Panthers leave no doubt in regional win
Strong finish carries Kingwood Park back to state tournament
The target doesn’t bother Kingwood Park.
The reigning Class 5A girls golf champions handled the pressure with aplomb this season, culminating with their 84-stroke win at the Region III-5A tournament last week at River Ridge in Sealy.
They finished 4-under par as a team, shooting a two-day 564.
“We really tried to spend time paying attention to the details, and tried to ride that momentum through another year, and they really responded well,” coach Angela Chancellor said.
Seniors Hanna Alberto and Tori Gatling and junior Ariana Saenz were on last year’s state championship team, which fired a two-day 616 to roll to the 5A title by 36 strokes over second-place Aledo.
They maintained their dominance with the help of freshmen Leah Alberto and Elise Parel.
“They came in from Day 1 and have just followed the example of these older kids, and their work ethic is incredible,” Chancellor said. “They’re always the first ones to practice and the last to leave. It’s been really fun to watch how they all melded together.”
With their help, the Panthers clinched their third consecutive state trip by a much larger margin than last year.
Chancellor said they play better together than any college team she’s seen.
“The kids tune into that, but we never set a number up there,” she said. “It’s more or less take what the golf course gives you and take advantage of whatever we can get out there. We’re trying to make birdies when we can, but we don’t want to be too aggressive, so we don’t make big numbers.
“They have really figured out a way to keep their numbers down and we just don’t have very many big holes, and that makes a huge difference.”
Hanna Alberto and Ariana Saenz are the team’s consistent anchors.
Alberto repeated as the Region III-5A champion for the third straight season, and Saenz won her first district championship two weeks ago in a playoff with Saenz, who won the previous two district titles.
They both shot 69s both days at the district tourney.
“They battle every day,” Chancellor said. “Those two are always trying to get that top spot, and it’s a friendly battle, but they know where the other one is. That whole back nine at the district tournament, I would get, ‘Where’s Hanna?’ and then Hanna would ask me, ‘What did Ariana do?’ It was like a heavyweight boxing match.”
They’re taking a more business-like approach to their return to state, where they expect to contend with some familiar faces in their repeat bid, including Aledo, Vandergrift, Grapevine and Sharyland.
The 5A state tourney is set for April 25-26 at Wolfdancer Golf Club in Cedar Creek.
“They’re respecting these kids who we’re going to see because we don’t get to see a lot of these teams throughout the year, and so we’re trying to follow them, get some scores and see where they are,” Chancellor said. “And pretty much we’ve decided that we can’t control the other teams. All we can control is us, so we’re just going to try to go as low as we can.”