Emporia senior golfer Hannah Watkins and freshman Amber Mechtley both shot 51 to finish in the top 15 and Emporia finished ninth as a team at Thursday’s nine-hole Newton Invitational.
Watkins bounced back from some driving problems in Tuesday’s Emporia Invitational, where she shot a 58. Across the board, the Spartans improved from Tuesday’s tournament.
“For the most part I thought we fixed some of the things we were struggling with on Tuesday, which is a good sign,” EHS coach Rick Eckert said. “I think mentally we were still not 100 percent; they were not as focused as they should have been.”
“Hannah and Amber did a really good job. They both had some really good holes, they had some holes where they struggled and mentally just kind of lost it for a second, but overall they did a good job.”
Mechtley also led the Spartans on Tuesday, and she continued to impress her coach at Newton. Eckert decided to move Mechtley to play with the No. 2 golfers, instead of playing with the bottom golfers, as she had been.
“She really responded well,” Eckert said. “That tells you a lot about her, the fact that she can focus and step right up there with the girls considered to be some of the best.”
Rachael Clopton and Melissa Heinitz were the other two Spartan golfers to score on Thursday. Heinitz shot a 58 and Clopton shot a 62.
MaKenzie Harder shot a 63 and Kelsey Burenheide shot a 72, but neither score counted toward Emporia’s team score.
“The other girls, it’s one of those things where you start sliding and you’ve got to grab the rope and hold on and we weren’t doing a very good job of that,” Eckert said. “The good thing is they recognize where they’re making errors now and so that’s going to help us as we move on the rest of the season.”
The Spartans finished with a team score of 222. Derby won the tournament with a 187, followed by Andover at 190 and Salina South at 200. Concordia’s Cassie Lowell won the tournament with a 37.
Thursday at Newton Invitation
Team scores
Derby 187, Andover 190, Salina South 200, Concordia 201, Ark City 208, Hutchinson 215, Andale 218, Newton 219, Emporia 222, Winfield 224, Valley Center 236, Buhler 259, Salina Central 275.