INDIANAPOLIS — Addison Meadows continues to make history.
The Southmont freshman became the first Mountie girls’ golfer to qualify for the state finals in school history with a round of 79 (+7) at Smock Golf Course on Friday afternoon at the Roncalli IHSAA Regional.
Carmel (301) won its 13th regional title, while Westfield (306) and Center Grove (325) all advanced as a team, leaving five individual spots.
When Meadows entered the clubhouse she was tied for third and her 79 held up as the cutline score, tying University’s Becky Williams and Zionsville’s Addison Echeverria for the final three spots.
“Obviously making it to the state for any team or individual is special and extremely tough,” Southmont coach Bill Whalen said. “People have to realize that golf is a one class sport.”
The tough competition didn’t deter Meadows though. She’s had her eyes set on Friday’s round since the start of her high school career.
“It’s a great way to end off the season of my freshman golf year,” she said. “It means a lot to me because I get to go to the state finals as a freshman, which is a big achievement. It was a goal heading into the season actually, I had set my two goals for the season to be under par for a round and to go to state, because I knew I was capable of both. I worked hard and I got there.”
Meadows becomes the first Montgomery County golfer to advance to the state finals since Crawfordsville’s Stormy Staton qualified in 2008. And she did it coming through one of the toughest regionals.
“We shoot 356, which is not a horrible score,” Whalen said of his entire team, who qualified for the regional after placing second at the sectional last Saturday. “Looked like we putted pretty well, so I’m not displeased with it at all. It’s probably going to be in the middle of the pack, and in my opinion, you can look at the state rankings, but this is probably the toughest regional in the state.”
Southmont finished 10th out of 18 teams. Macie Shirk fired an 83, Taylor Grino a 96, Bailey Barker a 98, and Stella Snook a 107.
The Mounties were paired with Carmel, Franklin Community, and Zionsville. In total, there were nine ranked teams in the regional field.
“We played with Zionsville, Carmel, and Franklin Community,” Whalen added. “All very good teams. And for the girls to come out, they played well. And that’s one reason we play in some the tournaments we play in. The Zionsville Invitational, we go over there and know we might get beat up a little bit, but it’s good competition and you have state ranked teams, and when you come into something like this, you’ve already played with them and you’re not intimidated by them.”
The state qualification didn’t come easy for Meadows though.
After a 38 (+2) on the back-nine, the freshman was +3 through five holes on the front, but had back-to-back pars, before bogeying the final two holes of the round.
“I stayed focused by putting all I had into this round to fire a good score to be able to make it,” Meadows said. “I did have a few bad shots, but that is a part of golf. But what I did to not let it get to me was stay confident, and I kept telling myself to not worry about the last shot, because ‘it’s over, you can’t do anything about it’, but take it shot by shot going forward.”
Meadows will join the states’ best golfers at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel for a 36-hole two-day state finals event on Friday and Saturday.
