Park Hill, Park Hill South girls golf conference results

Park Hill finished second in the conference tournament Monday while Park Hill South finished one place behind in third.

All Trojans medaled by placing in the top 15. Bailey Warlen won the tournament with a medalist score of 85.

Adrianna Elliott (5th), Sydney Paulak (9th), Jaque Yang (12th), and Josie Stevenson (14th) all contributed for Park Hill and were awarded all-conference honors.

Park Hill South's Lindsey Gile was named first team all-conference, Sydney Sanders was named to the second team, and Ashley Kildow and Laiya Smith were named honorable mentions.

The district tournament is scheduled for October 1st.

FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill Girls Golf

Despite losing their top golfer to graduation, Park Hill girls golf has come into 2012 at a high level in preseason practice. After a summer full of competition, the Trojans’ top three golfers return this fall shooting as if they were in midseason form. State qualifiers senior Bailey Warlen and sophomore Adrianna Elliott, who finished 68th and 33rd respectively at state last year, return along with sophomore letter winner Sydney Paulak. Those three will provide a strong foundation head coach Tari Garner says is pretty impressive.

“Those three are pretty solid at 1, 2, 3,” Garner said. “We’re starting really strong.”

While the Trojans have talent at the top the real story of their team success will be who fills the rest of the varsity spots. The good news for Park Hill is there is plenty of competition with a number of younger players coming into the program with golf experience, something not always a given for incoming freshmen.

“We’re looking for those four and five spots,” Garner said. “I’d really like to have four or five girls shooting for those two spots so they can battle for it. I’d like to be able to rotate kids in so they get that varsity experience.”

With 18 players on the preseason roster, Garner says it’s the first time she’s had a team where everyone is a legitimate contender for either the five spots on varsity or JV. Seniors Rachyl Williams and Darion Peterson all the way down the roster to the team’s only freshmen, Chloe Dailey and Delaney Oehrke, have a chance at competing and will at some point.

Focus on specific pieces of each golfer’s game can range, but after falling short of a conference title last year by just a few strokes, Garner says the entire team will be seeing time on the putting green.

“We’ll work a ton on short game with everyone,” Garner said. “That’s what is going to make a difference with the scores.”

Excelling in putting will not only produce better results, but help them develop as players, which is the area Garner enjoys the most about her job.

“Once they start getting those lower scores, that’s a huge confidence builder,” Garner said. “It’s really fun to watch them grow into themselves.”

Park Hill will host two early matches at their home course, Tiffany Greens, against Winnetonka/Oak Park on August 29th and Kearney on September 4th before traveling to other various courses around the metro for the remainder of the season.

Fall Roundup: Aug. 22 - Aug. 27

Park Hill South Softball
.... went 3-2 in their season opening tournament last weekend in Joplin. They were able to score victories against Bartlesville (9-3) and Neosho twice (12-11, 7-5). They were beaten by McDonald County (2-0) and Carl Junction (5-2). Coach Josh Walker's team was able to make contact and hit the ball pretty well with an overall batting average over .330, but Walker said his teams fielding was an area which needed to improve on. They'll play at Raytown and Winnetonka this week.
 
Park Hill Girls Tennis
The Park Hill girls tennis team started the season off with a 6-3 victory of Liberty last week. Led by top player Suzanne Barth, the number one Lady Trojan in singles defeated Kristen Filardo with an impressive 10-2 before teaming up with doubles partner Anna Karasiewicz to beat Filardo and Cassidy Paul 10-4. They were unable to maintain the hot start against Pembroke Hill as they suffered an 8-1 loss in a poor performance for Park Hill. Barth was able to edge out Pembroke's McCray 10-8 in the top doubles matchup, but McCray was able to exact revenge in doubles when she and teammate Czerwinski downed Barth and Karasiewicz 10-4. They'll host St. Theresa's Academy Thursday in their only scheduled match of the week.

Park Hill Girls Golf
Park Hill girls golf saw high quality results in their first week of the 2011 season. Placing sixth at the Liberty Invitational, Anna Kloeppel and Adrianna Elliott tie for 16th place while Bailey Warlen just a few places behind in 23rd. They capped off their week with a 51 stroke win over Platte County when they shot a team score of 193 compared to the Pirates 244. Adrianna Elliott led Park Hill with a score of 45. They play at Staley followed by a match at Winnetonka and Oak Park this week.

Park Hill South Girls Tennis
Lady Panthers tennis began their season with a 7-2 win over Blue Springs. Top singles player Adele Royle defeated the Wildcats top player with a quick 8-0 victory. Marie Gehrke followed it up with an 8-3 win over Blue Springs number two player. Royle and Gehrke reaffirmed their solid play with an 8-0 victory in their doubles match. They host Liberty and Oak Park in separate matches this week.

Park Hill South Girls Golf
Park Hill South placed third in the large field of 23 teams at the Liberty Invitational last week. Junior Lindsey Gile placed fifth while senior Kelli Mulligan placed ninth out of 89 players. Later in the week they defeated St. Joe Central with a team score of 207 to Central's 220. Gile was a medalist with a score of 46 just eight over par.

