Tigers repeat as champs

VERSAILLES - The hosts had the most at Saturday's Midwest Athletic Conference Girls Golf Tournament.

The Versailles Tigers, who had an unbeaten regular season in conference match play, ran away with the team title, finishing with a round of 369 on their home turf at the Stillwater Valley Golf Club. The Tigers claim the conference title for the third straight season.

The Tigers were led by Madison Covault (85) and Hannah Niekamp (86). Covault was named MAC Golfer of the Year and Niekamp was second in the standings. Jorja Pothast (96) and Lauren Heitkamp (102) rounded out the scoring for the Tigers, who won the tournament by more than 40 strokes.

"We've had some rounds similar to this as far as 18 holes this year," Versailles coach Joe Harrmann said. "In some of the invites we've played in, we've had some very good team totals. With it being the home course, you would certainly expect us to play pretty well because we get to play it quite a bit. But again, you've got to give all the credit to the girls. Those are the ones who are out here practicing, putting in the time and the effort. They made it happen today."

Minster freshman Alli Fischer shot an 87 to take third overall and helped the Wildcats finish second at the tournament with a score of 414.

"Allison Fischer is a freshman, so this is her first real strong 18-hole tournament. We're pretty proud of that accomplishment," Minster coach Deb Ahrns said. "Fifty percent of the team are brand new golfers, so I'm pretty proud of that finish.

"I think I said this in the preseason, this (year) they will grow, next year they'll bloom. Then the next year they'll be some kind of awesome. I think our name will be on that trophy the next time."

St. Henry finished third overall at the tournament with a 417 and tied for second with Minster in the final MAC standings with 22 points each. Haleigh Staugler (97) placed fifth in the tournament and teammate Alyssa Mescher finished seventh with a 99.

"Versailles had an amazing round today," St. Henry coach Wendi Moorman said. "Not a lot of teams are going to touch 369 in an 18-hole match. But having played today, we know we have to go to sectionals on Tuesday and the girls can regroup for that and be ready to play. They maybe got some of the jitters out that they're going to have when the get to the tournament.

"(Staugler) had a good round today," she continued. "I don't think you can complain about how she played. If you're under 100, you should be pretty happy. Then our number two (Mescher) was under 100. They both had very good rounds. We can take pieces of all their rounds and they were pretty good. We can take that away (from the tournament)."

Parkway's Terra Walls finished sandwiched in-between Staugler and Mescher in sixth with a score of 98. Rounding out the top 10 were Coldwater's Shannon Osterfeld (100), New Bremen's Sydney Holdren (100) and Fort Recovery's Trisha Thien (101).

Fort Recovery placed fourth in the team standings (424), New Bremen took fifth (457), Coldwater was sixth (470), Parkway finished seventh (478) and Marion Local finished eighth (494).

With the exception of Versailles, which plays their sectional on Wednesday at Stillwater, the area teams will meet at Fox's Den on Tuesday for the Division II sectional tournament.