After a season of weather delays and missed matches, the girls golf team finished on a strong note. On Oct. 29, girls golf competed in the district championship hosted by Lake Mary at Debary Country Club. The girls finished in third place and moved to regional championships.
Despite hurricanes and other delays, the team had their most successful season in years, they found themselves in a spot in regionals. On Nov. 5 the girls traveled to Gainesville and played at Hawkstone Country Club to end their season. Isla Saint-Jean was the top performer at regionals with an 85, while Emma Roberts, the top seed who had the lowest round in districts, was one behind Saint-Jean with an 86 in regionals. Adriana Pagán shot 88, Kira Saint-Jean scored a 93 and Gabriella Heina shot a 94 in regionals.
The girls had to make adjustments to prepare for postseason competition, but the highlight of the season was their performance at districts. A huge advantage to the team was that districts were held at Twin Rivers, their home course. Senior and number one seed Roberts, who shot an 88 at districts, enjoyed the home match.
“After conference, all we did was practice that whole week before. We did a few practice rounds because that’s our home course, so we just practiced a lot,” Roberts said.
They placed third with a 361 behind runner-up Lake Brantley (357) and district champion Lake Mary (304).
Heina practiced along with the rest of the team weekly ahead of districts to make sure they were ready to drop low scores, but more than anything, tried to stay focused in the postseason and keep improving.
“I could have done way better but I improved from my [conference championship] score,” Heina said.
At regionals the girls placed ninth with a 352 overall. A highlight of the season was a victory over Lake Brantley, who they tied with during the regular season and lost to at districts.
“My overall season was calm and super fun. I never stressed about the rough upcoming games,” Heina said.
Roberts was happy with the season, even though she did not score her best in regionals.
“I thought I performed okay, I could have shot better,” Roberts said.
However it was the first appearance at regionals for the team in a long time. Head coach Donna Parker is happy with the team’s success.
“It’s a beautiful position, the girls just had great days, and played great in both long and short game,” Parker said. “Everybody had issues now and then but they played great this season.”