GIRLS GOLF PREVIEW: Park Hill looks toward return to state

Peaking at the right time is what every team hopes to when it comes to the end of each season. For the Park Hill girls golf team, the 2010 golf season was one in which they expected to do well, but surprisingly peaked higher than expected as they placed high enough in districts (3rd) to advance to sectionals to finish fourth, just two places short of qualifying the team for state. Despite falling short as a team, they still advanced two individuals to the tournament: then-senior Stephanie Atkinson and then-junior Bailey Warlen. Now a senior, Warlen returns with letter winner and fellow senior Anna Kloeppel for a 2011 season they hope isn’t as much of a surprise.

“Last year we weren’t planning on qualifying (for state) and we almost did, but this year I’d say we have a much better chance,” head coach Tari Garner said. “We’re just looking for that fifth and sixth golfer. We’ve got the top four, but we really need those next two spots to step up really bad.”

The third and fourth golfers Garner is referring to are freshmen Adrianna Elliott and Sidney Pollock, two newcomers who have brought a new sense of competition to the team which will help spur the fight for the final two varsity spots.

“It’s fun to have two freshmen on varsity because it kind of pushes the rest of the team,” Garner said. “That first tournament will be tough as it’s the first as higher schoolers for them, but when we get into the St. Joe and Drumm Farm tournaments we should be scoring really well.”

Still, the Trojans will lean on their senior leadership with Warlen and Kloeppel who have been playing varsity together for several years now and come into the season playing better than ever.

“Both Bailey and Anna’s games are looking really well,” Garner said. “Are both coming in really strong, and better than they finished at the end of last year.”

The team as a whole has focused particularly on their short game in early practice rounds. Although Garner preaches a balanced and rounded out approach to different parts of the game, she believes being comfortable close to the green will be an advantage.

“We’ve been working really hard from about 50 yards and in so they’re really confident with their short game,” Garner said. “I think it’s going to be better this year. We spend a ton of time on that by building in those pressure situations into our practice so they’re not just feeling it during the tournament.”

With the lesson of taking the conference tournament lightly last year in their mind, Park Hill hopes it won’t take a reminder to refocus on their state qualifying goal this year.

“I think coming out of conference not playing our best, and being frustrated, really focused us for districts and sectionals,” Garner said. “You’re always going to have days when you’re not at your best, but I think we’ll have a better chance at being in that top one or two spot this year.”

Experienced Trojan golfers look to postseason

Girls high school golf season can be gone in the blink of an eye. Five weeks is all that separates the first week of match play and the conference tournament. For Park Hill golf coach Tari Garner, it’s been a season that has gone by almost too quickly as she’s coaching one of the most talented teams she’s seen in recent years. The Trojans feature two state qualifiers from a year ago, Anna Kloeppel and Stephanie Atkinson, along with Bailey Warlan, Sam Brunker, and Erica Crainshaw. All are returning varsity players from last year.

“We’ve got a great group of girls with great attitude,” Garner said. “It’s gone so fast.”

After catching up with the team last week during a match with Staley, Garner talked about how she is seeing signs of the team peaking at the right time.

“We’re seeing a tremendous drop (in scores) right now which is telling us we’re doing something right,” Garner said. “On average, we’re in the 80’s and we started in the 90’s.”

While the Trojan golfers have seen their scores drop, Garner hoped a lot of the kinks some were experiencing would be worked out with some practice days the team has coming up.

“I don’t know if it’s pressure or if they have to work more on the range,” Garner said. “I think what we need to do is back off and let them figure it out on their own. We’ll have time this week before conference.”

“I think we know our practice levels need to come up and focus needs to get a lot better,” Kloeppel said.

“I’m trying to not worry as much this year because last year we put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Crainshaw said.

Of course, the short season has been a long time in the making with this group making it a habit of playing and working throughout the summer to come into the season as prepared as possible.

“We worked like crazy this summer and would always have at least one day a week in the summer where we could all work together in addition to our individual time,” Crainshaw said.

“I definitely practiced more this year than in the past,” Kloeppel added.

Although an individual sport, these Park Hill golfers have found improving individually helped their teammates as well, whether it is in practice or getting through a bad round.

“We know what our strengths and weaknesses are, so when we have time we spend it working on those things,” Crainshaw said. “We all build off each other.”

“We all try to help each other so if one of us struggles one day we try to get them through it,” Kloeppel said. “I think when you see one person getting better it motivates you to get better too.”

The conference tournament is this Monday with the district tournament the following week.

GIRLS GOLF PREVIEW: PH golf team returns several top players

The Park Hill Girls Golf team is full steam ahead as they look to start their 2010 season where they ended their 2009 season. Coach Tari Garner knew she had a good team last year, but always thought the 2010 season would be the one to keep an eye on. With all of their top five golfers returning, the Trojans hope to capitalize on a spring and summer full of preparation.

Returning from a team that placed second at conference and fourth at districts are two state qualifiers, Anna Kloeppel and Stephanie Atkinson, along with seniors Erica Crainshaw, Samantha Brunker, and Bailey Warlan. Not only are some experienced varsity players returning, but the entire JV team returns as well, which Garner says is creating some competition within the ranks.

