Monday gave Cooper even more confidence headed into next week’s KHSAA girls state golf tournament at Bowling Green Country Club.
The Jaguars were within three strokes of one of the state title favorites Sacred Heart to finish runner-up at the substate tournament at The Willows at Kenton County Golf Courses.
The Valkyries finished 32-over-par as a team in the clubhouse with a 320, the Jaguars at 35-over-par and a 323.
“It was a good bounce back day. We haven’t been our best the past couple of weeks and especially the past few times we’ve gone head-to-head with Sacred Heart,” Jaguars coach Joe Deters said. “We went toe-to-toe with them today and we know we can play with them and today was validation on how this is it should be with them and whoever else is in the mix.”
Cooper’s Eva Maley finished in a tie for first with Sacred Heart’s Keira Yun, both finishing with three-over 75’s. Maley didn’t like the way she played at the Region 7 tournament on The Pioneer Course at Kenton County last week with a fourth place finish, pointed to her mental approach and finished her round on Monday with 13 pars, four bogeys and a birdie.
“I was here to beat the course and not let the course beat me,” Maley said. “Last week I kind of let the course get to me. My attitude wasn’t as strong and let things get to me. Just went in there with confidence today and put it all together with a good attitude.”
Maley forms a trio with Reagan Ramage, who finished third on Monday with a 76 and Kendall Brissey, finishing ninth with an 82 to bring a dangerous team to Bowling Green next week. Ramage shook off an early double bogey and bogey on the fourth and fifth hole to eagle the sixth hole and went three-over the rest of the way.
“We feel we have a really good shot. Today really boosted our confidence as a team,” Maley said. “I like being on a team where there’s good competition between us. If it wasn’t like that, we wouldn’t be as good as a team I don’t think.”
The Jaguars were rounded out by Eva Finke with a 90, Finke finishing tied for 20th and Sydney Koenig carding a 107.
Cooper now heads to Bowling Green with seven tournament wins under their belt this season, including a fourth straight regional title and a runner-up finish at substate. Most teams set a goal to end their season in Bowling Green, not only do the Jaguars have that accomplished, but they’ve got something else in mind too.
“With the experience that we have with four seniors and a junior that we play, we’re going down there to win,” Deters said. “We’ve been and finished fifth twice, third last year. The goal is to win. We hope the experience works for us.”
Maley, Ramage and Brissey are making their fifth straight trip to Bowling Green. The Jaguars finished third as a team last season.
Owen County finished behind Sacred Heart and Cooper to secure the third and final team berth to the state tournament. The Rebels were plus-64. Following them were North Hardin (+89), Mercy (+99), Ryle (+99), Central Hardin (+125) and Bishop Brossart (+128), the Mustangs making their first appearance in a state tournament round in program history.
The next 15 individuals not on the three teams also qualified to compete individually. Bishop Brossart’s Emma Laker (82), Ryle’s Anika Okuda (84), Notre Dame’s Didi Jiradamkerng (90) and Campbell County’s Allison Collins (91) qualified for the NKY golfers.
Three of the four are making a return trip to Bowling Green, Collins with her first state tournament appearance as an individual.
Others to qualify were Pendleton County’s Reese Barlow (79), North Hardin’s AnnaMae Atcher (80), Pendleton County’s Katie Wright (84), Assumption’s Gerrian Ackermann (84), Meade County’s Peyton Bradley (86), North Hardin’s Emma Bellow (89), Central Hardin’s Christin Michael (90), South Oldham’s Avery Suter (90), Mercy’s Samantha Stone (90), DuPont Manual’s Ella Sizemore (91) and Shelby County’s Sofie Morris (91).
Qualifiers will head down to Bowling Green on Monday for a practice round with the 36-hole tournament to follow on Monday and Tuesday. Nine teams and 45 individuals not on those teams will play in the tournament.
TEAM SCORING
Sacred Heart — 320*
Cooper — 323*
Owen County — 352*
North Hardin — 377
Mercy — 387
Ryle — 387
Central Hardin — 413
Bishop Brossart — 416
*= Qualified for state tournament as team
INDIVIDUAL SCORING (TOP 25)
Par 72
Eva Maley, Cooper — 75
Kiera Yun, Sacred Heart — 75
Reagan Ramage, Cooper — 76
Lucy Dunavent, Owen County — 78
Emma Lindemoen, Sacred Heart — 78
Reese Barlow, Pendleton County — 79
AnnaMae Atcher, North Hardin — 80
Andie Baumann, Owen County — 80
Emma Laker, Bishop Brossart — 82
Brooklyn Bohnert, Sacred Heart — 82
Kendall Brissey, Cooper — 82
Anika Okuda, Ryle — 84
Katie Wright, Pendleton County — 84
Geriann Ackermann, Assumption — 84
Grace Vernon, Sacred Heart — 85
Peyton Bradley, Meade County — 86
Emily Stedam, Owen County — 88
Emma Bellow, North Hardin — 89
Avery Suter, South Oldham — 89
Christin Michael, Central Hardin — 90
Ava Finke, Cooper — 90
Didi Jiradamkerng, Notre Dame — 90
Samantha Stone, Mercy — 90
Allison Collins, Campbell County — 91
Sofie Morris, Shelby County — 91
Ella Sizemore, DuPont Manual — 91
For complete scores, visit: https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/9112259254873505491