NorthWood’s girls golf team poses with the IHSAA State Finals signage at Prairie View Golf Club. InkFreeNews photo by Adam Yoder

By Adam Yoder
InkFreeNews

CARMEL – In Friday’s round one of the IHSAA State Finals at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel, the NorthWood Panthers saw the benefits of experience on their back nine with a 184. They also showed some of those first round jitters that everyone has on their front nine and stumbled out of the gates to a 188. Traditionally, the Panthers have been about eight to ten shots better on the front.

At the halfway point, NorthWood sits in 13th place after a 372, nine shots out of 12th place and ahead of Greenfield-Central and Western.

Coincidentally, that spot is currently held by Concord, the Northern Lakes Conference champions. The Minutemen shot a 363 on the day, highlighted by Brooke Watson’s eight over par score of 80. Castle and Crown Point are in a tie for 10th, just five shots clear of the crew from Dunlap.

The Panthers 1-2 punch of Cybil Stillson and Breanna Goss broke a record by teeing off for the Panther program. Both players have now competed in three state finals tournaments, which ties the program record held by MacKenzie Weaver (2015, 17, 18).

From there, Stillson and Goss were a combined seven over through eight holes in their round when both players found the water (Stillson twice) at the par four ninth hole on their way to combined seven over par total to turn at 42 (Stillson) and 44 (Goss).

Each player righted the ship on the back nine, which has traditionally been the harder nine for the Panthers, though. Stillson parred the last seven holes to shoot 81 and in a tie for 24th place heading into tomorrow.

Goss made twelve pars on the day and sits tied for 38th place. The standout junior will try to repeat last year’s script when she shaved ten strokes off her day two total from her opening round.

“Both Cybil and Breanna had a little bad luck mixed in with some untimely errors, and that’s really the story for their days. There’s certainly some ‘should of, would of, could of’ for both players after round one. I’m super proud of how they hung in there. This thing is only half over,” said head coach Adam Yoder said about his two all-state candidates.

In the three, four, and five spots, the Panthers knew it would be a challenge. Abbie Richner and Riley Kitson both played in the state preview in August and were a couple strokes better today. The senior, Richner, fired matching 51’s to shoot 102.

Kitson, who was one of only seven out of 100 players to birdie the par five 13th hole. The 13th ranked as the hardest hole at Prairie View on Friday, playing to an average of 6.35 shots per player.

On her birdie, Kitson said, “If felt great to make a birdie in the state finals. It was nice boost of encouragement late in the round.”

In the fifth spot, sophomore Kira Schrock had her ups and downs in her very first tournament round at Prairie View on her way to a 116. Schrock played her final five holes of the season at just four over par.

Junior Bella Sechrist will get her chance at Prairie View on Saturday for the Panthers. “I was so nervous and excited for Abbie, Riley, and Kira this morning,” Sechrist said. “I saw all of them hit a lot of quality shots on a tough golf course. The way Kira her day finished was very, very impressive.”

At the top of the leaderboard, Evansville North fired a 305 to take a ten-shot lead into Saturday over defending champion Homestead. Carmel sits one shot behind Homestead in third.

The Huskies from Vanderburgh county have won four of the past six state titles, bringing the trophy home to the south in 2014, 15, 16, and 18.

Other area individuals scores included: Madison Keil of Lakeland 86, Katie Kloska of South Bend Saint Joseph’s 82, Kristianna Lingenfelter of Rochester 89, and Megan Kobelt of John Glenn 97.

Castle sophomore Hailey Kirkland shot the second hole in one in IHSAA Girls State Finals history with an ace on the par three fourth hole. Kirkland used a 6-iron from 140 yards.