Playing through another busy week, the Escalon golf girls headed to Diablo Grande for the Yellowjacket Tournament on Monday, Sept. 9. The team score was a 399 on the 18-hole, par 72 course.
Escalon’s low scorer on the day was Ella Adams with an 88.
Three Lady Cougars were under 100. For the tournament, there were 13 teams competing, a total of 64 players with just 24 of them carding a score under 100.
“We came in seventh out of 13 teams, third in VFL teams. Oakdale was first with 321, Ripon second at 333, Hughson sixth at 391,” said Escalon head coach Kristie Cathcart. “The girls were very hesitant to play, but they did a great job.”
Tuesday, Sept. 10 the Lady Cougars faced off against league rival Ripon and fell by a 161-152 final on the par 32 course. Leader was Mikayla Schut, 38, followed by Ella Adams and Lucy Allbaugh, each carding a 40 on the day. Ella MacKinnon shot a 43, Jianna Cereghino 44 and Sarah Bava came in at 50.
Top three scores for Ripon were 36, 37 and 39, noted Cathcart.
“It always sucks to lose to Ripon, but with our score we would beat any other team,” the coach explained. “We take the lowest four scores to get the team score, so we didn’t use scores that might be another team’s low score.”
Wednesday, Sept. 11 saw the younger girls getting a chance to take the course.
“JV girls played Hughson and Livingston. No team score. Our goal with the JV matches is to give the girls experience of playing in a match, so when they play in an actual match they will not be as nervous,” Cathcart said. “Most schools only have six or seven girls, so we are very fortunate to have 12 girls. The least experienced girls get the opportunity to improve which helps our program build each year.”
JV girls that played on Wednesday included Sarah Bava, Lily McCracken, Arianna Huntley, Gracie Bracco and Nathalia Guevara.
Thursday, the varsity girls were back in action, traveling to Phoenix Lakes, par 35, to take on Summerville. This time, it was a win for Escalon, three strokes better than Summerville, 231-234.
Allbaugh shot a 50 to lead the team, followed by Schut at 51, Adams 63, MacKinnon 67, Cereghino 68.
“Not the best outing that we have had,” admitted Cathcart. “I don’t want the girls to not play well, but it’s good to see that when they do get a higher than normal score they are disappointed because they know they can do better. They are learning so much and I am happy when they can tell me what happened and what they need to do to fix it.”
The girls are scheduled to play at Elkhorn on Thursday, Sept. 19 facing Linden and then go to the midseason tournament at Micke Grove on Monday, Sept. 23.
“Golf is a challenging game, you can have a great shot and think you know what you are doing and the next shot could be horrible,” Cathcart added. “It can be very draining mentally and to see them overcome that and keep playing says a lot about their character.”
