Hammond leads New Albany to 5th-straight district title
Mia Hammond felt at home at the Links at Echo Springs during the Division I district tournament on Monday, much as her New Albany girls golf team is familiar with first-place medals and yet another return to state.
Returning to the course where she shot a 65 during the Central District Preview 48 hours earlier, the freshman used a strong start to card a medalist round of 67 and lead the four-time defending state champion Eagles to their fifth district title in a row.
Hammond had four birdies in a row on the front nine and birdied Nos. 10 and 11 on the back to pace New Albany to a team score of 297, 11 shots better than runner-up Dublin Jerome.
“This is honestly one of my favorite courses," Hammond said. "I've played it four or five times now and it sets up really
well for my game. I can typically read the greens pretty well and I play a draw naturally, so it sets up for my shot shape.”
Anna Coccia shot a 74 for the Eagles, followed by Emerson Purcell (77) and Elle Furrow (79). New Albany was 6-over par as a team through four holes and shot 3-over the rest of the way.
The top three teams in the 12-team field and the top three individuals not on qualifying teams advanced to state Oct. 21 and 22 at Ohio State's Gray Course.
Defending state champion Audrey Ryu's 72 paced Jerome. Also scoring were Alexa Prettyman (78), Medha Podhuru (79) and Ellie Ryu (79).
The extra team qualifying berth went to Olentangy, which shot a 315. The Braves, who will be making their first state appearance as a team, were led by Meadow Tian (75), Kimmy Archer (76), Olivia Drankwalter (78) and Navisha Soni (86).
Hilliard Darby came in fourth (330), followed by Canal Winchester (342), Olentangy Liberty (346), Dublin Coffman (348), Granville and Olentangy Orange (350), Grove City (351), Gahanna Lincoln (359) and Watkins Memorial (362).
Individual state berths went to runner-up Bella Anderson (69) from Worthington Kilbourne, Coffman's Ellie Lim (74) and Orange's Skylar Dean (74).