Lady Jays fall short of state

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Thursday, October 2, 2008 (3 months, 1 week ago)
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ARLINGTON — One stroke.
One measly stroke — but one that ended up being the biggest of all.
That is all that kept the St. John’s girls golf team from finishing in a tie for third place Tuesday at the Division II district tournament held at Sycamore Springs Golf Course outside of Arlington.
It also kept them from getting a shot at the state meet next weekend at The Ohio State University.
The Lady Blue Jays ended up in fourth place with a 380 score — still a school record — behind Shawnee’s 379.
Milan Edison won the event with a 369, followed by Huron’s 371.
This round included some much-needed rain — not for golfing purposes, though — to deal with for the golfers.
“One stroke. That’s one less putt,” St. John’s coach Andy Miller observed. “Still, you can’t take it back. Everybody leaves shots out there, holes where they should have done better. We shot our best-ever 18-hole round as a team here. We peaked at the right time; it just wasn’t good enough today.
“These girls have come a long way from last year to this year. They didn’t make it out of sectional last season; that’s a lot of improvement.”
As Miller predicted before the season, the short game dictated his team’s fate this day.
“I figured that all season. Those 3-putt holes cost you any time but they cost you dearly this time of year,” he added. “We have four of the five girls who golfed today back for next year, so I’m excited about the possibilities.
“I want them to take a break and just relax. I don’t want them to get sick of the game and try to do too much. Come the spring and warm weather, then they can get out there and casually work on their game.”
Juniors Morgan Wells (92) and Abbey Martin (94), along with senior Kelsey Rekart (94) led the way for the Lady Jays. Sophomore Dani Hale (100) and junior Katie Kundert (107) made up the rest of this day’s quintet.
Rekart was the lone senior participating in her final round Tuesday.
“It is sad. I’d like to maybe help coach next fall but I will likely be in Florida, attending college,” she began. “I probably won’t golf in college officially but as a recreational player.”
Her final match didn’t hurt as much knowing her team out together a school record.
“We did our best today,” she added. “You can always say you should have done this or that on a particular hole but we came so close.
“For the other girls who will be back next year, they know what they have to do. This was the first time the girls team made it this far, so hopefully they can improve and go farther next year. They just have to keep it fun; we had a lot of that this season.”
Seniors Molly Kayser and Jessica Alt did not participate in the district meet.

Team Scores (top three teams advance to state tournament at Ohio State University): Milan Edison 369, Huron 371, Shawnee 379 (Kate Hoops 80, Sheridan Balyeat 90), St. John’s 380, Eastwood 381, St. Henry 390, Van Buren 391, Lima Central Catholic 391, Sandusky Perkins 396, Norwalk St. Paul 408, Wayne Trace 409 (Gabrielle Hook 91, Kacee Hockenberry 105, Shelby Critten 105, Ashley Saylor 108, Elyse Myers 110), Rossford 429, Maumee 429, Shelby 429, Cardinal Stritch 444.
Individual Qualifiers – Yang Li (Maumee Valley Country Day) 75, Alyssa Shimel (Eastwood) 75, Ellen Huffman (Lima Central Catholic) 77.

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