Batesville 4-peats as sectional champs

PHOTO COURTESY OF BATESVILLE GOLF

A return trip to the IHSAA Girls Golf State Finals is just one round away for Batesville after the Lady Bulldogs dominated on Saturday en route to a fourth-straight IHSAA Sectional Championship at the Greensburg Country Club.

The 11-team sectional has been practically a breeze for the Lady Bulldogs during that four-year stretch. Saturday was yet another example of such a fact as Batesville won by 27 strokes to advance to the regional.

Batesville fired off an 18-hole team score of 315 with Franklin County and East Central also advancing to the regional after carding scores of 342 and 379 to place second and third respectively. Greensburg was fourth at 421 and Shelbyville rounded out the top five with a 440. In regards to remaining coverage area teams in the sectional, Milan finished seventh after scoring a 455 and South Ripley’s 499 put them in ninth place. Jac-Cen-Del was 10th with a 501 and Oldenburg Academy competed but did not field a complete team.

Junior Addyson Weiler won her first individual sectional championship, leading the Batesville crew and the entire leaderboard with a five-over par 75. For a fourth-straight year, teammate and senior Josie Meyer finished as sectional runner-up after carding a 76, winning a scorecard tiebreaker over East Central’s Rowan Pies. The Lady Bulldogs also saw Ava South place fourth on the leaderboard with a 77 and Alexis Gallagher wrapped up team scoring with an 87. Zoey Ahern shot a 97 in a non-scoring round.

Batesville will not be the only coverage area representative at the regional as Milan’s Kayla Walke also advanced to the next round, posting a top three individual score among teams that did not qualify for the regional. Walke would finish up on Saturday with a 99, allowing her to move on alongside Greensburg’s Annie Pumphrey (93) and Shelbyville’s Emmie Higgins (99).

Natalie Prather was next in line for Milan, coming into the clubhouse with a 114 and Grace Bedel was five strokes behind at 119. Kaitlynnn Hicks would finish up scoring for the Lady Indians with a 123 and Chelsie Seaver was a stroke back at 124 in a non-scoring round. South Ripley was led by a 117 apiece by Anna Block and Lily Jones. Emma McCarty shot a 128 and Mady Hicks carded a 137.

Oldenburg’s lone golfer was Claire Walke who wrapped up her season with a 112. Julia Meyer’s 117 led Jac-Cen-Del and teammate Emma Wagner ended with a 126. The Lady Eagles were rounded out by Claire Heilers’ 127 and a 131 from Nautia Williams.

The IHSAA Girls Golf Regional will be held at The Legends Golf Club in Franklin on Saturday with tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m. Other sectionals feeding into the regional include those from Bloomington North, Center Grove and Corydon Central. The top three teams in the regional will advance to the state finals.