Squires Top Warriors In Dual Meet At Sycamore
NORTH MANCHESTER — It’s still early in the golf season, and coaches are taking scores with a bit of a grain of salt. What they’re really looking for are signs of improvement.
Manchester’s 183 easily beat out Wawasee’s 198 in a dual meet at Sycamore Golf Club Monday, but both Squires head coach Josh Troyer and Wawasee boss Steve Coverstone saw good things out of their groups at the dual meet.
“Really the last week and this week I’ve tried to not judge our overall scores. We’ve had some holes that have kind of almost inflated our rounds, but we’re starting to see better swings,” said Troyer. “We’ve had more moments that we’re playing really well. We’re hitting good shots. We haven’t put it all together yet, but you’re starting to see bits and pieces starting to finally come together.”
“I felt pretty happy. We broke 200, and hopefully we’ll just keep getting better,” said Coverstone.
A little under a week after firing a career-low 75 for low medalist honors at the Huntington North Invite, Manchester’s Kelsey Eichnauer led Monday’s field with a 43. She capped off her round with a birdie on the par 4 10th at Sycamore, a fact made all the more impressive by stifling conditions at the meet, which featured temperatures in the 90s and suffocating humidity.
“Just kind of fighting that adversity, I thought she did really well just kind of staying in moments, not overreacting to not being her best round. That’s what you’ve got to do,” explained Troyer. “Throughout the year, it’s hard to shoot 75 every round, right? Things went really well for her that day. She’s definitely capable of that, she has that skill, but it’s still coming together to be every round. And that’s OK. It’s not a bad thing to shoot a 43 and lead us today.
“To have that birdie at the end shows that she kept her head in the game and kept battling, and that’s what we expect from our girls.”
Squires No. 2 Sam Kissel carded a 45 behind Eichenauer, and Madyson Ulrey finished just two strokes back of that tally. Cora Barnett’s 48 completed the home team’s score, while Alissa Bickerstaff and Morgan Stroud posted 63 and 64, respectively, as the two teams each fielded six players Monday.
“It’s right where we kind of expect to be,” Troyer said. “I think we’re maybe between four and five strokes lower at each of those spots as the year goes on here. That’s definitely their capabilities — somewhere in the low 40s for a nine-hole round — so not bad today. A couple holes here or there for each of them, but like I said, their swings are getting better. I’ve seen their mindset start to change. I think there’s a lot of things that are going well; we just kind of now have to take all those little pieces that we’ve done well and finally put it all in one round.”
Jadison Rostochak shot a 47 to lead Wawasee out of the second flight, while the team’s lone senior Lesley Tayagua gave the Warriors a 49 playing in the fourth pairing in her first competitive round of the season.
“That’s the first time she’s played this year. She had to get practices in, so that’s pretty good,” Coverstone said.
Wawasee No. 1 Belle Brunner ran into trouble on 2 and 9 at Sycamore to finish with a 51 despite an otherwise pretty steady round. Ava Harker matched that score with another 51 playing out of the fifth grouping to round off the Warriors’ team score. Valerie Haessig turned in a 53, and Taylor Cripe carded 55 for Wawasee, which dropped to 0-2 in dual meet play.
Coverstone says his golfers are striking the ball well but that their short game is still a work in progress in the second week of the season.
“We’re still young. We only have one senior, and that’s Lesley,” he said. “We hit the ball pretty well; we still struggle from 50 yards in. That’s what we worked on last weekend, but it takes awhile to get better at something.”
Wawasee will play on the road in a three-way with West Noble and Whitko Wednesday.