Eagles end season with State trip; Syracuse defends title

CHENEY -- Uniontown's season came to an end here Monday at the Class 3-2-1A State Girls' Golf Tournament. Neither of the Eagles were able to medal but Head Coach Jason Tourtillott had nothing but praise for their performances.

Monica Ramsey shot 112 for the Eagles.

"Monica did a great job on a challenging course," Tourtillott said. "She shot a 112, which is just one stroke worse than her personal best on a very demanding course.

"I was hoping Monica would have a good day being her senior year and when it was all over, she said she was happy. If you put it in perspective from last year, she shot 53 strokes better at the State meet, which is awesome.

Torrie Hathaway finished at 124 for Uniontown.

"Torrie, a first year golfer, for us did a very nice job to make the State Tournament. Things didn't go as well as she would have liked and she had a lot of trouble with the driver and woods off the tee box. She managed to hang around with some good iron shots. I think she will learn from this and come back next year and build off what she has learned.

"This course was a big change for our girls. The greens were about three times the size of ours with undulation and the rough was tough. If you missed the fairway you were going to have a difficult recovery shot where on our courses back home right now there's not a lot of difference."

Syracuse won its second consecutive team title, shooting 397, one stroke lower than last year at Emporia. Cheney and Russell each finished at 411 but Cheney was placed second with the better fifth-golfer score.

Taylor Alderman of Council Grove won her first State medal as she won the individual crown with an 87. Kiah Rash of Syracuse won a playoff over teammate Sydney Brown for second place after both finished at 94. The highest finisher from a Southeast Kansas school was Caney Valley's Cortney Gardner, who was ninth with a 99, winning a playoff over Kyla Bandel of St. Francis.