The Marshall County girls won their third consecutive regional golf championship Monday at Paxton Park Golf Course. The favorite to win the region this year, the Lady Marshals were tested by McCracken County who finished runner-up, winning by 11 strokes over the Lady Mustangs with a team score of 325.
It was a little more stressful than Lady Marshals Head Coach Aaron Beth expected, but he gave credit to McCracken County for their improvement throughout the season.
“I’m so proud of our team”, Coach Beth said. “We had our two youngest…eighth and ninth graders…that hardly had any tournament experience before this year and they shot their lowest scores of the year. For them to step up and do that, it was great.”
St. Mary’s Margaret Butts won the individual region tournament title with an even-par round of 71. McCracken County’s Jess Stephens was runner-up with a 1-over par 72.
Savannah Howell posted the best score for the Lady Marshals with a 5-over 76 for fourth place. Megan Hertter shot 81 to finish tied for sixth. Kenley Luksic shot 83, Sarah Umbarger 85 and Elsie Riley 88 to round out the team scoring.
“Golf is a tough sport…you’re not going to have a great day every day”, Coach Beth said. “Savannah played her solid round and Megan and Kenley did what they had to do for us to get the win. So this was a total team effort. I’m excited and proud for them.”
The Lady Marshals will head to the KHSAA State Golf Championship next week in Bowling Green. Under new KHSAA golf rules, the first place team and the next seven individuals qualify for the state tournament. Those seven qualifiers are Margaret Butts (St. Mary), Jess Stephens (McCracken County), Lauren Gilchrist (Crittenden County), Ellie West (Graves County), Mary Browder Howell (Murray), Ellie Roof (St. Mary) and Cathryn Brown (Lyon County).
Over the past three years in state appearances, the Lady Marshals finished ninth in 2016, in 2017 came in sixth and last year finished fourth.
