Busy week for Golden Hawk girls as regular season winds down

A hectic schedule this past week on the links has been keeping the Golden Hawk girls busy as they prepare for the RVC tournament Wednesday, May 10, and then first regional Monday, May 15.

The Junior Varsity team paid a visit to Durant Tuesday, May 2, for a 9-hole JV tournament. Posting a team score of 257 strokes, the girls finished fourth behind West Branch, Wilton and Durant.

Freshman Kendra Schaefer led girls with a 9-hole score of 61, followed by Abby Statler and Georgia Nisly with 63, Amerah Rediger with 70, Alexandra Humston and Bella Sexton with 71s.

?This was a great opportunity for the JV kids to play in their own event,? said coach Trace McArtor.

?We get limited on the number of JV events, mostly due to the fact that many schools don?t have enough kids playing.

?Sophomore Abby Statler was the only player of the group to have seen this course before, so it was good to see steady play from everyone.?

The next day, Wednesday, May 3, the varsity girls traveled to Blue Top Ridge at the Riverside Casino and Golf Resort to take on West Branch, West Liberty and Wilton.

Mid-Prairie posted at team score of 216 to finish third behind Wilton and West Liberty at 205 and one stroke ahead of West Branch at 217.

Junior Paige Slabaugh led the way for the Golden Hawks with a score of 49, followed by senior Olivia Nisly with 51, freshman Abbi Patterson with 57, senior Lindsey Palmer with 59, freshman Emma Mattes with 60 and sophomore Kenzie Bontrager with 68.

?This was definitely not our best outing of the year, but was not bad either,? McArtor said.

?Blue Top gives the kids a lot more challenges than anywhere else with all the bunkers and water hazards, along with some really tough greens to putt.

?It?s a good test for the kids, especially later in the season as we prepare for conference and regional play.?

The Mid-Prairie girls were back at home in Kalona for a reschedule with West Liberty and IMS Thursday, May 11.

Paige Slabaugh posted a new personal best score for nine holes of 41 to take medalist honors and lead the Golden Hawks to a 207 team score to West Liberty?s 205.

IMS did not have enough girls to post a team score. Next in scoring was Palmer with 53, Olivia Nisly with 56, Abbi Patterson with 57, Mattes with 60 and Bontrager with 65.

The M-P JV team posted a team score of 269 and was led by Statler with 65, Schaefer 67, Sexton with 68, Humston and Rediger with 69 and Alison Yoder with 73.

Also posting scores were Georgia Nisly with 57 and Breanna Kofron with 75.

?We continue to get steady play all the way thru the line-up and that?s nice to see,? McArtor said.

?Over the past few meets our team scores are closer and closer to where we think they need to be in order to be competitive at Conference and also Regionals.

?If the kids can continue to knock a couple shots off their scores each time they go out, they will right there at the end of the year.?

The Golden Hawk girls were host to Durant in the last dual meet of the year Monday, May 8.

Mid-Prairie shot a 214 team score to best Durant by 18 shots with their score of 232 strokes.

Junior Paige Slabaugh took medalist honors with a score of 48. Palmer posted a score of 52, Olivia Nisly and Patterson both shot 57, Mattes had a 58 and Bontrager had a 62.

?It was nice to have one more competition prior to heading to Muscatine Wednesday for the RVC meet,? McArtor said.

?This meet gave us the opportunity to see where we still have a few things to clean up that will hopefully save a us some shots.

?Year after year we?ve seen the top five or six teams at conference tourney time come down to only a handful of shots separating each other. One bad hole could mean the difference between first and fifth very easily. Most of what we need to do course management issues.

?The kids fundamentals at this time of the year are pretty good. They?ve learned how to play their own game with how they hit the ball.

?We?re still learning, especially the younger kids on how to get out of trouble spots and not trying to do too much in some of those situations.

?Wednesday will be a big day and I?m looking forward to seeing how the girls compete. I think they have great opportunity to post some good scores.?