Freshman medals for Tigers

Freshman Lauren Madison looks on as she follows through on a swing as she finishes her last hole of play at the Fort Scott Invitational at Woodland Hills Golf Course Tuesday afternoon. Madison won a scorecard playoff for eighth place. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

Two area golfers medaled Tuesday at the Fort Scott Invitational. Fort Scott's Lauren Madison finished in eighth place following a scorecard playoff with Pittsburg's Mary Elle Thompson after both shot 54. Kaylyn Crystal of Uniontown finished in 10th place with a score of 60 and Fort Scott High frosh Marissa Allen missed a medal by one stroke as she finished 11th with her 61.

"She's still capable of bettering that score by far," Fort Scott head coach Karen Curran said. "I know was hoping to shoot better than the 50 the shot at (Uniontown's) JV tournament. She's putting a lot of pressure on herself right now. She needs to relax, hit the ball and play the way she knows how she can play."

But because Fort Scott had only three golfers and Uniontown brought only two, neither could win the team title. Four golfers are necessary to be eligible for team honors, which went to Pittsburg with a 192. Labette County was second at 281 and Girard, the only other school with a full team, placed third with a 287.

Even if a fourth golfer had shot 107 for the Tigers, they would have tied for third. A fourth golfer, junior Sara Al-Shawish, is back out for the team but joined late and hasn't completed the minimum number of practices needed before she can begin playing.

"If we just had a fourth scorer, I'd probably be pretty ecstatic, finishing third or fourth," Curran said. "And we have to look at it as a team. We're still in it together, even though we don't have a team score. We have two freshmen and a sophomore and, when we have Sara in there, a junior that's our team to start with for next year. We don't want a 'me' mentality because this is a team sport."

The top two individuals were from Pittsburg. Gracie Lopez was the winner with her 44 followed by Jamie VanWyck with a 45. Coffeyville's Kendall Blaich was third with a 47.

Kaitlyn Hanks, another freshman, shot 65 for the Tigers, which ranked 15th. Darayan Herring shot 69 for Uniontown, which was 18th.

Fort Scott plays an 18-hole tournament at Girard Thursday while Uniontown will be in Ottawa the same day to take part in West Franklin's tournament.

1. Pittsburg (PT) 192 (Lopez 44, VanWyck 45, Lord 50, Valenzuela 53), 2. Labette County (LC) 281 (Brooks 48, hernandez 73, Regis 79, Billman 81), 3. Girard 287 (McFarland 68, McDonald 70, Page 74, Battitori 75).

Incomplete teams: Chanute (CH), Coffeyville (CF), Fort Scott (FS), Parsons, Uniontown (U).

1. Gracie Lopez, PT, 44; 2. Jamie VanWyck, 45; 3. Kendall Blaich, CF, 47; 4. Jessica Brooks, LC, 48; 5. Logan Lord, PT, 50;

6. Lauren Valenzuela, PT, 53; 7. Abby Walker, CH, 53; 8. Lauren Madison, FS, 54; 9. Mary Elle Thompson, PT, 54; 10. Kaylyn Crystal, U, 60.