South girls win own invitational for first time in 14 years
Aug. 14—Terre Haute South girls golf coach Cara Stuckey remembers 2008, when her own Sloane Engle earned medalist honors with a 79 at Rea Park, being the last time that the Braves captured the team title in the high school's annual Terre Haute South Invitational 18-hole tournament.
Until the 2022 scores were counted Saturday evening.
That's when Stuckey's balanced Braves, with no individuals placing in the top five this time, still outshot runner-up Northview by 10 strokes (354-364) to take home the team championship from Rea Park. South Knox finished third with a 364. Terre Haute North was fifth out of 12 teams with a 386.
South Knox senior Trinity Dubbs earned medalist honors with a 73 and Northview seniors Kyia Fox (80) and Karsyn Kikta (83) placed fourth and fifth respectively. The four scores that counted for the triumphant South "Black" squad were junior Rylee Roscoe at 84, junior Presley White at 86, junior Abi English at 91 and sophomore Gabbie Blakeney at 93.
"I think this is probably the third-best score we've shot here," Stuckey told the Tribune-Star afterward. "So it's been a good day and the weather has been perfect.
"This year, we've been solid as a group of five [counting freshman Avery Cassell], which has been nice. So if someone has an off day, we've had a teammate be able to back 'em up. We've had good leadership from our juniors too."
A year ago, the Braves finished second behind Castle for the team crown.
From the Northview perspective, Fox was pleased with how she played Saturday, although she saw room for improvement.
"I basically just went out there and tried to have fun," she explained. "I had a good group of girls that I played with and just went hole by hole."
Fox said she had three birdies, adding that her driver worked pretty well most of the day.
"My putting might have been probably the roughest part of my game," she admitted. "But it's still early in the season and I can work on that."
Meanwhile, Terre Haute North is under the guidance of first-year coach and former North player Walker Smith, who previously coached the boys squad at South Vermillion.
"We get better every time we show up," he said of the Patriots, whose top score Saturday was a 91 from sophomore Delaney Ferres.
"We started off [the season] in the 400s. . . . Today, we posted a 386. We just keep getting better. We've got a lot of girls who love to play and they're level-headed. They work on their game."
