Newton girls finish ninth against deep field at Lamson Invitational

WEST DES MOINES — Johana Cerna matched her career best, Addie Hook shot in the double digits for the first time in her career and the Newton girls golf team counted four scores in the 90s during the Lamson Invitational on Monday.

The Cardinals competed against a plethora of Class 4A schools and placed ninth in the 17-team field at the par 71 Willow Creek Golf Course.

Newton finished with a 382, which is six strokes below its season average.

“The girls had a pretty good day,” Newton head girls golf coach Nicole George said. “We were well under the 400 mark, which is where we want to be. We finished in the middle of the pack between some really tough competition and teams we haven’t seen yet this year.”

The Cardinals bettered Waukee and Ankeny by two strokes but finished 10 back of both Johnston and Southeast Polk.

Marshalltown won the meet championship with a 320. The Bobcats edged Ames (322) by two strokes and the rest of the top five included Norwalk (348), host West Des Moines Valley (361) and Bettendorf (362).

Indianola (367), Johnston (372), Southeast Polk (372), Waukee (384), Ankeny (384), Des Moines Roosevelt (389), Dallas Center-Grimes (402), Urbandale (426), Des Moines East (429), Atlantic (437) and Mason City (453) finalized the field.

“Although I’m proud of the team and what we have been able to accomplish this year already, I know we left a lot of strokes out there,” George said. “Our putting cost us a lot of extra strokes today, which could have been the difference between getting ninth place and getting sixth. I saw way too many three-putts and four-putts, which we just cannot do as we get further into the season. We will look to improve on that this week in practice.”

Cerna led Newton with a career-best 90. Evie Main (96), Hook (97) and Addie Ratcliff (99) were the other counting scores. It was a career-best score for Hook. Eva Pak (103) and Kalleigh Berndt (103) posted non-counting scores.

“She’s struggled a little bit out of the gate but hopefully this is the turning point for her and she continues to shoot double digits in these 18-hole meets,” George said about Hook. “She ended her round with a shot that was about six inches away from being a hole-in-one so she had to settle for the birdie. I know she was proud of herself as she walked off the course, just as I was.

“Cerna actually struggled during her first nine holes, but we talked about her turning it around and she did. That’s what golf is all about — being able to deal with the bad breaks and overcoming them before they consume you.”

Marshalltown’s Natalie Henson won meet medalist honors with a 4-under-par 67.

Emersen Motl of Ames and Saleah Vivanh-Vong of Des Moines East both carded 75s.