ANDERSON — During Saturday’s Lapel girls golf regional played at Edgewood Golf Course, fourth-ranked Columbus North should have come in with a score of 300 after Danbi Kim finished her round with a 75.
However, there was a miscommunication on Kim’s score on one of the holes. Kim told the girl that was keeping her score that she had a 6 on a hole, but the girl wrote down a 4. Once the scorecards were signed and Kim’s score was posted as a 73, the mistake was noticed too late, causing Kim to become disqualified.
It didn’t matter. The depth of the Bull Dogs came through.
After a long wait for scores to come trickling in, North finally began celebrating as its new score of 311 was still good enough to claim its first regional title since 1986.
No. 7 Hamilton Southeastern finished second with a 322. No. 9 Fishers claimed the third-and-final state-qualifying spot with a 326.
“It’s so exciting because it has been a long time since we won (a regional),” said North senior Aubrey Smith, who fired a 77. “Even though we lost Danbi’s score, we were still able to pull through. It just shows how we can pick each other up, and hopefully we’ll do very well at state.”
The medalist honors belonged to Smith’s senior teammate, Holly Anderson, who finished with a 73. Anderson just edged out Hamilton Heights senior and High Point University commit Caitie Gehlhausen, who carded a 74.
“It’s amazing,” said Anderson, who has committed to play at Ball State. “I knew it was going to be tough with some very stiff competition this year, and I was happy with how everything turned out.
“The pressure really helped, and at the end of the season, we all want to improve our averages,” she said. “Alex (Munnicha) shot well today, and Aubrey really wanted to play well today, so I believe that helped them.”
Munnicha scored a 75, which tied with Yorktown’s Reece Malapit and Fishers’ Kennedy Brooker for third place individually. Julia Luken finished with an 86 to round out the the Bull Dogs’ scoring.
“I am so happy for the girls,” North coach Scott Seavers said. “In the past, we came in playing to move on. This year, our mindset this whole time was to come and win. We felt like we could win if we played well, and we did. We’ll celebrate on our way home, but then turn our focus to state.”
Seavers also mentioned the depth of his team helping out in the win.
“Alex and Julia came through for us,” he said. “Alex got off to a decent start with a couple bogeys but then stayed steady and made lots of pars. Julia hit it in the fairways today, and if she keeps hitting fairways and her putts start falling, I believe she will play well next week.”
Columbus East finished the season with a ninth-place finish with a 376. With not a lot of varsity experience on the roster, East coach Troy Buntin saw a lot of potential in his team this season.
“Our goal was to see improvement this year and we got that,” Buntin said. “It’s been up and down. We have our good days and our bad days. We’ll just keep working to get better.”
Zoe Rangel led the Olympians with an 82. Autumn Fateley finished with an 89, Lily Shelp scored a 94, Natalie Ryan carded a 111 and Morgan Harrison finished with a 113.
“I stayed focused on my game,” Rangel said. “My drives were really good, and I felt everything was just connecting. There wasn’t anything failing me today.”
East does not lose any seniors.
“Everyone will know where in their game they need to step up, and that is going to make us more competitive,” Fateley said. “We’ll be improving, and our JV girls will be improving in the offseason, and it is going to open up some more competition for the varsity spots and hopefully that competitiveness can help us improve.”
The Bull Dogs will travel to Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel on Friday for the opening round of the state finals, which will conclude Saturday. If they put up a score like they did Saturday, they likely will be one of the teams in the mix to claim the championship.
“Our goal will be to just play our best and see where we can fall,” Seavers said.
