Congratulations to High School Girls Golf Post Season Play

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When I was in High School there wasn’t a womens or girls golf team, if there were some girls interested in playing golf they had to play on the boys team. We had one girl that was so good she regularly played Junior Varsity, she carried about a 45 average. But times have changed, the girls have their own team now, and rightly so, some of the girls can shoot close to par.

First of all I wanted to talk about some of the district results in the area. The course that was played by Mexico was a very difficult golf course, Eagle Knoll Golf Club located in Hartsburg Missouri halfway between Jefferson City and Ashland. Father Tolton captured that tournament with a score of 342. A a matter of fact they were about 80 strokes better than Blair Oaks who took 2nd. Mexico finished a disappointing 11th in team competition, but Lillian Knipfel was a stand out golfer for the Mexico Lady Bulldogs, she shot a 92 at Eagle Knoll. When I played Eagle Knoll, I think the last time I played there I shot in the upper 90’s. I think the last time I saw Lillian she was about ten years old and was barely able to hit the ball 150 yards but she has really improved in her career to the point where she’s shooting better than an average guy can shoot.

Audrey Rischer won the district class two district two with a score of 74, fantastic two over par at Eagle Knoll, and Kassidy Hull from Eldon was 2nd, Father Tolton had the third best individual Jaden Berrey at thirteen over, Hannah Maschhoff of Osage was fourteen over, Madeline Falls of Father Tolton was sixteen over, and Lily Frazier of Southern Boone was seventeen over par with a stroke score of 89 so, again congratulations to Lillian Knipfel of Mexico, twenty over in district play which allowed her to move on to state competition.

Also in district golf, in class 1 district 1, played at L A Nickell Golf Course in Columbia, still a nice golf course but not nearly as difficult as Eagle Knoll, Duchesne won with a score of 410, narrowly defeating Centralia at 413. When I was in school the top two teams advanced to state, nowadays it’s just the top teams so Centralia missed out by three shots. Palmyra was third at 419, California 6th, Paris 9th at 499. But congratulations going out to ReaLee Smith of Centralia, she was the district champion with a score of twelve over par 82 at L A Nickell Golf Course in Columbia. She won the tournament by 4 shots over Villa Duchesne and Kathryn Fesler at sixteen over par. So both ReaLee and Lillian moved on to state competition. And the state Tournament for Mexico Class 2 was held at Meadow Lake Golf Course in Clinton Missouri, a course that I have not played, 4,900 yards for the girls par 71, so a difficult layout. Springfield Catholic High School won the State Championship with a score of 640, Father Tolton was 2nd at 676, Visitation Academy was 3rd, Logan-Rogersville with 772 was 4th, Ursuline Academy High School 817 5th, and Incarnate Word Academy High School 854 finished in 6th place. The state champion was Reagan Zibilski of Springfield Catholic who shot an incredible 70-69 139, so she was actually three under par for the two rounds, fantastic. She won the tournament by fourteen shots over Audrey Rischer from Father Tolton. But, a bright spot for Mexico Bulldogs Lillian Knipfel finished 7th and broke 80 in the first round, shot an even 80 in round number two with a very respectable 159 in total, 79-80 so congratulations to Lillian and the Mexico Bulldogs.

As far as the Centralia State Tournament is concerned, that’s class 1, played at the Paradise Pointe Golf Complex in the Posse Course, Smithville, which is located north of Kansas City, that’s a par 72 5,461 yards so about 500 yards longer than Meadow Lake, and Sacred Heart was the winning team with a score of 810 beating Brookfield High School by 100 shots, at 910. ReaLee Smith of Centralia finished 6th in the State Tournament with rounds of 88 and 96, 184. A couple of girls to really be proud of in Central Missouri from Mexico and Centralia.

Coming up next week maybe we’ll talk Masters Golf, we had some “masters” in Girls High School Golf this week, and the real pros coming up next week on the weekly blog!