East High Golf - Monday, October 2, 2023

Olivia Sanchez hits her opening tee shot of the 2023 GWAL Championship.

The 2023 GWAL Championship was played at Sim Park Golf Course on Monday, October 2.  The girls had played a tournament at the very same course just five days earlier, and I had been so pleased with the results.  There's an old song that goes, "Mama said there'd be days like this".  Unfortunately, for most of the East High girls golf team, Monday was a day like this (a day like that?).  But in a nutshell, that is golf: some days you got it, and some days you don't.

Now, having said that, their scores weren't horrible.  It's just that most of our girls didn't play as well as they would've liked, or even as well as they had five days prior.  If they had shot these scores a couple of weeks ago, they probably would've been satisfied.  But they now expect to shoot better scores.  Which is a good thing.

Jillian Hutchinson once again found herself atop of the East High leaderboard, but because of a pair of triple-bogeys to finish the round, her score was not what she was hoping for.  She shot a 103 to finish 15th (but fourth among WPS golfers).

Faith Mantzke tied for 17th with a score of 107.  She did shoot five strokes better on the back nine, but compared to her score last Wednesday, she was less than thrilled.  We worked on her chipping on Tuesday to help bring her score down.

Olivia Sanchez had a nice round going, and had just made a great par on 15, when disaster struck.  She got herself into trouble on 16, and her struggles carried over to 17 and 18.  After her round, I told her not to even worry about those last three holes, and to focus on how well she played on the first 15.  Hopefully she took it to heart.  Olivia finished tied for 21st with a 119.

Mackenzie Wright's battle with her swing continued on the front nine, where she shot a 66.  But she figured some things out on the back, improving by eight shots.  She ended up 24th with a score of 124.

One varsity golfer that did improve her score from the last tournament was Haylie Bustos.  Haylie finished tied for 25th with a score of 126, a one-stroke improvement from last Wednesday.

The tournament was won by Kapaun freshman Ximena Sarinana, who shot an even-par 71.  Kapaun also took home the team title.  As a team, East High finished in fourth place.  For complete varsity results, click here.

The GWAL Championship was the final tournament for three JV players.  Despite enduring some unwarranted ridicule from her Northwest playing partner, Brooklyn Brandon improved her score from last Wednesday, shooting a 79 and tying for 21st.  

Francesca Tartler had missed most of our recent practices due to her involvement in the school play, and even though she was frustrated with how she played, she hung in there and finished 23rd with a score of 83.

It had been a couple of weeks since Allison Flinn had been able to compete in a tournament, so her game was a bit rusty.  She struggled for most of the round and was understandably frustrated.  But she also had a three-hole stretch (only seven-over par on holes 6-8) where she reminded herself of the tremendous potential she has.  She even hit her drive on number 7 farther than her counterparts from Kapaun and Carroll!  Allison shot an 85 to finish tied for 24th.

All three of these JV girls were new to our team this year: Allison and Francesca are freshman; Francesca and Brooklyn had never played golf before joining the team.  All three of them have tremendous potential and I am excited to see them back next season.  For complete JV tournament results, click here.

On Monday, October 9, the varsity golfers will compete in the KSHSAA 6A Regional to be held, once again, at Sim Park.  This is the tournament where our girls can qualify for the state tournament, and I'm excited to see how they perform.