SPARKS - It was a huge day for Carson Valley golfers Tuesday afternoon at the NIAA 4A Regional Golf Championships at Red Hawk.
Carson High's girls golf team reached the state tournament for the first time in coach Terry Gingell's eight-year tenure as head coach, and Douglas High's Bethany Wurster won the 4A regional individual title for the third time in four years.
Spanish Springs won the team title with a 36-hole total of 684, including a 338 on Tuesday. Carson was next with a 714, which included a 360 after an opening-round 354. Bishop Manogue was third at 726.
Wurster won the individual title with a 151, five shots better than Tess Jones of Spanish Springs. McQueen's Kelsey Roberts was third with a 159.
"I'm very excited, I thought today was going to be it," Carson's Elayna Shine said after the scores and state qualifiers were announced. "I knew Manogue was having a pretty good day."
And, Carson was up and down most of the day, which led to Shine's comments.
Shine, who shot an 80 on Monday, shot an uncharacteristic 49 on the front side on Tuesday, but rebounded with a 43 on the back nine, including three straight pars. Whitney Nash started with a quadruple bogey, bogey and double bogey and two double-bogeys on par-5s on the back nine, but still managed to shoot a second consecutive 89. Megan Justice had a six-putt green and a four-putt green on back-to-back holes and still managed a second straight 87, which included nine pars. Lindsay Burroughs had three penalty strokes during her round, but still carded a 93 thanks to three pars on her last six holes.
"The key was our focus to post good scores after having some bad holes or a bad nine here and there," Gingell said. "Megan Justice (on) both days came through for us, and that was big."
Indeed. Justice didn't even get to play every match this season, but her game has come around in recent weeks. She shot a 39 on the back nine on Monday, and started with a 40 on the front nine Tuesday.
"I was surprised about it actually," said Justice, who had six pars on the front, including a chip-in at the opening hole. "I shot 39 on the back Monday, but I felt this was better.
"I started refining my swing (recently) so I could be more consistent. I shortened my swing a little, and I'm playing the ball a little more forward (in my stance)."
Gingell credits a gradual maturation process for Justice.
"She understands the importance of keeping the ball in play," Gingell said. "She can hit the ball a long way, and she was enamored by that. She understands that it's OK to hit an iron off the tee. She's learned to play the game. She's improved through the year."
After the chip-in on the opening hole, Justice parred No. 3, the 327-yard par-4. After a bogey on No. 4, a 117-yard par-3, she had pars at Nos. 5, 6 and 8. She bogeyed No. 9. After a double-bogey 7 at the 431-yard par-5 10th, Justice parred the 322-yard par-4 11th.
Then came her two disaster holes.
On the par-3 106-yard 12th, Justice put her tee shot on the green, but didn't finish the hole until she had putted six times. On the 228-yard par-4 13th, Justice put her tee shot in a lateral hazard along the right side of the fairway, but recovered to hit a nice approach shot on the green. Still thinking about her six-putt green, Justice four-putted for a double-bogey.
"I started to get frustrated, and I didn't even take any practice swings (putts)," Justice said. "I wasn't concentrating on my putting (because of the previous hole). I wanted to finish strong for my team, so we could help get the seniors to state.
"Some of the greens were hard to read. I had had trouble with the speed."
She did get back on track with pars on the next three holes.
Nash also got off to a rough start, finding two sand traps on the first hole, leading to the quadruple bogey. A bogey and double-bogey put her 7-over-par after three holes. Three pars over her final four holes on the front made foe a respectable 46 on the front.
Nash sometimes doesn't react well to adversity, a fact she freely admits. This time she kept her composure, and didn't let the tough start get to her mentally.
"I didn't slam my club on the ground or yell," she said. "Other than that first hole, I played OK."
Nash parred four of her final six holes. She had an impressive bogey on the par-3 12th when she hit her tee shot into the water, took a drop, chipped up and then drained about an 8-footer for bogey. She followed with a nice two-putt par on 13, and followed that up with pars on Nos. 15, 17 and 18.
Shine started with four bogeys, added a double-bogey and then a triple-bogey before finishing with three bogeys. She had three three-putt greens.
"Nothing was going right," Shine said. "I wasn't having trouble driving the ball, it was getting on in regulation and putting. I tried to slow down and read everything. I just tried to make one good shot after another."
Shine bogeyed No. 10, but reeled off three straight pars. After two bogeys, she doubled the par-5 16th and then finished double-bogey and par.
Wurster, who shot a 1-over-par 73, had a 3-over-par 39 on the front, but struggled on Nos. 10 and 11, posting a bogey and double-bogey. However she bounced back nicely with a birdie and five pars over her final seven holes.
"I wasn't getting on the greens in regulation," she said. "The wind was quite a bit stronger. It affected me more than I thought it would."
4A Regionals
at Red Hawk-Lakes Course
Team scores - # Spanish Springs 346-338-684; # Carson 354-360-714; Bishop Manogue 363-363-726; Reno 377-363-740; Douglas 380-383-763; McQueen 397-380-777; Reed 384-395-779; Galena 406-394-800.
Individuals - ## Bethany Wurster (Douglas) 73-78-151; T. Jones (S. Springs) 79-77-156; ## Kelsey Roberts (McQueen) 80-79-159; Christina Kralich (S. Springs) 80-82-162; ## Maggie Jones (Manogue) 85-61-166; ## Carly Farthing (Manogue) 86-81-167; Elayna Shine (Carson) 80-92-172 and ## Denise Wilkerson (Reno) 91-81-172; Megan Justice (Carson) 87-87-174; Lisa Bryant (Reno) 91-85-176; Whitney Mash (Carson) 89-89-178. Other Carson scores - Lindsay Burroughs (Carson) 98-93-191; Heather Evans (Carson) 104-92-196; Allie Vondrak (Carson) 100-98-198.
# - Denotes qualified for state as a team
## - Denotes qualified for state as an individual