Frontier has strong showing in own tourney
| Tuesday, Sep 07 2010 09:57 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Sep 07 2010 10:49 PM
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Keila Takeuchi of the Clovis West High School golf team shoots onto the green from a sandtrap at Haggerty-North Kern Golf Course on Tuesday. Bakersfield Frontier High School held an invitational tournament
Stockdale High Schools's Abby Marina follows through on a swing during an invitational tournament hosted by Frontier High School at Haggerty-North Kern golf Course on Tuesday.
Frontier's girls golf team is being proactive about its move to the Central Section's Division I.
The Titans, after winning the past two Division II section titles, are moving up with big schools like Clovis West, Stockdale and Clovis North, also moving up from D-II.
So what did Frontier do? Invited a few of its new foes to town for a little early-season tournament. And the Titans showed off their own skills.
There was no team score kept, but the Frontier team of Jordanne Barr and Cami Ullrich won the two-person best-ball tournament Tuesday at the second Frontier Invitational at Haggerty-North Kern Golf Course.
The best-ball contained many of the section's top players. Barr-Ullrich shot a 69 to out-pace Clovis North's Taylor Shweiki-Alanna Loyd and Frontier's Meghan Shain-Tavia Rutherford, who both shot 70. In all, the Titans placed three teams in the top eight.
"I thought we did really well," Frontier coach Tony Bernardin said. "We're Division I now, and we're really pleased that (other D-I schools) had an opportunity to come up here with us."
Bernardin's biggest success Tuesday might have been getting the afternoon to go off without a hitch. The huge tournament included 126 golfers from more than 20 schools and inclued the best-ball and a nine-hole scramble.
"It's got to be one of the biggest tournaments in the state," Bernardin said.
The Stockdale team of Shelby McGowan-Andrea Marquez won the scramble with a 38, beating teammates Aleesha Somani-Amanda Wong, who shot 42, and Ashni Patel-Esha Patel, who carded 43.
In the best-ball, Carly Lux and Nicole Lopez from Ridgeview shot 74 for fourth place, followed by Stockdale's Abby Marina-Kayley In and their 76.
Liberty's Lauren Holbrook-Mallory Wells and Frontier's Shelly Martel-Chandler Bullman both shot 77.
Ashley Sindelar-Bailey Ross of Bakersfield shot a 44 to place fourth in the scramble, followed by: Charlie Baker-Harli Smith, Tehachapi (49); Rudy Praza-Bailee Garland, Tehachapi (50); and Kayli Ryan-Tori Schrock of Liberty and Amanda Piker-Emily Escobar of Frontier (both 51).
While it's still early, Bernardin asks his girls not to worry about their score and to focus on playing well. But for anyone counting, that's eight Titans with top-eight finishes in the two tournaments.
"The big goal is compete at the big level, the section and the state tournaments," Bernardin said. "Each of the girls wants to make it as a team. They want to support each other, and the deal is, you can't just make it with one. They're working together with each other. They're going to ride the ship, and we're all on the same ship."
