Tigers, Eagles show improvement at Parsons

PARSONS -- Fort Scott's golf team continued its show of improvement on the KATY Golf Course here Monday, scoring 219 at the Parsons Invitational, the third of the four Southeast Kansas League designated tournaments.

The Tigers finished in fourth place but had the second-best score among league teams. Caney Valley had the better fifth-golfer score than Girard and won the tie-breaker with the Trojans for the top spot after both shot 194. League member Chanute shot 197 to finish third. Chanute's and Fort Scott's scores were the best both have shot in league play.

"Last week at Galena was our best tournament score in two seasons and it was nice to come back with an almost identical score at a much tougher golf course." Fort Scott head coach Karen Curran said. "It may sound silly to be excited about finishing in fourth place, but we are exactly where we need to be at this point in the season."

Uniontown finished in fifth place at 232, second-best among the Class 3-2-1A schools at the tournament behind Caney and 46 strokes ahead of Yates Center, which finished eighth.

"I really felt like our girls did a good job managing the course," Uniontown head coach Jason Tourtillott said. "This course has really tight fairways lined with trees and is easy to get in trouble and ruin a good round."

Timbrelee McNair of Girard won the individual title with a 36. Tiffani Ward of Caney Valley shot 42 to finish second while Coffeyville's Anna Pool shot 43 to retain a seven-shot lead over Danae Decker of Chanute in the SEK individual standings.

Laine Parks medaled for Fort Scott, winning a scorecard playoff over Erica Gartner of Labette County for 10th place at 51. Karley Stark finished 14th with a 53. Those finishes have Parks a four-place bump up to 14th in the league while Stark got a one-spot boost to ninth, right behind teammate Morgan Robertson, who finished tied for 16th in the tournament with a 55.

"Laine Parks took another 4 strokes off her career low," Curran said. "Very happy about the way she's playing right now and she's only going to keep getting better.

Karley and Morgan are playing and posting consistent scores over the last 5 meets, shooting in the low to mid 50's. Our goal is to get them to each drop another 5-6 strokes consistently over the new 3 weeks. Sounds hard, but those strokes will come mainly from putts or an extra chip or a penalty stroke here and there."

Hayden Shelden shot 60 for the Tigers, good enough to move her up two places in the league to 13th. Natalie Wolf shot a 62 and maintained her 17th-place spot in the league.

The top 10 individuals following Tuesday's Pittsburg Tournament will be All-SEK while the next 10 will be Honorable Mention. Currently, only 20 golfers are eligible for league honors.

Torrie Hathaway missed a medal for Uniontown by one stroke as she tied with Parsons' Allison Hudson for 12th at 52, Hathaway's personal best. Haven Bradbury tied for 18th with a personal-best 56. Monica Ramsey scored 59 for the Eagles while Jordan Mason finished at 65, Anna Oberle at 69 and Draven George at 88.

SEK league team standings did not change as Chanute remains in the lead, 75 strokes ahead of Labette County. Fort Scott, however, is now within 12 strokes of LCHS and may have a chance to finish second with a good performance at Pittsburg.

TEAM SCORES

1. Caney Valley (CV) 194 (Ward 42, Gardner 48, Nelson 50, Hefley 54, Crowe 56); 2. Girard (GI) 194 (McNair 36, Heatherly 46, Puckett 56, Johnson 56, Horton 58); 3. Chanute (CH) 197 (Decker 44, Funk 45, Clark 50, Hartman 58);

4. Fort Scott (FS) 219 (Parks 51, Stark 53, Robertson 55, Shelden 60); 5. Uniontown 232 (Hathaway 52, Bradbury 56, Ramsey 59, Mason 65); 6. Labette County 243 (Gartner 51, White 57, Callahan 60, Riley 75);

7. Parsons 429 (Hudson 52, Sheields 58, Haynes 62, Jack 77), 8. Yates Center 278 (Wendland 55, Buchanan 66, Busteed 77, Wilson 80); 9. Pittsburg 279 (Biggs 66, Deal 66, Henry 69, Otter 78);

10. Columbus 286 (Clark 64, Jarrett 65, Conner 77, Roth 80).

Incomplete teams: Coffeyville (CF), Galena.

MEDALISTS

1. Timbrelee McNair, GI, 36; 2. Tiffany Ward, CV, 42; 3. Anna Pool, CF, 43; 4. Danae Decker, Ch, 44; 5. Abbe Funk, CH, 45;

6. Carly Heatherly, GI, 46; 7. Courtney Carpenter, CV, 48; 8. Nikki Clark, CH, 50; 9. Desiree Nelson, CV, 50; 10. Laine Parks, FS, 51.

SOUTHEAST KANSAS LEAGUE

After three tournaments