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 South Girls Golf

An impressive season in 2011 for the Park Hill South girls golfers included a 15-1 record, a third place finish at districts, and a team qualification for sectionals. Coming into 2012, the Panthers return three of five from last year’s team and will add to the mix a handful of upperclassmen to fill the gaps for another run at a successful season.

Seniors Lindsey Gile and Savannah Kutz along with junior Sydney Sanders return from sectional qualifications to lead Park Hill South this season. Sanders scored the highest (+27) for the Panthers in the state sectional tournament, which made her just a few strokes shy of a state qualification in 2011. Others in the varsity mix will be seniors Ashley Kildow and Cailin Ballard as well as juniors Kyliegh Keith, Lauren Pusateri, and Abbe Rechstener.

“We have a good group this season. Any of them have a great chance to make the varsity team,” head coach Larry Torgerson said. “I truly cannot project five of the eight players that will be playing varsity. I do know that it will be great to watch their matches!”

Park Hill South is not used to having large senior classes on their golf teams, so even though they will feature a strong class of four, it will be the most they’ve had in the program’s history. With that kind of leadership and experience comes high expectations.

“With a group of successful players this year our expectations will be high,” Torgerson said. “But with golf it is one stroke at a time.”

Playing up a conference as a result of realignment could present a challenge, but one the Panthers are looking forward to meeting head on this fall on the links. They begin the season with a handful of competitions in Liberty on August 22nd, 27th, and 28th before returning home to host St. Joe Central, Lee’s Summit North, and Lee’s Summit West at The National on August 29th.

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 South aims to defend

Park Hill South girls golf, a regular at the top of tournament charts over the years, is back to defend another conference title in 2011. In fact, the Panthers return all of their top varsity golfers from last year’s team for this season. So not only will they be looking to repeat at conference champs, but they’ll look to improve on their sixth place in districts to advance onto sectionals and then a potential state berth as well.

Returning for South this year is junior Lindsey Gile, senior Elizabeth Brown, senior Kelli Mulligan, junior Savannah Kutz, and sophomore Sydney Sanders. Gile, a two-time state qualifier who finished 59th at the state meet with a two-day score of 190, will lead the team as their top golfer. Coach Larry Torgerson, now entering his 22 year in coaching, hopes that in addition to the core group he has coming back, there will be some younger players that can step up and push the rest of the team to improve.

“Hopefully we can develop at least two or three of the younger players can challenge for a varsity spot to create competition within the team,” Torgerson said.

While Park Hill South will be the front runner in regards to the conference outlook, Belton has a young and improving team that could give the Panthers a challenge for the crown. More important for South is the amount of work they’ve put in over the summer playing that they hope will prove advantageous as the biggest tournaments approach at the end of the year. All five players either played in official 18-hole events or put in time to practice through lessons or casual play.

In a cram-packed schedule, the team will have plenty of time to improve and build upon their skills as their schedule consists of over 17 events in the nearly month long regular season leading up to the conference tournament on September 26th.

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 South golf team in transition

A 2nd place conference finish led to a district performance that qualified three of Park Hill South’s golfers for the state tournament last fall. Those three senior golfers along with several other key varsity players have since graduated, leaving head coach Larry Torgerson with a whole new group of girls to coach this season.

“This is a transition for us," Torgerson said. "We’ve got a lot of inexperience so we’re looking to reload."

The sole varsity letter winner returning from last season’s group will be senior Sarah Shelton. Joining her will be seniors who mostly played at the junior varsity level last year including Jansten McBride, Kelly Jefferies, and Hillary Schmitz.

Eighteen players came out for the team this season, which Torgerson said was good because sometimes girls will decide to pursue a different sport after being involved in one for a year.

“It’s mostly a cyclical thing when it comes to the number of players who come out for the team,” said Torgerson of the additions and losses of players from season to season.

Even with a new group of varsity golfers, the Panthers are still looking to compete for the conference title.

“St. Joe Central will be strong, but I think we’ll be competing by the end of the year to have a chance to finish close to first or second,” said Torgerson about the Suburban Big-Six Conference outlook.

Possibly the best way to understand Torgerson’s approach to his team is the way he looks at the sport overall.

“Golf’s a lifetime sport and that’s what we’re here to emphasis," he said.