Madison takes 10th at Girard

Saturday, September 10, 2016

GIRARD -- Lauren Madison earned her second varsity medal in three days here Thursday at the Girard Invitational.

The first 18-hole tournament of the season was interrupted by rain a few times. But in the end, Madison completed play with a 54 on the front nine and a 49 on the back for a total of 103. She won a scorecard playoff with Pittsburg's Logan Lord (46-57) for 10th place.

"Really proud of Lauren for cracking the top 10 for the second consecutive tournament," Fort Scott head coach Karen Curran said. "She was pretty good off the tee box for most of the day, but settled into a good putting stroke on the second nine to significantly affect her score. It also helped that she was chipping pretty close to the cup too, but you've still got to make the putt."

Marissa Allen shot 65-67--132 for the Tigers and Kaitlyn Hanks finished at 83-68--151. With only three golfers, Fort Scott was not eligible for a team score.

"It was the first time to play 18 holes for Marissa and Kaitlyn, but they were real troopers and played the last hole with the same importance as the first hole," Curran said. "Marissa was pretty consistent on both nines, but struggled to find a consistent putting stroke. She's gaining confidence in her tee shots and irons, but all the girls are going to be spending a lot of time on and around the greens next week."

Frontenac's Maggie Moody was the individual medalist, shooting 43-39--82 despite the conditions to win by 8 strokes over Caney Valley's Paige Price (46-44). Kendall Blaich of Coffeyville was the best golfer from a Southeast Kansas League school, finishing third at 50-46--96 after winning a 3-way scorecard playoff over Pittsburg's Lauren Valenzuela (48-48) and Gracie Lopez (45-51).

Pittsburg was the team champion, shooting 393. Caney Valley was second at 395.

Fort Scott will play at Parsons on Monday.