Lebanon and Western Boone have consistently been ahead of their Sagamore Conference counterparts this fall in girls’ golf, but Crawfordsville, North Montgomery, and Southmont are all in contention to place near the top of the pack in the Sagamore Conference meet on Saturday afternoon at the Crawfordsville Country Club.
“Lebanon is the clear favorite, followed closely by Western Boone,” Crawfordsville coach Tony Thomas said. “Then it gets interesting with Danville, Tri-West, South, North and us.”
Southmont was the runner-up last season to Lebanon by a single stroke and graduated five seniors, but led by junior Macie Shirk, the Mounties hope to be in contention on their home course Saturday.
“It is nice knowing that we have the luxury of practicing on the SAC course,” Southmont coach Bill Whalen said. “We can go out and work on specific holes that we believe could give us the most trouble on Saturday. Knowing how the greens are going to break is a nice advantage also.”
North Montgomery has been led seemingly by a different player each night out on the course, and coach Nick Johnson hopes the Chargers will bring it all together on Saturday.
“I think the biggest thing is not putting to much pressure on yourself,” he said. “During the course of every round you will face adversity. The rounds that have been our best is when we don’t have those two or three holes in a row that we dwell on a shot here or there. If we can focus on 100 yards in and especially chipping and putting, we could be competitive.”
Crawfordsville senior Bailey Mittal is the only returning player from the county who has earned first-team Sagamore Conference honors. Thomas is looking forward to a couple more weeks with the senior leading the Athenians.
“Bailey sets the standard for the Athenians,” he said. “She works hard, competes hard, comes early, and stays after. We’re gonna miss that next year. But we still have two to three weeks to enjoy her competitive spirit and sometimes you don’t have to say much if you’re leading by example.”
The teams will start teeing off both No. 1 and No. 1 at the Crawfordsville Country Club at 10 a.m.
