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| Cowgirls second at state |
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| Crofcheck and Hamon earn all-state honors |
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 | | LON AUSTIN/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Head Softball Coach Tom Decker and shortstop Sydney Waite discuss hitting during a timeout n the Cowgirls final league game against Bend last week. Decker was named IMC co-Head Coach of the Year and Waite was named Player of the Year on Thursday. |
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By Lon Austin
The Crook County High School girls golf team pulled away from West Albany and Crescent Valley on the back nine Tuesday to hold on to second place at the 5A girls state golf championships.
"I think we played very smart and very well as a team," said Head Coach Grant Patterson. "It was a real tough course and we did a good job of playing a little bit smarter and taking our bogies and doubles and trying to win the big stuff. JoBeth Hamon and Sarah Crofcheck definitely picked it up on Tuesday."
For the second year in a row, the Intermountain Conference finished one-two in the tournament as Bend High School shot a 739 to beat the Cowgirls by 20 strokes.
The Cowgirls were led by the efforts of Crofcheck (92-86-178) and Hamon (92-87-179) who finished in eighth and ninth place individually to earn All-State honors.
Rounding out the scoring for the Cowgirls were Rachel Kelso (100-99-199), Kersey Wilcox (101-102-203), and Cami Williams (105-106-211).
The Cowgirls' 759 total easily outdistanced West Albany and Crescent Valley who tied for third with 780 totals.
The 5,607-yard par-72 course proved to be tough for the entire 11-team championship field. Bend's 739 was 96 shots higher than the winning total by Summit High School at the 2007 state golf championship.
There was a steady drizzle on Tuesday which kept the course wet and made it difficult to hit out of the high rough.
Not a single player in the tournament shot a round in the 70's, including individual champion McKennon Cimmiyotti of Pendleton who shot a two-day total of 164.
The IMC dominated the tournament with seven of the 10 members of the All-State team coming from the conference. Chelsey Lind of Mountain View finished third with a 168 total, while Brittany Bruening led the Bend Lava Bears with a 173.
"Bend was ripe for the picking but we just couldn't get over the big numbers," Patterson said. "There are just so many big numbers on that course that it was tough to stay consistent. They had some pretty tough pin placements and they set it up as a championship type course."
The second place finish was the best finish ever by a Crook County High School golf team and Patterson, who first took Crook County boys a team to the state tournament in 1978, and took his first girls team in 1980, was pleased with the team's performance.
"It was quite an accomplishment," noted Patterson. "If you look at the blogs and everything Crook County wasn't even mentioned in the pre-tournament thing. Had we won it that would have been a very big upset. As it is I think second place is a pretty big upset. Nobody even knew who the Cowgirls were and now they do. I think the girls are pretty excited."
Patterson credited much of the credit for Crook County's performance to teaching pro Mike Renshaw.
"Renshaw was their swing coach," Patterson said. "It's nice to have one of the best teaching pros in Oregon helping the girls out and volunteering his time. For him to come down and take an interest and pride in getting to know these girls was a wonderful experience."
"We represented our community real well," Patterson added. "If anybody has ever played golf and looked up what we did they would realize that it was quite an accomplishment." |
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