NorthWood’s Madison Richner concentrates on her swing during the Warsaw Invitational Saturday at Stonehenge Golf Club. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — NorthWood’s golfers knew it’d be a tall order to knock off Homestead at the Warsaw Invitational Saturday.

After all, the Lady Panthers — though an Indiana High School Golf Coaches Association Honorable Mention themselves — had faced the IHSGCA eighth-ranked Spartans before and had seen for themselves just how good they were. So instead, the Panthers were focused on Stonehenge and the course they’d be playing come sectional time in another month.

In the end, the standings at the invite shook out pretty much as NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder and his team expected. Homestead was in a league of its own with a 318, but the Panthers were pretty solid in their first look at Stonehenge this year with a 348 for second place. Warsaw’s varsity shot 393 to finish in sixth place at the 11-team invitational, while Triton carded 48 for eighth place.

“It was more sectional prep than anything. If we played out of our minds, and it was the one out of 100 times we beat Homestead, that would be great. But that’s just not realistic at this point for us,” said Yoder.

The Panthers were led as usual by Makenzie Weaver with a 78. The NorthWood top flighter finished fourth overall behind respective scores of 75 and 76 from Homestead’s Morgan Dabagia and Emma Schroeder and an incredible 65 from Chesterton’s Elyse Stasil.

“She shot 78 with a triple bogey and a double bogey, so she’s looking back and saying ‘Boy, if I had those two holes over I could’ve been maybe second instead of fourth or fifth,’” said Yoder of Weaver. “She’s definitely improved so much over the last year, and when you get to the point where you’re shooting around 80, the improvements come in much smaller steps, and she’s making those steps.”

Madison Richner finished four strokes behind Weaver with an 82 in a career-best round for the Panthers, meanwhile.

“Madison Richner, that was a career-low for her. We’re excited about good things for her too,” said Yoder.

Abby Slabaugh shot 90, Makenna Gall carded 98, and Kylee Gall was close behind with a 99 for the Panthers’ fifth score.

“It’s more of sectional prep for us to play in this tournament, more than anything,” Yoder reiterated. “We’re lucky that Warsaw invites us over here. I don’t think every team that hosts a sectional would host an invite on their own course, and that’s the kind of people Warsaw is. They’re nice about that kind of stuff; they’re about growing the game and helping kids.”

NorthWood’s JV carded 406 at the meet, meanwhile. Abigail Richner shot 94, while Kristen Schrock and Hope Cripe both carded 100, and Delaney Davis turned in a 112.

Lady Tigers take notes
The host Lady Tigers were paired with No. 8-ranked Homestead Saturday, and it was no accident. Head coach Tad Nieter grouped his girls with the Spartans to give the young squad something to shoot for for the future.

Nieter told his golfers to stay within themselves and focus on their own games but asked them to take the opportunity to study Homestead’s approach and what the Spartans do that makes them so good.

“Homestead, they’re just a different animal compared to us. I paired our girls with them on purpose because I wanted them to see that’s where we want to get to,” Nieter explained. “That’s the point we want to get to. There’s kind of an awe factor in every shot that they hit, but it’s good for our girls to get a look at that and see what potentially we’re working towards.”

Leading the way for Warsaw was Madelyn Ray as she put in a gutsy, career-best 92.

“That was her personal best, and I was really proud of her. She came in not feeling well at all. She actually came 30 minutes late because she wasn’t feeling well, and for her to step up when she’s sick like that was awesome,” said Nieter. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

Sister Izzy Ray shot 99 for Warsaw, meanwhile, while Grayson Kilburn and Delaney Wihebrink tallied a pair of 101s, and Brooklyn Fitzgerald shot 122 for the Tigers.

Delaney Wihebrink hits a tee shot for Warsaw.

Nieter was hoping for a round in the 380s from his team, and he nearly got it as the hosts turned in a 393 for sixth place at Stonehenge.

“This is probably one of the tougher fields for northern Indiana at this tournament every year. I don’t necessarily focus what place we get, but team-wise before the day if we shot in the high 380s I was going to be pleased,” Nieter said. “It looks like we shot four strokes off that so not too bad. We just wasted a lot of shots around the greens, and that’s been our M.O. this whole year. Inside 60 yards we’ve kind of been struggling.”

“I did like how my girls are getting to the point now where after a bad hole they’re saying ‘OK, I’m going to bounce back now; I’m going to come back from that,’” he added. “We saw when we looked at the scorecards that they were bouncing back, and that’s what we’re trying to get to. They did a good job of that.”

Warsaw’s junior varsity also played Saturday under the name Warsaw Black. The Black team was paced by Julia Hildebrand’s 105. Anna Morgan carded 114, Miriam Hagg shot 118, and Valerie Messmore finished with a 120.

Trojans show grit
Similar to NorthWood, the Lady Trojans were also using Saturday’s round as a sectional measuring stick. And by that measure, Triton’s 448 was pretty good.

“Our outlook today was to improve on what we did last year at sectional. I think I had maybe three of the same five girls and then two girls that didn’t play here and one girl who, it’s her very first year playing. I think we shot 474 in sectionals here last year, and we were 448 today so we improved by 26 shots,” said head coach Jack Carpenter.

Whytnie Miller putts for Triton.

Triton’s head coach was also pleased with how his golfers battled back after a rough first nine on the back side at Stonehenge. The Trojans carded 237 at the turn, and they weren’t pleased with themselves. But they showed toughness in managing to shave a full 26 strokes off that score after the turn.

“I haven’t figured what our back nine compared to our front nine was, but our back nine was absolutely atrocious and the girls made big improvements on the front side. I’m very pleased from that aspect,” Carpenter said. “They were pretty distraught, a couple of them, from the back nine, but they showed a little bit of fight to them and came back with a good back side, so to speak.”

Alysha May shot 104 for Triton’s low score playing in the third group for her team.

“She has probably played more than any other girl from last year to this year, and I think it shows right now,” Carpenter said of May. “She still has kinks in her swings, and short game gets her a little bit. She shot 51 on that side and 53 on what I would call the easier side but finished with a double and then a triple. She had the opportunity to maybe get in under 50, which our girls getting under 50 at Stonehenge is like a milestone. So that’s good.”

Kate Gardner shot 107 for the Trojans, while Whytnie Miller carded 118, and Delanie Groves finished in 119. Megan McFarland finished with a 125 score.