NorthWood Golf: Lady Panthers Looking To Start New Streak At Warsaw Sectional Saturday
WARSAW — Last weekend, NorthWood’s girls golf team kept an impressive streak alive with six straight Northern Lakes Conference championships. Come Saturday, the Lady Panthers are hoping to start another one as they defend their Warsaw Sectional title at Stonehenge.
As five-time defending NLC titleists, NorthWood was in the spotlight at the NLC tourney, and that’s the kind of pressure the team will likely be feeling this weekend as well. In that sense, it was the perfect prep for the Panthers.
“I think it’s good right now that we’re starting to understand what it feels like to have some expectations on you,” said head coach Adam Yoder. “We can learn from (the NLC tournament) going into sectional, and hopefully if we can get into regional the conference tournament and the experience (at sectional) will help prepare us for that. We needed a little nerves in us, and it was really good for us to learn how to handle that going forward.”
Three of NorthWood’s top five made the top five at the conference tilt, and they’re expected to lead the team as the IHSAA tournament kicks off Saturday as well. Madison Richner and Abby Slabaugh both played their way onto the All-NLC rolls, while Mackenzie Weaver led the team with an 83 and a runner-up finish behind Northridge medalist Braedyn O’Dell.
The last time Weaver played a competitive round at Stonehenge — at the Warsaw Invite back on Aug. 19 — she shot 78, and she could be a contender for individual championship honors at Saturday’s sectional. She went through a bit of a lull midseason, but the NorthWood top flighter seems to be back to form just in time for the postseason.
“She had a little rough patch earlier in the season. Nine-hole matches didn’t go as well as maybe she wanted them to, but she’s remained positive, she’s remained a good teammate for our younger players and she’s turning the corner right now,” said Yoder of his number one.
“She’s playing more consistently right now and attacking in a lot smarter ways than maybe she was earlier in the year.”
Behind Weaver, Slabaugh and Madison Richner, Makenna Gall and Abbie Richner give the Panthers a very solid four and five. The Panthers’ firepower makes them the favorite to repeat in the Warsaw field and ought to make them a shoe-in to at least grab one of the top three team spots that guarantee a berth at the East Noble Regional. NorthWood has advanced out of the Warsaw Sectional every year since being realigned into the tourney field in 2013. In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last time the Panthers failed to advance.
The host Tigers are looking for their second straight regional berth, meanwhile, and they ought to be right in the thick of things on their home course Saturday.
One thing that bodes well for the hosts is the consistency with which they’re playing. There isn’t much separation between the team’s top five lineup of Izzy and Madelyn Ray, Miriam Hagg, Grayson Kilburn and Delaney Wihebrink, and that often spells good things for a team in the tournament.
“It always bodes well when you have girls shooting consistent numbers. The last two weeks with us being very consistent, it eases my nerves and the girls’ nerves that you’re not going to see, I hope, too big of a number,” said head coach Tad Nieter. “That’s huge in high pressure kinds of meets like sectionals, where the girls are trying to survive and advance. That’ll really help us. We’ve been making progress all year. That’s been our MO every single match, every single round, let’s just make progress. I’m really exciting for where we’re at as a team and then all five of my individual golfers. I just think we’re in a good spot, especially playing at home at Stonehenge.”
With Culver Girls Academy realigned into the LaPorte Sectional this year, Bremen should be on the bubble for one of the top three team spots as well, and both Nieter and Yoder expect them to be in the hunt. But it also leaves the door open for Wawasee, if the Warriors play well.
The Lady Warriors didn’t shoot their best at the NLC tourney, an uncharacteristically high score by part-time low scorer Jadison Rostochak a big part of the reason. But Wawasee only lost out to Warsaw by three strokes in their dual meet earlier in the year, and, like the Tigers, the Warriors have consistency on their side with Rostochak, Belle Brunner, Lesley Tayagua, Zoe White and Tate Cowan all routinely turning in nine-hole scores in the low 50s.
“It wasn’t our best day, but I’m not all that unhappy. We’ve just got to get ready to play better in sectional if we want to go to regional,” said Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone following the NLC tourney at Pretty Lake Golf Club in Plymouth.
“As far as preparing you for the sectional, Pretty Lake pretty much does that because it’s got the fast greens like Stonehenge is going to have; it’s got maybe even more undulation than Stonehenge is going to have. And Stonehenge might be a little more open so that’ll be a place where you can relax a little bit, where Pretty Lake you’ve really got to hit it straight on most of the holes.”
Also among the 11-team field in Warsaw is Triton, which is coming off a first-ever Hoosier North Athletic Conference Tournament title and a solid 198 nine-hole score at Stonehenge Wednesday.
If the Lady Trojans don’t find themselves in the hunt for a team berth to regional, several of the team’s golfers could earn one of the top three spots from non-advancing teams that earn an individual ticket to next week’s East Noble tilt. Megan McFarland and Alysha May are both capable, as is the suddenly-hot Delaney Groves. Whytnie Miller has gone low for Triton this year, too, and Kate Gardner could also play her way onto the regional stage.
Lakeland Christian’s Abigail Fishel is definitely in the conversation for regional advancement playing alongside lone teammate Breanna Smith, while Tippecanoe Valley’s top four of Makayla Sandbakken, Bethany Johnson, Jordan Krotke and Kelsey Shafer will all vie for individual regional advancement as well as tournament action kicks off at 9 a.m. at Stonehenge.