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Girls golf is the most recent of the sports to be added
to the state tournament list, this happening in 1993.
However, girls in many parts of the state were
participating in interscholastic golf long before this,
and some were doing quite well. The most notable of
these early successes was achieved by the girls golf
team from Ursuline High School in Youngstown. From
1980-1983, the Ursuline girls ran off 53 consecutive
matches without a defeat (52-0-1), including 44
consecutive victories. Both of these marks currently
rank fifth in the nation.
Even though this may be the youngest of the state
tournaments, girls golf certainly does not lack for
tough competition and excitement. While there have been
no ties in the team competition, there have been some
very close scores. One of the more notable of these
occurred on 1999, when Ursuline Academy of Cincinnati
edged out Toledo St. Ursula by just three strokes,
692-695, with Dublin Coffman coming in a close third
with a score of 699. On the other hand, in 2005, Jerome
High School of Dublin crushed the field with a team
score of 695, a full 26 strokes ahead of Cincinnati�s
St. Ursula Academy. In addition to their victory, by
winning the girls team competition in 2005, Jerome High
School also scored a first in state tournament golf by
becoming the only school to ever win both the girls and
the boys (Div. I) state titles in the same year.
The individual competition among the girls at the state
level may be even more intense, and close, than the team
competition. In 1999, Gabby Wedding of Wilmington High
School took medalist honors by defeating Katie Redeker
of Hathaway Brown School (Shaker Heights) in a playoff.
The next year, Ms. Wedding found herself in another
playoff for medalist honors, her opponent being Romi
Irons (what a great golf name) from Dublin�s Coffman
High School. This time luck was not with Gabby, and Ms.
Irons won the playoff and medalist honors.
In 2002, sophomore Carly Truit of Marysville High School
squeaked by Middletown�s Carling Coffing by a single
stroke, 150-151 to claim medalist honors. The following
year Ms. Truit again took medalist honors, but it would
take a two-hole playoff victory over sophomore Emma
Jandel of Dayton Oakwood to secure the victory. In
winning her second consecutive medalist title, Ms. Truit
became only the second girl to do so, the first being
Jessica Belskis of Worthington Kilbourne High School,
who accomplished the feat in 1994 and 1995.
Carly Truit and Emma Jandel were both back in the state
tournament in 2004, Truit going for an unprecedented
third straight title. She again had a close match with
Emma Jandel, beating her by a single stroke, 154-155.
But that 154 score would not be good enough to give Ms.
Truit her third straight medalist title. That honor
went to senior Kathleen Ekey of Walsh Jesuit (Cuyahoga
Falls), who blistered the course for a two-round score
of 146.
Persistence often pays off, and in her third state
tournament it did just that for Emma Jandel, as she
finally grabbed medalist honors with a 153 in 2005,
three strokes better than Kelsey Lindenschmidt of
Cincinnati Ursuline. Ms. Jandel�s story does not quite
end here, however. Dayton Oakwood does not have a girls
golf team, other than Emma, so she had to play
her high school golf on the boys team. Not only did she
play on the boys team, but she was good enough to be
named the team captain. The week before winning
medallist honors Ms. Jandel also won another honor, that
of being named the Oakwood Homecoming Queen. Not a bad
two weeks in the life of a high school senior.
For those of you who like the Fighting Irish of �Notre
Dame,� that name is quite prominent in the girls golf
tournament. Toledo�s Notre Dame Academy (1993-96-98)
and Cincinnati�s Mt. Notre Dame Academy (2002-03) have
between them won five of the 13 state titles in girls
golf. The schools run by the Ursuline nuns of
Cincinnati can also claim a few championships, two for
St. Ursula Academy (1994-97) and one for Ursuline
Academy (1999).
With the intense competition that this tournament has
thus far displayed, there appear to many exciting
tournaments yet to be played in the years ahead by the
lady linksters of Ohio�s high school ranks. |
