Freshman Addison Meadows has just two varsity golf matches under her belt, but her strong play is already being felt for the Southmont girls’ golf team.
On Saturday, Meadows fired a 73 on her home course at the Crawfordsville Country Club (Par 71) to lead the Mounties to an Invite title with team score of 353. Macie Shirk shot a 90 for Southmont, while Taylor Grino recorded a 92. Bailey Barker carded a 98 and Stella Snook rounded out the scoring for the Mounties with a 127.
Normally, a freshman would feel a lot of pressure from having the weight of their team on their shoulders — but Meadows doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think there’s any added pressure on myself,” she said. “The main goal for me is driving myself to be where I want to be. I’m just going to go out there and play as good as I can. Today I birdied the last three holes and for the most part I was able to play as good as I wanted to.”
Southmont coach Bill Whalen always has a number going into a match that he wants his team to strive for. Coming into their own invitational, Whalen had a goal of 355 and the Mounties were able to meet that goal with their 353 score. At both of their meets so far this season Southmont has met the goals Whalen has set out for them and he’s been pleased with the results.
“These girls are playing right where I expected them to so far this season and it’s been fun to watch,” he said. “Bailey had a bit of high score today but that will get brought down by the time its all said and done. Addison has already played this game for many years, and you can tell. She is just a grinder, and I couldn’t tell you how many tournaments she played in this summer. She has earned everything she’s gotten because she has put in the work.”
With having a freshman come in and immediately rise to the top of the Mounties’ program, Whalen thinks that this will only have a positive impact on the rest of his team as the season progresses.
“When you have somebody come in like Addison has who is pushing you get better, they can see what the entire team is capable of achieving. We have girls who can get into the low-to-mid 80’s, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. If we can have that happen and Addison keeps shooting what she is, we are going to be a very tough out.”
Southmont will be back out on the course today as they travel to take on Terre Haute North.
North Montgomery shot a 453 as a team at the Invitational. Grace Littell led the way for the Chargers with a 109. Morgan Swick shot a 112 while Ella Stultz carded a 113. Shayna Ratcliff recorded a 119 while Riley Coopman rounded out the scoring for the Chargers with a 137.
Coach Nick Johnson was overall pleased with the score and sees it a benchmark to improve off of for future meets.
“We’re still trying to get into a rhythm with only having two real practices,” he said. “Once school starts, we’ll get into a much better flow. I’d like to see us get 5-7 shots lower, that can make a world of difference for us.”
The Chargers are returning every member of their team from last season. Despite that, Johnson is still seeing some old habits from last season that are preventing his girls from getting where he knows they can be.
“We still have some bad habits that we still need to break,” he said. “We’re still dwelling on a poor shot that we had and in golf you can’t do that. I think once we start being so hard on ourselves and just go out and play the game for what it is, then I think we’ll see our scores come down.”
The Chargers will have two home matches at Rocky Ridge this week. Monday they will host Attica and Seeger followed by hosting South Putnam on Tuesday.
Crawfordsville shot a 484 as team led by Carli Payne’s 111. Sadie Walker shot a 117, Cristen Saunders a 119, McKenzie Wilson a 137 and Nancy Blanchard a 144.
Crawfordsville Coach Tony Thomas keeps preaching steady improvement for his young team and was once again pleased with what he saw on Saturday.
“Carli tied her personal nine-hole best with a 52 on the back and Cristen shot around eight strokes better than she did earlier this week so they continue to improve and that’s all that matters. We did struggle putting the ball but none the less it was a good day in a lot of ways.”
Thomas echoed Jonson’s comments about finally being able to get into a routine with school starting this week.
“We got through the first week and now we’ll have a chance to actually work on some more details. We simply don’t have a routine yet so getting settled into one will be very beneficial for us.”
The Athenians will be back in action beginning on Wednesday at home as they welcome McCutcheon. Thursday they will travel to University.
