PLEASANT HILL — Watching their team golf scores for 18-hole tournaments drop each time they played this season, Newton High’s girls are moving the right direction as the regular season winds down.
On Thursday, the Cardinal girls finished eighth at the 2017 Southeast Polk Invitational. No worries for Newton head coach Scott Enyart.
“It was a great day for our team. We shot a 393 as a team, which is the first time this season we’ve been below 400 for an 18-hole tournament,” Enyart said. “I’m excited and the girls are excited. It was fun watching the girls played today.”
Atlantic won the tournament with 322, and Enyart said Atlantic quite possibly will be the Class 3A state championship team this season. He said it has the golfers to do it. Atlantic placed four in the top six individual places at Southeast Polk.
Marshalltown was a distant second at 360 followed by Indianola at 371 and Valley at 374. Southeast Polk was fifth with a 377 and Fairfield had a 385. Dowling beat Newton by one stroke for seventh, 392-393.
Des Moines Roosevelt was ninth at 399 and Urbandale was 10th at 411. Ankeny combined for a 444 and Des Moines East had a 487 for 12th.
“We’re getting ourselves in a position to have opportunities to have good things happen for us at our regional tournament,” Enyart said. “We have our eye on Fairfield, which is in our regional. We’re just eight strokes behind Fairfield.”
Dowling’s Anne Gradoville shot a 1-under par 70 as meet medalist at Cooper Creek Golf Course. Atlantic’s Brooke Newell was runner-up with a 73. There were two golfers with 82s, one with an 83 and two with 84s.
Newton junior Taylor Dydell had a career-day on the Cooper Creek course. Dydell earned with eighth-place medal with a career-best 87. She had rounds of 44 and 43 for the Cardinals.
“Taylor got in a zone early and stayed there all day. She had a solid round of 18 holes today. In her back nine, she had a string of pars on No. 12, 13 and 14,” Enyart said.
Junior Alayna Reynolds tied her career-best 18-hole score with an 89. She had six pars in her rounds of 44 and 45. Senior Lizzy Coyle was No. 3 for Newton with a 96 on rounds of 51 and 45.
“Alayna had a very consistent round. Lizzy had a better final nine holes. On her last hole of the day, she hit a drive over a tree to cut the dog-leg on No. 9. Her second shot put it on the green for 20-foot putt. She finished it with a short putt for a par,” Enyart said.
Freshman Jordon Pritchard had the final team-scoring round for Newton. She shot a 62 and a 59 for a total 121. Enyart said Pritchard was able to stay away from a few of the bigger numbers and had a great 5-foot putt on No. 18 for a bogey.
Junior Tory Church shot a 130 (65-65) and sophomore Arieal Lum had a 141 (70-71).
“The kids are trusting themselves and each other with what they are doing out on the course,” Enyart said. “We’ve proved to ourselves we can get where we want with the work we’re doing.”
Newton has one more 18-hole tournament for the regular season as the Cardinals tee off at 9 a.m. Saturday in the South Tama Invitational. On Monday, they play in a nine-hole meet at 4:15 p.m. at Norwalk.
Then its about preparing for the Class 4A Region 3 tournament on May 22 at St. Andrews Golf Club in Cedar Rapids.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com