Tuesday was a day of redemption for Makayla Mellegaard and her Warriors teammates.
The Warrenton junior golfer, like her team, finished strong, earning impressive hardware after the GAC North/Central Tournament, held at Wolf Hollow Golf Club in Labadie, Mo., east of Washington.
Mellegaard finished third individually, while the Warriors took second as a team.
Her 18-hole total of 88 was just three strokes off the lead. Her score of 40 on the back nine, a stretch that included six pars, helped her climb the leaderboard.
“Earning third felt really rewarding,” Mellegaard said. “I’m proud of how I played and happy to see my hard work paid off. It felt great to finish strong and represent my team well. It definitely motivates me to keep improving. Some of my drives definitely stood out to me today. My drives helped set me up for some good opportunities throughout the round. Same with my short game. I was most proud of the shots where I was able to stay confident under pressure and put myself in a good position to finish each hole strong.”
Warrenton Coach Don Huff said that a conversation he had with Mellegaard proved fruitful.
The coach said that it led to a back nine that helped the junior improve her conference tournament score by more than 20 strokes from her sophomore season.
“Makayla had an excellent back nine,” Huff said. “We had a little talk, and she told me she would play well on the back nine, and she did. She was a big part of the turnaround. Finishing third was a great accomplishment. She told me last year she shot 109. So, her hard work and dedication paid off.”
As a team, Warrenton, which dropped a pair of conference matches during the season, performed very well.
The Warriors carded a 396 to finish behind just North Point (376).
Freshman Brooke Wallen won the event, shooting 85, which was one stroke better than Fort Zumwalt East junior Ali Bullock.
After Mellegaard, Warrenton had sophomore Emma Flake shoot a 98, followed by junior Kaitlyn Schulze (101), junior Stella Bingman (109) and senior Sofi Murphy (113).
“We are proud to finish second,” Huff said. “We had been 4-2 in our conference matches and it was nice to move up a spot. I was proud of the girls. Early in the tournament, we were in next-to-last place, and the girls turned it around.”
BOWLING GREEN SOFTBALL 9, WRIGHT CITY 8 – Harper Martin’s first home run of the season and four RBI from Emma Swor weren’t enough as the Wildcats dropped a game on the road.
A walk-off single by the Bobcats Elsie Barton ended the game.
Wright City overcame an early four-run deficit to take the lead before Bowling Green earned the victory. Ava Swaringen suffered the loss.
The Wildcats (8-13) will host Clopton at 5 p.m. Thursday.
WINFIELD SOFTBALL 7, WARRENTON 6 – Brooklyn Young had three hits, including a fifth-inning home run, but the visiting Warriors fell short at Winfield.
Warrenton fell behind 7-1 but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Hannah Gibson suffered the loss for Warrenton (9-8). The team returns to the diamond on Wednesday to host Union at 4:30 p.m.
