CONWAY — Summar Roachell captured Class 7A medalist honors for the fourth consecutive year Tuesday afternoon, but she said she was just as proud of her role as a team player, helping Conway win its first girls title for Coach Janet Taylor.
“At the end of the day, I just wanted to get Coach her first state championship,” Roachell said. “I wanted to win the individual title, but if I didn’t, I would have still been happy as long as the team won.”
Roachell, a senior, did not have to worry about either title. She shot a 1-under 69 Tuesday and finished the two-day event with a 1-over 141 at Conway Country Club.
The Lady Wampus Cats, using the scores of Roachell and freshmen Alexis Mc-Daniel (171) and Logan Tollover (176), finished at 488 after scoring 244 on both days to win the team event by a 36 strokes over Fayetteville, which had its run of seven consecutive state titles end.
Roachell’s medalist award was never challenged. Fayetteville sophomore Anna Grace Lavy shot back-to-back 77s to finish as the runner-up, 13 strokes behind the winner. Taylor Loeb, a freshman from Mount St. Mary, shot 79 Tuesday after an 82 Monday for a two-day total of 161 to finish in third.
Roachell, Lavy and Loeb advance to the Overall tournament at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock next month.
Lavy carded three birdies on Tuesday, two of which came on par 5s.
“This was not exactly my type of course,” said Lavy of the layout that has only three par 5s and measures 5,169 yards from the gold tees. “The hardest thing for me is that I can drive it pretty far and on this course there are not that many holes where I can pull out my driver and then pull out a wood afterwards and hit it straight down the fairway.”
Roachell had trouble hitting greens Monday, but she had no such problems on Tuesday. Roachell started her round with nine consecutive pars, bogeyed one hole and came up with birdies on the 290-yard par-4 10th and on No. 13, a 315-yard par 4.
Lavy birdied two of her final four holes.
“I was talking to my teammates [Monday] night and I told them that we were going to go out there and do the best we can do,” Lavy said. “The outcome is what it is, but I wanted all of us to play as hard as we could and just not give up.”
CLASS 6A
Alford leads again
CABOT — A year ago, Marion’s Brooke Alford easily earned medalist honors and was the difference maker as the Patriots won the Class 6A girls golf state title by 12 shots.
Alford, a junior, has taken the first step toward winning her third consecutive state title, but it is a new team that is making a run at the state championship.
At Greystone Country Club’s Mountain Springs Course on Tuesday, Alford shot an openinground 6-over-par 78 to lead the 6A individual standings by two shots over senior Brooke McMilliam of Sheridan. Also in contention are senior Grace Lile of Benton (82) and senior Olivia Loiacano (83) of Jonesboro.
Greenwood had no one among the leaders but showed balanced scoring that yielded a five-shot lead over Jonesboro in the team standings. Lundon Williams led the pack with a 91. Allie Barnes shot 95 and Katie Latts 99 for the Bulldogs’ 285 total.
Alford has dominated Class 6A the past two seasons. But her lead is just two shots after she posted a 9 on No. 1, her 10th hole of the day.
“That was a rough hole,” she said. “I just hit it left, and it was one of those things that happens in golf.
“I just could never get it on the green and made a 9. But you can’t worry about that. You just have to move on and keep playing.”
McMilliam had double bogeys on her final two holes that wound up costing her a shot at the lead.
The top five teams advance to today’s second round along with the next eight best scores who are not part of the team championship play.
— Jeff Reed
CLASS 4A
Valley View triumphs
GLENWOOD — Sarah Childers shot a 7-over-par 79 to take the individual title and lead Valley View (255) to the team title at the Class 4A girls state tournament at Glenwood Country Club on Tuesday.
“I had no idea I was leading, but I wasn’t thinking about that,” said Childers, a junior. “I was trying to stay focused and do the best for our team.”
Teammate Darah Merritt was second overall with an 81. Peyton Wood shot a 95 and Cassandra Koekemoer came in at 118.
“You had to be on your game,” Childer said. “If you were off a little bit, it would cost you a stroke. But we all stayed with our game.”
Ozark finished second with a 287, led by Cy Ford’s 95. Dewitt (289) took third and Dardanelle (294) was fourth.
— Martin Couch
CLASS 1A
Taylor player wins
MAGNOLIA — When Taylor needed a third player to fill out its golf team, freshman Megan Mc-Mahen picked up the clubs for the first time. Four years later, she’s a state champion.
McMahen posted 16-over-par 88 Tuesday at the Magnolia Country Club, giving her the Class 1A girls individual golf title. Taylor (313) finished two shots behind first-time winner Mount Vernon-Enola in the race for the team title. Shirley finished third at 320.
“I’d played softball before, but golf is nothing like softball,” Mc-Mahen said. “So I adjusted to it just by getting some cheap old clubs and got better over a couple of years. Then I got some new clubs and some lessons and was able to use some of my resources to come out to the country club here and really began to play good golf.”
McMahen won by 10 strokes over Mount Vernon-Enola’s Katherine Bartley, who shot a 46 on the back nine to shoot 98, just ahead of the 99 recorded by Izard County’s Jordan Sherrell.
Bartley, who shot an 87 to win last year’s state tournament, bounced back from a front-nine 52 and teamed with Jessie Bartley and Kendall Leggett to give Mount Vernon Enola the team title.
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/26/2012