“We have some people who will be battling for that last spot on varsity and pushing each other to get better,” Garner said.

No matter what five golfers Park Hill will go with throughout the season, Garner is seeing some especially encouraging signs of where the team could be at the end of the season.

“We’re shooting scores on our first nine holes below where we ended the season last year,” Garner said. “That’s a really good look and I hope we can continue to get better.”

Going into her fourth season as the head coach, Garner says she has always tried to instill the importance of working hard in the summer leading up to the beginning of practice whether it be taking lessons or actually playing the course.

“This senior class is the first group we’ve seen all the way through,” Garner said. “It’s made a difference and they understand what it takes to really be competitive.”

While Lee’s Summit West will be a competitive force in the conference and an always talented Liberty team in districts, the Trojans main focus going into the early matches of the season is improving their technique and make sure it pays off in the long-run.

“Sometimes the girls have to make changes early in the season because it gets harder to adjust as the season goes on,” Garner said. “Our main thing is to focus on building up so you’re performing your best around the time or conference and districts.”

Panthers, Trojans peaking a right time

Last week at Tiffany Greens Golf Course was a chance to catch up with Park Hill and Park Hill South’s girls golf teams as they competed against each other in match play. It was the second time in a week the two teams faced each other, the first coming the previous Friday when Park Hill won by six strokes at The National. This time the Panthers were able to win the match by a margin of twenty strokes with medalist Stephanie Frailey shooting a 44.

Both coaches were happy with their teams’ progress so far. As the season continues their goal is to lower individual and team scores each time they play.

“We’ve dropped from a 454 to 424,” Park Hill South coach Larry Torgerson said of his team’s improvement from the beginning of the season.

“Sam (Brunker) has improved by 20 strokes,” Park Hill coach Tari Garner said.
With both teams improving, it will come down to two pivotal days, September 28th for the conference tournament at Paradise Point in Smithville and October 5th for the district tournament held at Liberty Hills in Liberty. Unlike many high school sports where standings develop over a season, golf championships are determined in single day tournaments. So while improving is important for teams, it’s all about playing your best golf at the right time.

“It’s whoever shows up to play, but we’ve got a great chance,” Garner said.

The Trojans have had strong play from Anna Kloeppel, Erica Crainshaw, Stephanie Atkinson, and Sam Brunker to start the season. This included an 8th place finish out of a field of 23 last week at Drumm Farm. Before their lose to South, they had yet to lose in match play. Garner is confident in her team’s ability and hopes it pays off in upcoming tournaments.

“We’ve got four players that can all shoot in the 90’s, being consistent and having it all on the same day will be big,” Garner said.

South’s Torgerson feels his team is coming along well. His top golfers include Sarah Shelton, Lindsey Gile, Stephanie Frailey, Kelly Jefferies, and Hillary Schmitz. Gile has been able to continue through a painful torn labrum in her shoulder to play for the Panthers. Last week South competed in the Sedalia Invitational, the course where the state championship tournament is played. Some of the best teams in the state were there to compete in what could be thought of as a practice round. Against the top competition, South finished 11th out of 19 teams. The top 15 scores received medals with scores all under 81. Frailey finished with a round of 88.
“We did really well at Sedalia,” Torgerson said. “There were some excellent teams down there.”

Between now and the quickly approaching conference tournament South will compete in the Notre Dame DeSion Tournament along with a match with Liberty. Park Hill will play matches against Oak Park, North Kansas City, and Winnetonka.

“They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, improving,” Garner said.

“We’re getting lower scores, getting better as the years goes on,” Torgerson said. “That’s the key.”

Park Hill golf team returns several top players

The atmosphere of a girls high school golf practice is different than any other. With rolling hills, green grass, and not a sound in the air, afternoons at Tiffany Greens Golf Course will provide a pleasant setting over the next couple years for what coach Tari Garner hopes are some great opportunities for her team.

After finishing third in the Suburban Conference Red Division last season, one spot behind rival Park Hill South, and finishing in the top-half of all three of the tournaments they played, Garner looks at the upcoming year with excitement and sees the potential to gain the top spot.

“The conference is a little more open this year,” said the fifth year coach.

With a handful of last year’s top golfers returning as juniors and sophomores, this young group will have some time to fine-tune their game. They include all-conference team members junior Stephanie Atkinson (second team), Junior Erica Crainshaw (honorable mention), Junior Sam Brunker(honorable mention), and sophomore Anna Kloeppel (honorable mention). Also returning will be all-conference first team, all-district first team, and state qualifier Paige Loelkes.

Match wins towards the beginning of last season against Oak Park, Winnetonka, and North Kansas City, all district foes, were important in setting a good tone for the rest of the schedule. Their fifth place finish in districts was Park Hill’s best performance since 2005.

“Our district is probably one of the toughest around with Liberty, Kearney, and Park Hill South having good programs,” Garner said.

As their goals are set high, Park Hill has a chance this season to qualify more than one golfer for the state tournament for the first team in recent memory.