NorthWood’s girls golf team poses for a team photo after winning the Warsaw Sectional Saturday. (Photo provided)

WARSAW — The NorthWood girls golf team has had some close calls at sectional the past few years, including last season’s disappointing finish, when the Lady Panthers missed out on the championship via fifth score tiebreaker with Bremen. Saturday’s round wasn’t even close.

The Panthers put up a 341, only one stroke shy of their program’s all-time best sectional score, and No. 12 NorthWood claimed the Warsaw Sectional championship by better than 25 strokes at Stonehenge.

“If you go back the last six years, we’re 15 shots away from this being six in a row,” recalled NorthWood coach Adam Yoder. “We lost by two six years ago. Wawasee just played outstanding four years ago and then last year obviously we didn’t play very well and Bremen did, and they deserved it. Yeah, very satisfying.”

“It feels great,” said senior Abby Slabaugh. “Last year we were so close. A little bit short, but this year it felt like we had a totally different mindset coming into it. We’re like ‘We know what we need to do,’ and we did it.”

Abby Slabaugh watches her shot off the fairway on the 18th hole at Stonehenge Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

Slabaugh went low for NorthWood with an 82 Saturday, second only to Rochester’s Kristianna Lingenfelter and her low medalist score of 71. Freshman Cybil Stillson fired an 83 in her first-ever sectional appearance, MacKenzie Weaver carded 85, and Delaney Davis and Kirsten Schrock both shot 91 as all five Panthers finished in the tournament’s overall top 10.

“We were just really solid. We had a few big numbers here and there. We didn’t make many birdies, but we also played extremely smart too, and that’s what we had to do to get the win,” Yoder said. “That’s what the girls wanted. They didn’t just want to qualify for regional; they wanted to win the sectional. We thought that was a good accomplishment for them to kind of put a feather in their cap going into next week. Very happy.”

The rest of the field finished well behind NorthWood, but the surprise was who slotted in behind them. Wawasee fired a 368 for tournament runner-up honors, while Bremen finished three strokes back for the third and final team ticket out to next Saturday’s East Noble Regional.

“It means everything. That’s what we were playing for is to try and get out of sectional, and they did. Hat’s off to the girls,” said Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone.

Belle Brunner hits an approach shot Saturday.

Belle Brunner led the Lady Warriors as usual with an 88, but it was Tate Cowan, playing in the fourth grouping for her team, that turned in the squad’s next best score of 90 after bouncing between the JV and varsity most of the season.

“She hits a lot of good shots and she can go either way, but the last three or four weeks she’s really made up a ton of ground on the team to move her way up,” said Coverstone.

Jadison Rostochak shot 93, Taylor Cripe carded 97, and Lesley Tayagua shot 98 as Wawasee got consistent performances up and down its lineup.

“It’s outstanding. A great effort by the girls,” Coverstone said. “I think we all were under 100, which is something that we’ve tried to do. We try to be in the 40s, at least four of us, and we got all five in the 40s for nine today, so we’re really happy.”

Wawasee’s round shook up the expected tournament standings, and host Warsaw was bumped into fourth place with a 376, five strokes back of regional advancement. The Lady Tigers put up some big numbers over the first three holes, including a combined 36 strokes on the par 5 second hole at Stonehenge. They recovered as much as they could but couldn’t come all the way back to break into the top three.

“Those first three holes we really struggled. I think we only made a couple pars and took some really big numbers. When you get off to a rough start like that, you’ve got to dig deep and try to find something. They did. Especially after the three holes they did alright, but it’s hard to come back,” explained head coach Tad Nieter.

“I’m going to take the blame on this one because I could’ve done a better job preparing them. We’re good when we’re good, and we’ve been bad when we’re bad. So I need to help them when they’re bad. How do we get to be good during those tough rounds?”

The good news for Warsaw was junior Grayson Kilburn’s 92, which earned her the third and final spot out to East Noble reserved for individuals from non-advancing teams. Rochester’s Lingenfelter punched the first individual ticket, and Lakeland Christian Academy’s Abigail Fishel carded 88 for the second of the three solo berths to regional.

Warsaw junior Grayson Kilburn watches her shot at Stonehenge.

“It’s good for her. It’s good for next year because we have a young team coming up, and she can lead them just by her experience going to regional so we’re really happy for her,” said Nieter.

“She’s been hitting the ball great, just hasn’t been able to score as well. But I think she’s starting to come around. We’re excited to see what she can do this week.”

Miriam Hagg shot 93, Izzy and Madelyn Ray turned in respective scores of 94 and 98, and Julia Hildebrand shot 97 for the Tigers. All four are seniors and won’t be back for the program next year, but their contributions to the program won’t be forgotten, said Nieter.

“It’s hard. I told them afterwards how proud I was of them,” he said. “They helped build this foundation. When I first came to the program, the year before they had six girls, and I credit all of these seniors. Now I have 15. They drug people out of the woodwork just to come and play with us, and I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done and what they’ve meant to the program.”

Triton also closed out the year in seventh place with a 436, and Whitko rounded out the team standings with a 447.

Madeline Ritchison’s chip shot just lips out of the hole on No. 9 at Stonehenge.

Pacing the Trojans was Madeline Ritchison and her round of 98. Samantha Edington shot 104, Alysha May carded 110, and Delanie Groves turned in a 124.

Guinny Garr shot 99 to lead Whitko, followed by Bailey Wright’s 110 and Erin Starkweather’s 116. Augusta Garr shot 122, and Lilly Owsley shot 137 for the Wildcats.

After the last teams came in Saturday, Yoder was complimentary of the Stonehenge and Warsaw staffs for a well-run tournament.

“I thought that the staff here at Stonehenge, Mr. (Griffyn) Carpenter, and then the Warsaw staff, Mr. (Dave) Anson, Brenda Wright, Tad, they just did an outstanding job today,” said the NorthWood skipper. “The parents were supportive of the entire field, and everybody felt welcome. Same thing in our practice round Thursday. I just thought they did an outstanding job with this year’s sectional.”

While Whitko, Triton and Warsaw all closed out the season, it’s on to the regional round of the tourney for NorthWood and Wawasee. Play is scheduled to begin next Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Noble Hawk Golf Links. The top three teams will qualify for the state finals Sept. 28-29, and five individual berths are also up for grabs. Saturday’s sectional title felt good, but the Panthers say they aren’t done yet.

“The goal is to always get out to regional. Winning sectional is just an icing on the cake, I guess, but we still have a lot to improve on,” said Weaver. “We had a lot of really good rounds today, but we know what we need to improve on and that’s what we’re going to work on all week. It’s not over yet, and we’re going to keep fighting until it is.”

LCA’s Abigail Fishel stays warm practicing on the putting green following her round Saturday. Fishel never needed to play off for an individual regional berth as her 88 was more than good enough for one of the three spots reserved for individuals from non-advancing teams.