INDIANAPOLIS
Center Grove girls golf coach Cale Hoover has seen his team hover consistently in the middle of the state’s top 10 for the entire season, but he still doesn’t think the Trojans have had their breakout moment yet.
He’s hopeful that it’s about to come at the perfect time.
“I don’t know that I would call it a spectacular year; I think it’s more been steady,” Hoover said. “We’ve avoided the valleys, and we’ve seemed to always be able to put together pretty solid scores … but we haven’t locked in and had a great day where we had four really good scores yet. So hopefully that’s still to come.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe Trojans were solid enough on Saturday to earn a trip to this weekend’s state finals, placing third in a stacked Roncalli Regional at Smock with a team score of 320.
Westfield and Carmel claimed the top two spots at 305 and 310, respectively. Franklin just missed out as a team at 326, but had two players — Ellie Beavins and Ava Ray — make it out as individuals.
Greenwood’s Maura Guilfoy also advanced to state as an individual, shooting an 80 to earn one of the qualifying spots out of the Lapel Regional.
Center Grove got its usual balanced effort, led by a 77 from senior Meg Fosnot. That was the eighth-best individual score of the day.
Fosnot credited her driver and long irons with putting her in a position to score well.
“I was hitting every fairway and just bombing it out there, so it was really nice, she said. “I went over every creek; I never bothered to lay up. Just took my extra yardage and ran.”
Freshman Camille Short was right behind Fosnot with a 78. Lanie DeHaven (82) and Abby Rich (83) rounded out the Center Grove scoring.
Franklin, which finished fourth here for the third consecutive year, was paced by rounds of 76 from Beavins and Ray, who wound up as part of a five-way tie for third overall.
Both players stumbled out of the gate early before settling down — Beavins was 4 over par after six holes and parred her way in, while Ray shot -1 on her last 13 holes after an early triple bogey left her +5 after five.
“I was just telling myself I need to expect to make it,” Ray said. “This can’t be an ‘I hope I make it; maybe I’ll make it.’ I should expect it. I’ve been so close the past two years that I felt like I should expect it at this point.
“Putts started to fall. … By the time I got to hole 15, I knew I was making everything. I knew I was going.”
Grizzly Cub senior Liv Parramore, who was a bit rusty after a two-week quarantine kept her out of last Monday’s sectional and limited her practice time, came in with an 81. Kara Heuchan’s 93 rounded out the Franklin scorecard.
Down at the Washington Regional, Indian Creek sophomore Hannah Emenhiser saw her season come to an end with a round of 88.
The beat will go on, though, for Center Grove, which has been able to lean heavily on its young talent; the Trojans will have two freshmen and a sophomore in the lineup when they tee it up at Prairie View Golf Club on Friday.
Fosnot was impressed with how her team handled itself on what turned out to be a difficult day weather-wise at Smock.
“It went really well, considering we played in a whole bunch of different weather conditions,” she said. “When we first got out there, it was like winter wonderland, and then it became torrential downpour, and then it turned into a whole bunch of wind — and then at the end, it was sunny and nice. So you had to adjust very quickly to all the different conditions.”
With so many underclassmen in the lineup (DeHaven is a junior), Center Grove has good reason to believe that this state trip, its first since 2015, will begin a long run of success.
“We’re so deep, I think we’re going to be starting a trend here, hopefully,” Fosnot said.
“It was obviously something that we talked about from time to time, and it was very much a goal of the group,” Hoover added. “We’re trying to establish expectations that this is what we do every year.”
