Eagles qualify for Class 3-2-1A State as team

CANEY -- Every member of Uniontown's golf team will be going to State on Monday after finishing third at the Caney Valley Class 3-2-1A Regional Meet here earlier this week.

The qualification of the team for State is tempered a bit by the fact that there were only three teams eligible for team scoring and just 20 players in the tournament. Every single one of them is going to State.

Caney Valley won the tournament with a four-woman score of 347. Eureka was second at 398. Uniontown shot 548.

"We have some things to address this week in practice as our team score was much higher than it has been all season," Uniontown head coach Jason Tourtillott said. "We get another chance Monday to improve on our Team and Individual Scores at State so the girls are excited to better our performance."

Uniontown's best finish was posted by senior Daryan Herring, who shot 60 on the front nine and 50 on the back to finish with a personal-best score of 110, which put her in 11th place, two strokes shy of a medal.

"She was hitting the ball extremely well off the tee box and had a chance to break 50 on the back 9," Tourtillott said.

Senior Kaylyn Crystal shot 58-61--119 for the Eagles, which put her 13th. Freshman Liberty Franks finished 17th with her 68-83--151. Junior Laryn Thompson was 18th at 105-63--168. And Sophomore Aubry O'Neal placed 19th with her 97-86--183.

"Kaylyn Crystal played pretty solid but had some hiccups thru her round that kept her out of the top 10 like I was hoping for," Tourtillott said. "Our other girls, Laryn Thompson, Aubry O'Neal, and Libby Franks played their hearts out but struggled to put good shots together and finish with the scores they wanted."

Eureka's Raegan Boone was the Regional champion at 40-39--79. Four Caney Valley golfers followed with Kendra Gardner in second at 42-39--81, seven strokes ahead of teammates Paige Bentley (42-46) and Paige Price (45-43). Each of the top eight finishers were from either Eureka or Caney Valley.

The Class 3-2-1A State Tournament will be held Monday at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Garden City.