North Rock Creek High School’s two golf teams recently captured the conference tournament championship, playing on a windy day at the Elks Club course in Shawnee.
Each team also had the medalist for the tournament. Boys Coach Evan Smith said his team claimed the North Canadian River Conference title shooting a total score of 384.
“Bo Gentry shot a 78 and was No. 1 at the tournament,” Smith said.
Other NRC golfers contributing to the conference title were Cooper Kline with a 96, Carson Click shot 100, Jordan Hohlier with a 110 and Maddox Munn had a score of 116. “We take the top 4 scores, Smith explained, “in arriving at the winning team score of 384.”
Girls Coach Regan Bowler after seeing her team capture the title noted, “We were definitely excited.”
Bowler said Abigail Hurst, a sophomore, scored a 99 and was the medalist for the tournament. “It was a season best for her,” the coach said.
Their total score team was 442. Others contributing to their title and their scores were Hannah Ehtisham 111, Kayla Auld, 114, Chloe Clark, 118 and Avery Burnett, 119. Bowler mentioned that of the five NRC players in the tournament all but Hannah are sophomores and she is a junior.
“We also have freshmen who are going to add to the cause in the future,” Bowler stated.
Smith said of his team, “I feel like as a team we’re starting to shave strokes which was good in the wind Tuesday (day of conference tourney). The winds were 30 miles an hour plus,” he estimated.
He said, “We have 11 golfers. We’ve been rotating the fourth and fifth golfers.”
Smith related, “I think they’ve been making a lot of progress since day one. We have some inside training aids that we didn’t have last year when the weather is bad.
“Most of the tournaments we’ve played in so far have 15-18 teams,” Smith said.
The Regional tournament is May 2 at one of four possible sites and the state tournament is May 9-10 at Boiling Springs at Woodward.
The team was at Boiling Springs a week ago, Smith said.
Bowler thinks her team is progressing as well. “We shaved 20 strokes on Tuesday, (day of conference tourney), off of Monday when we played at Seminole,” she said.
“Hannah has shaved 15 strokes off of her game from March 22 which was our first tournament,” the coach pointed out.
“So far we’ve been in the mix with Class 4A teams,” she added, referring to the tournaments they’ve been in.
Regionals is April 26 at a site to be determined and the state tournament is May 4-5 at Buffalo Rock at Cushing.
“Our goal is to get to the state tournament, especially Abigail. So we think we can compete all right at the 4A level. I think they surprised themselves a week ago Tuesday. I’m excited,” Bowler added.