GIRLS GOLF: Berries continue strong start with win over Kings
The young Logansport girls golf team is setting a pace that exceeds its championship teams of recent years.
The Berries continued their strong play Wednesday with a 165-238 win over Lewis Cass on the front nine at Dykeman Park Golf Course.
The score of 165 is just one shot behind the low nine-hole score of the 2022 team that went on to win an NCC title and was ranked top 20 in the state. Last Saturday the Berries shot 343 to win their invitational at Dykeman, which was four shots lower than the best 18-hole score shot two years ago. The Berries were sectional champions three years ago.
The 2022 team consisted of four seniors and a sophomore. This year’s team is younger as it includes one senior, two sophomores and two freshmen.
Sophia Kay is the tie to those championship teams. Now a senior, she’s the team’s No. 1 golfer with aspirations of playing in college. She shot a 4-over par 40 Wednesday to share medalist honors with sophomore teammate Izzy Lundy.
“It wasn’t my best but obviously the score still wasn’t too bad,” Kay said. “Golf isn’t about how many good shots you can hit, it’s about how well you can manage the course and how well you can make your bad ones work. So I think as a whole, I kept it together enough to shoot somewhat OK.”
Kay said she’s talked to Virginia Wesleyan, Kentucky Wesleyan and Earlham College about playing at the next level. She’s broken into the 70s during tournament play this summer and shot her best high school score of 81 last weekend.
“I am really hoping to make it out of sectionals again and then my ultimate goal would be to advance to state this year,” she said. “Our team has been pretty good. I think we have a legit shot at conference and I think we have a pretty good chance of making it out of the sectional as a team.”
Lundy had a chance to shoot a personal-best score but missed a bending four-foot putt on No. 9 for par and had to settle for a 40.
“My goal this year is to break 40,” she said. “There’s a lot of home matches that are very possible to do it. I was very close to breaking 40 tonight but I am very happy with the 40.
“I’m very excited for the rest of the season. Our team is a lot better than last year so far. I’m very happy that we gained the freshmen that we did.”
Freshman Chloe Wilburn was just one shot off of tying for medalist honors with a 41. Sophomore Natalie Graham, another returning starter from last year, shot a 44. Freshman Kendal Kranz added a 51. The JV scores included junior Maeda Bradbury shooting a 52 and sophomore Sam Baker adding a 58.
One of the staples of Abby Lundy’s program has been improvement and the Logansport coach hopes the team can continue to lower their scores this year.
“Sophia was a freshman when we won a sectional and she’s senior now. I was looking at scores last night to see where we compare because I knew after Saturday shooting in the 340s that this group is also special. I think that this group has a lot of potential, very similar to that group,” coach Lundy said. “I just can’t wait to see how low we go this season.”
It was the second meet of the season for a young Lewis Cass team. The Kings have to replace Kendall Hlebasko, who is now golfing at IUK, where she’s a teammate with former Berry Chloe Crook.
The Kings were coming off a narrow loss to Kokomo on Tuesday at Logansport Golf Club.
Alisha Toops led the Kings with a 46, followed by Maddy Willis (55), Alexis Collins (67), Aaryah Coffman (70) and Sophie Holmquist (71).
“We had our opener last night against Kokomo. We were out with a 217,” Cass coach Amy Densborn said. “I have two players returning that both shot in the 40s which I’m very impressed with. And then we have two freshmen and a sophomore that would’ve scored three, four, and five. So we’re young, but I think we’ve got a lot of potential and a lot of really nice girls.
“Maddy’s a sophomore and Alisha’s a junior. Alisha is playing good golf and Maddy Willis for being a sophomore is playing really good golf.”
