawhorter 40, Aubrey Schmeltz 40, Kylee Rostochak 43, Kamryn Foy 46, Madison Beaman 46 Concord – Erika Shirley 43, Elise Boessler 54, Kindra Pressinell 56, Camryn Cramer 58, Jocelyn Chupp 70 Whitko – Holly Hathaway 52, Aurelia Slusher 58, Alexys Rider 65, Makayla Compton 82
