Season of improvement ends for Lady Wildcats

By Tyler Whittamore, Sports Editor

The 2012 campaign for Franklin County‘s girls‘ golf team ended in a flurry last week as the team played in the EIAC tournament and competed in sectionals.

The Lady Wildcats played some of their best golf of the year at their conference tournament, finishing third, and built up quite a bit of confidence. The team failed to qualify for advancement as a team at the Greensburg Sectional. Senior Ellen Goins shot well enough to advance individually to regionals.

The week began with the squad competing in the EIAC event. Franklin County had a lead over Greensburg going into the final round, but ended up in third with a team score of 391.

Third place is an excellent achievement for the Lady Wildcats, who have struggled to be consistent this year, especially on the road.

Batesville (342) won the tournament on the back of Madison McCreary (77) and Alex Heidlage (86), who finished with the top two individual scores.

Greensburg (382) followed up in second place.

South Dearborn (414) and East Central (438) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and Lawrenceburg finished incomplete with only three individual scores posted.

Ellen Goins‘ score of 87 was the third best of the tourney. Goins and teammate Morgan Leffingwell earned All-Conference honors with their performances.

“I have talked all year about each girl finding confidence in their game,” said FC coach Marisa Mears. “I can‘t even begin to tell how proud I am of these girls.”

On Saturday, September 15, the Lady Wildcats‘ season came to an end, at least as a team. The squad competed in the sectional tournament at Greensburg Country Club and finished seventh out of 10 teams.

Although the team could not advance together, Goins (96) finished second among individuals without a team advancing to qualify for regionals.

“Ellen put in a lot of hard work this year,” said Mears, “and it is always good to see all the work pay off.”

Nora Stacy (85) of Oldenburg and Brittanie Bolten (98) of East Central were the other two competitors to qualify individually.

Batesville (358), Greensburg (397) and North Decatur (411) were the three schools to advance as a team.

Alexandra Heidlage (83) of Batesville once again performed well, earning the top spot in scoring at the sectional tournament. Britney Biltz of Greensburg and Nora Stacy of Oldenburg tied for second with scores of 85.

The season may be over for the rest of the Lady Wildcats, but after improving scores and playing better as the year progressed, coach Mears has lots to look forward to. If the team stays intact, it will return 12 players from this season.

Goins will tee off at the New Castle Regional on Saturday morning, September 22, at Westwood Golf Club.