Marauders girls golf defeat rival Panthers
Monache High School girls golf team ended the regular season with a 226-322 win over rival Porterville in Thursday’s East Yosemite League 9-hole match at River Island Country Club.
Monache High School girls golf team ended the regular season with a 226-322 win over rival Porterville in Thursday’s East Yosemite League 9-hole match at River Island Country Club.
“It was a good team win,” MHS head coach Dave Koontz said.
The Marauders’ No. 2 Abby Choi was the meet’s low medalist after carding a 46. Other scorers for Monache (7-3 EYL) were No. 5 Danielle Margosian with 51, No. 3 Katelyn Choi with 52, No. 4 Vanessa Mendoza with 56 and No. 1 Sandra Renteria with 57.
“To me that goes to show you, it doesn’t matter really who’s No. 1 for us and who’s No. 3 for us or who’s No. 5,” Koontz said. “Danielle shot the second best score of the day and she was in the No. 5 slot. So it really is a team. They’ve come together as a team and they’re playing like a team. One of them doesn’t do well, the other one picks her up, that’s what a team does.”
No. 1 Julia Hunter was the low medalist for Porterville (2-8 EYL) with a score of 57. The Panthers other scorers were No. 2 Angela Eugene with a 61, No. 6 Dora Jimenez with 63, No. 4 Vashti Guzman with 69 and No. 3 Aunika Marquez with 72.
“Not our best score but I am proud of our girls’ hard work and dedication,” said PHS head coach David Herrera.
Monache and Porterville are in third and fifth place, respectively, and compete next at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at the 18-hole EYL championship tournament in Tulare. Last season the Marauders tied for the league title after entering the tournament in third place.
“We’ve done it before, we can do it,” Koontz said. “The girls feel good, we’re starting to play our game. We feel confident.”
The Maruaders found their rhythm over the last three weeks after beginning the season with a number of obstacles.
“In any sport, you have to have continuity and they just didn’t have it,” Koontz said. “We didn’t have that early in the season between the death of coach [Tony Grande] and bad days [due to heat waves, fires and bad air quality]. We just couldn’t get continuity because we couldn’t practice. It was a lot of setbacks as afar as practice days and sadness.”
Over the past couple of matches, the team has improved and most notably upset first-place Tulare Western on Monday with a 259-263 victory.’