Eagles show major improvement

GREAT BEND -- Although Uniontown's golf team did not perform as well as coach Jason Tourtillott would have hoped for as a team, his Eagles had good moments of play at the Class 3-2-1A State Tournament here Monday and cut their team score over 100 strokes from last year's State Tournament.

Uniontown shot 524 as a team, finishing 12th among the 12 teams that had full representation. Uniontown was one of just two Class 2A schools in the combined-class tournament. The other was Syracuse, which finished fifth.

"We knew going into the tournament that we couldn't compete at the level of most of these schools," Tourtillott said. "But we had goals. Obviously, we didn't want to finish last but that happens. We had several girls shoot their best personal 18-hole score, including Bethany Ericson, Veronica Harrison, Emily Simpson and Raven Hixon."

Ericson had Uniontown's best score, which tied for 51st in a field of 90. She shot 59 on each nine for a total of 118.

"This was Bethany's last tournament as a senior," Tourtillott said. "And it was great to see her put together the best round she has ever shot."

Harrison shot 67-56--123 for the Eagles. Simpson carded a 70-65--135.

"Veronica struggled on her front nine but found her groove and came back to finish with the 56," Tourtillott said. "That shows a lot of heart and will not to give up and improve that much on the back nine.

"Emily also shot better on the back nine but she had a little trouble with her driver that got her in some bad spots, which made it tough to score well."

Hixon finished at 71-77--148. Brooke Murrow shot 84-72--156 and Sabrena McAnulty shot 75-81--156.

"Raven told me afterwards that she had fun, so that speaks highly of hanging in there and doing your best to try to help the team," Tourtillott said. "I am really proud of the way our girls played. They are still young, most only playing for the second year. We are looking forward to next year to continue to see success."

The defending team champion and runner-up swapped places this year. Last year's runner-up, Larned, shot 390 to beat our last year's champ, Goodland, by three strokes. They were the only teams to shoot under 400 as third-place Fredonia finished at 423. This was Larned's sixth State title as they won Class 4-3-2-1A each year from 1986-89 and also in 1997.

Caney Valley finished in sixth place at 432.

Last year's individual runner-up, Kami Rash of Syracuse, won the title this year as she shot 41-40--81 to leave the field well behind. Runner-up Kalee Logan of Lyons finished at 44-45--89. Maggie Sloan of Pittsburg Colgan, who played for Pittsburg under a co-operative agreement and won the Southeast Kansas League individual title, finished third with her score of 45-45--90. Sloan finished ninth at State last year.