Brown medals at Galena meet

JOPLIN -- Kacie Brown earned an eighth-place medal for Fort Scott as the Tigers traveled here Thursday for the Galena Invitational at Schifferdecker Park.

Brown shot a 53, her best so far this season, as the Tigers finished fourth in the six-team field with a score of 234. Joplin won the team title with a 204 followed by Caney Valley at 214 and Columbus at 217. Host Galena was fifth at 243 and Seneca finished sixth at 301.

"Kacie stepped up to the No. 1 position for this tournament and did a really good job," Fort Scott head coach Karen Curran said. "I'm really proud of her. She'll play No. 1 again at Girard on Tuesday and I know she's looking forward to getting a chance to play that course again."

Dana Ballou finished in a tie for 14th with her score of 58. Cassie Ogran was 17th with her 61. Shelby Blackburn tied her personal-best score with a 62, which she also shot at Fort Scott's home tournament Sept. 9. Morgan Morasch shot a 63, about 14 strokes below her average. Katie Bristley finished with a 66.

"(Blackburn is) about ready to have a major breakthrough and shoot a new career best," Curran said. "Morgan has been working really hard around the green and her tee shots are getting better with every practice. Katie was 6 strokes better than the last tournament and with a few more tweaks in her game, she'll be back down in the high 50's , low 60's.

"Dana is finding her form again and I expect big things out of her from here on out as long as she plays with confidence. Cassie is still struggling a little bit, but she's showing signs of coming around to where we need her to be and there's still a lot of season left to keep working on her game."

Columbus' Lacie Hale shot a 44 to win the individual crown, which she has done at every tournament she and the Tigers have played in common this season.

Friday afternoon, Curran took three golfers to Girard for what was billed as an "All-Rookie" tournament. Every golfer was a first-year player. Riley Wunderly finished second with a score of 69 while Hailey Kruse shot 78 to finish 12th and Reanda Simmons-Mims carded an 80 to place 15th.

The scores were personal bests for Wunderly and Kruse while Simmons-Mims missed matching hers by just one stroke.

Both the varsity and "rookie" golfers will go to Girard Tuesday.