Aug. 5—PENDLETON — The smile on her face was evidence enough Pendleton Heights girls golf coach Hilary Slick found the inaugural Pendleton Preview Golf Invitational a huge success.
“I think it went really well. I would have liked to have had nine teams — all from near here — but with schools starting …,” she said at the end of a long day that started — for her — at 4:30 a.m. “It was a good day. The cloud cover helped. It’s getting a little steamy now. Everything was good. I was worried about some (standing) water, but we just marked it. It was a lot of preparation.”
Her efforts were rewarded when Slick’s Arabians — led by freshman Bella Shetterley’s 84 — placed second in the season opener for all nine teams participating with a 374, bettered only by the ranked team that played.
The top three individuals came from the team champion, preseason 14th-ranked Guerin Catholic. Ali Scott had the low score with a 78, followed by her Golden Eagle teammates Sydney Delagrange’s 79 and Sarah Rigg with an 82, leading the way to a team score of 336, good enough to beat the Arabians by 38 shots.
Despite scoring no birdies, Shetterley boasted the fourth-best mark of the tournament. She was consistent, shooting a 42 on each nine, and said she was pleased with how her high school debut played out.
“It felt good. I was a little nervous, though, because it was my first high school match,” Shetterley said.
The lefty’s debut could not have started much better than it did Monday morning.
She made par on five of her first six holes before closing the front nine with a stretch of three holes that were 5-over par as she made the turn at 6-over.
“It played good. I think the greens really helped because they were slower in the morning, but by the end of the day they started drying out,” she said. “It’s kind of easy to adjust. You just have to feel it.”
She recovered to make par on four of the first five holes on the inward nine before closing things out with a double-bogey and three straight bogeys.
“Bella Shetterley played really well. She was a little tired from Adventure Camp,” Slick said. “Maybe I’ll just have her run a mile before we play if she’s going to shoot 82 or better all the time. That would be good.”
The lone starter who returns from last year’s county championship team is Addison Summerall, and she fired an 89 from the second slot in the lineup. With four seniors on this year’s team, Slick said the leadership from the more experienced players will be vital for a fairly young team.
“I think all the seniors really take on that leadership role,” Slick said. “Kaylee Smith helped one of the new girls just the other day. … It’s a good group. They really click together.”
“I’m just making sure they know that if they have a bad round, we’ve all been there and to keep their heads up,” Summerall added. “It is a team sport, but it’s also individual and they need to focus on themselves.”
Claire Bowman’s 99 and Layla Reef’s 102 closed out the PH scoring after Olivia Haugh’s 115 was dropped.
Lapel was third at 383 and was led by 2023 Madison County runner-up and regional qualifier Annabelle Marshall with an 85, good enough for fifth-place overall. The sophomore was followed in scoring for the Bulldogs by Jordi Pilkington with an 89, Claire Humerickhouse with a 97 and Chloe Sasser with a 112.
Pilkington’s score represented a new career best, bettering her previous low score by 13 strokes and — on a day when birdies were hard to come by — featured a pair of birdies.
“Jordi played really well. She had two birdies,” Lapel coach Dylan Crosley said. “She had a couple bad holes, but other than that, her positivity was great and — other than wanting to get done because it was hot — she did really well.”
“I’m going to frame this one,” Pilkington quipped as she held up her scorecard.
Marshall, who shot an 81 at last year’s regional at The Edge, was less than pleased with her round.
She struggled to find the fairway off the tee, yet scrambled well to put herself into position to score. But, at that point, the putter also failed the Bulldogs sophomore.
“I didn’t hit very many good shots, and it’s a short course, a tight course,” she said. “I wanted to play better, but mentally I wasn’t there, and I didn’t keep it together very well.”
“She just needs to practice her putting,” Crosley said. “I saw a couple putts where she missed, and it was her carelessness with the short putts where she just walked up and tapped it. But other than that, she fought through it and played pretty decent today.”
Indianapolis Brebeuf Jesuit followed Lapel at 401 with Hamilton Heights rounding out the top five at 402. Mount Vernon (412), Pendleton Heights-White (423) and Shelbyville (480) completed the lineup.
The second Arabians team was led by Zoe Lawrence at 96, Morgan Bricker at 101 and Kierstin Dujmovich and Smith each at 113.
Pendleton Heights will host Lawrence North next Monday while the Bulldogs will head to Kokomo for an invitational Saturday.
Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.
