BOTH, GIRLS AND BOYS EARNED A SPOT IN STATE TOURNAMENT

This has been a a difficult year for both, the boys and the girls teams.

Not until last week, the two best girls on the team, came through together at Weatherford during the regional tournament. Kinsley Hall had a 77 and Kelcee Millican had a 78 and not only were "1,2" individually in the tournament, but also helped their team qualify for the State Tournament.

It is a different story for the boys team, as they only had one player, Logan Gore, who has consistently scored in the 70's or better. The rest usually play in the 80's and 90's, with the occasional high 70's round. And that was the case in the Regional Tournament in Elk City (only Logan Gore scored below 80 both rounds, 75-68 to be exact), however, there was a difference: the team played with heart all the way.

After the first round in the morning, Elk City was 2 behind the last qualifying spot, held at the time, by the Elgin team. Conner DeWitt, who had been playing fairly inconsistent, had an opening 90. Logan Gore had trouble as well and began with a 75, which for him, is not as good. Carter Muncrief had an 83 and Sam Firth had an 89. Colin Dyson opened with an 85, not his best, but again, just slightly above average.

All five boys knew they would have to play better in the afternoon to overtake Elgin, and they sure did! With Carter holding his own and just losing three strokes to the morning round, Logan Gore bettered his 75 by 7 shots and shot a 68; Conner DeWitt bettered his opening 90 by 10 shots and scored an 80, and Colin Dyson did his job by cutting 4 shots off his opening round to score an 81. The result was than they overtook Elgin by 13 shots in the afternoon and won that coveted third spot by 11 shots.

That, my friends, is playing with a lot of heart! Consider that no one gave this group of boys a chance, especially when Heritage Hall, a really good team, was thrown into the 4A Western Regional. Trust me, qualifying the way they did, took a lot of guts and a lot of heart! Congratulations kids!!

TEAM RESULTS (Top three qualified for next week's State Tournament):
1.- Heritage Hall (296-307/603)

"It's hot! I need water!"

2.- Watherford (310-322/632)
3.- Elk City (331-315/346)
4.- Elgin (329-328/357)

TOP FOUR INDIVIDUAL PLAYER (qualify for state tournament even if their team did not)
1.- Quade Cummins (68-71/139) - Weatherford
2.- Logan Gore (75-68/143) - Elk City
3.- Carson Sparkman (73-75/148) - Heritage Hall
4.- Dalton Daniel (73-76/149) - Newcastle

TOP THREE INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE NOT IN A QUALIFYING TEAM:
1.- Colby Engel (74-79/153) - Clinton
2.- Cody Burrows (80-77/157) - Chickasha
3.- Tanner Meraz (77-82/159) - Elgin