Tracy finished fourth in the Division I South tournament at Elkhorn Country Club in Stockton Monday. Tracy’s team score of 534 put the Bulldogs right behind St. Mary’s at 518. The Division I South champion is Lodi, which totaled 466, and runner-up is Turlock, 507.
Tracy and West still will be represented at the Masters tournament, with West senior Alice Trisri, who shot 81 on the par-73 course taking third place overall as an individual. Tracy High sophomore Jennifer Kim placed fifth with a score of 85. Also in the top six was Niki Kelly of Tracy, who is a senior on the St. Mary’s team. She shot 82.
Both Trisri and Kim will take their second trip to the section Masters tournament. The Masters tournament is a chance for golfers to qualify for the Nor Cal championship tournament on Nov. 8 at Stockton Country Club.
Trisri said her score represents an improvement over last year, when she qualified with a score of 90 at The Reserve in Stockton.
“I was pretty relaxed today, so I’m pretty stoked to be going to Masters,” she said. “Today it was a lot of my short game, and my approach shots were good, but the rough really got me today.”
This is the second year in a row that both the Tracy and West teams qualified for the Division I South tournament, and Kim, who qualified for Masters last year with a score of 91, said that the young players on this year’s team knew they had a good chance to qualify for the section tournament.
“We were so close, but I have to say, we’re getting better every year. Every year we play we get closer and closer. I’m incredibly proud of how much we’ve achieved,” she said. “Regardless of scores, league and Masters is the highlight of my year because everybody who’s dedicated, you get to show off that hard work you put in.”
Elkhorn Country Club was familiar territory for the St. Mary’s team, the Tri-City Athletic League champions. The Rams have their home matches at the north Stockton course. Monday’s challenge was to negotiate a course that was soggy from recent rains, and had greens that were a lot softer than usual.
“It was really hard in beginning of the day,” Kelly said. “The grass was really wet and we had to club up. Mostly today I was focusing on my putting.”
Other team scores on Monday were: Merced 538, Enochs 548, Beyer 594, and Downey 645. West qualified as a team for the Division South tournament, but had only two golfers at Monday’s event.
The top six individuals were Enochs’ Shawnee Martinez 79, Lodi’s Marissa Hinchman, 80; Trisri, 81, Kelly 82, Kim 85 and Lodi’s Coby Kooyman 90. In addition to the three teams that qualified, the division will send six at-large individuals to Masters, including Martinez, Trisri and Kim. Also going as at-large individuals are Beyer’s Angela Nuccio 92, Merced’s Malina Meza 96 and Downey’s Ariel Walsh 101.
Division V
Kendall Cripe of Millennium High, an at-large player from the Valley Foothill League, shot 94 in the Division V tournament at Dry Creek Golf Club in Galt. Division champion Escalon, 527, moves on to Masters, and Kathleen Rojas, 80, and Esther Rojas, 86, both from Turlock Christian, will move on to Masters, as will Abby McGrew of Woodland Christian.
Division IV
Lydia Nolen of Kimball High, an at-large player from the Valley Oak League, scored 130 on Monday in the Division IV tournament at Stevinson Ranch Golf Club. Union Mine of Placerville, 458, is Division IV champion and moves on as a team to the Masters meet. Cassidy Stelzmiller, 79, Tasha Kubek, 91, and Courtney Thomas, all of Union Mine, were in the top six, and Riley Sexton, second place with a score of 81, and Frances Telles and Jillian Goulart of East Union of Manteca will also move on to the Masters tournament as individuals.
Contact Bob Brownne at 830-4227 or brownne@tracypress.com.
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