Lady Warriors shine at CIC golf tournament
By Lenny Sementi
Makenna Fiscus turned in the best nine hole and eighteen hole rounds of her life on the same day last Monday September 28 en-route to earning medalist honors at the Central Illinois Conference Tournament at Moweaqua Country Club. She wasn’t the only All Conference performer for Warrior’s golf coach Toby Ring. Freshman Zoey Thomason carded a best-ever nine and eighteen hole round as well while playing in her first ever eighteen hole event capturing the sixth and final spot on the all league squad.
“Makenna started off good and continued to play solid throughout her round, even throwing in a couple of birdies early on,” stated the coach. “I think that really helped her confidence and momentum for the rest of the day. We needed her to be the anchor and that is exactly what she did. We’ve talked all year long about just trying to keep the big numbers to a minimum on each hole. That’s what Zoey did most of the day. I think she only had one hole that she had some problems on. Marley didn’t have as bad of a day as she thought. She had two bad holes, but was able to maintain her composure and finish the day very strong helping us win the team race.”
The duo joined with Marley Good, Addisyn Pettry, Isabelle Wilcox and Addyson Ring to secure even more hardware, winning the team title by six-strokes over Shelbyville 416 to the Rams 422. Fiscus two holes on the front nine and then crushed on the back side securing first place thanks to a championship level four hole run that included a par on the long par 5 14th, a birdie on the 15th, another par on the 16th and a birdie two on the 17th. She took 46 strokes going out and shaved off four finishing off the final nine in a best ever 42 all adding up to a career best 88.
“I was feeling pretty good about how I was playing,” Fiscus said. “I was really excited that I was doing so well because winning conference was one of my big goals entering this year.” When asked about her game she stated, “Pretty much all of my clubs were working well that day. I would have a few shots here and there that could have been a lot better but overall I was confident in all of them.”
Thomason was steady throughout shooting a 48 on the front and then settled in after a tough tenth hole to capture sixth place by a stroke. She sank a big putt for a par on the next to the last hole of the tourney that proved to be the difference. Good was just two strokes back, paring the first and fifth on the front and the 18th to take eighth overall. Wilcox fired a 50 on the front thanks to a pair of pars tying with Pettry taking 11th place to round out the scoring.
“It’s really impressive that we won as a team, and that Zoey won all conference as an individual too,” Fiscus said. “Going into this season I wasn’t really sure how we were going to do because we had four girls that had never played golf before in their lives. But they have been putting in the work at practice, and even some on their own and it has obviously paid off.”
Nate Thomason was on fire early making the turn with two pars and a birdie on nine on his card penciling in a nine hole best 41. He pared two more on the back nine but it was not enough as he fell four-strokes short of All CIC accolades. Junior Jayden Gaines was the number two for Ring in the eight-team event taking 21st. He was especially strong late in the round, paring three of the final five holes to shoot a 43 on the back nine. Braden Boyer was the exact opposite of his damage on the front nine playing the first seven holes three over en-route to a 25th place finish for the third place Warriors. Cory Dunn and Landon Banta were the final two scorers for ring combining to deliver four pars while Braydon Gough served as the alternate.
“Thomason, Gaines and Boyer all played well for the boys,” commented Ring. “I think Nate just missed the top ten by one spot and that’s really saying something when you consider Sullivan and St. Teresa occupied eight of them. I think Boyer started off paring four out of his first nine holes and what I liked that was encouraging with Gaines is that he finished really strong. Going into regionals, the boys should have a very good understanding of the golf course in Moweaqua. We’ve played a couple of matches there now and also a few practice rounds. I think they’ll have a very good day,”
