Franklin’s Lexi Ray chips onto the fifth green during Monday’s regional at The Legends.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
With four of the state’s top nine teams in the field and only three advancing out, Franklin coaches Ted Bishop and Crystal Morse had a formula for what it would take for their team to survive Monday’s regional at The Legends and advance to this weekend’s state finals at Prairie View Golf Club.
The Grizzly Cubs followed the recipe to the letter — and it resulted in their first regional championship in a quarter of a century.
Locked in a tight battle throughout, No. 6 Franklin kept its composure down the stretch and edged No. 9 Batesville, 319-321. Eighth-ranked Center Grove earned the third state bid with a 327, leaving No. 4 Floyd Central (333) as the odd team out.
“This just kind of speaks to their toughness and their resolve,” Bishop said. “We did not get off to a great start, really kind of botched up the second hole, and we were in fourth place at one point middle of the way through that front nine. Our girls, they’re tough mentally. They just stayed out there, ground it out, and this was a total team win.”
Indeed it was. The Grizzly Cubs got what they expect to get from their top three players, with Lexi Ray shooting a 2-over-par 74 (good for fourth on the individual leaderboard), Addi Bright a 78 and Reese Phillips a 79. Needing a solid fourth score to finish the job, they got an 88 from Cassidy Rucker; freshman Mia Hart, meanwhile, came through with a 90, which would have ensured Franklin a win against any of the other three contenders had it come down to a fifth-score tiebreak.
After a rain-soaked weekend, the course played a bit tougher than it normally does; Bishop pointed out that Franklin finished third on this same course last fall with a 317. But after ending a 19-year sectional title drought last week, the Grizzly Cubs were playing with a great deal of self-assuredness and survived everything the day threw at them.
“I think we all just kind of kept up with that momentum coming into today,” Ray said.
Ray closed the door on Batesville’s championship hopes by sticking her approach within about eight feet on the 18th hole and draining a birdie putt to finish out her round.
The Trojans were still on the course when the other three top teams wrapped up, and while they knew by that time a victory was likely out of reach, they did enough to keep their season alive.
“We got the job done as far as advancing; that’s always the first priority,” Center Grove coach Cale Hoover said. “I don’t have any complaints. We bounced back pretty well from the bad holes today; we hung in there.”
Magnolia Miller led the Trojans with a 75, good for fifth individually. Amanda Wallace wound up at 82, with Zoe Land a shot behind at 83. London Dodson rounded out the team scoring with an 87, while Madisyn Bell came in with a 93.
Roncalli’s Ava Wenzel and Izzy Huxley competed as individuals, shooting respective scores of 103 and 104.
Both local advancing teams believe that anything is possible at Prairie View on Friday and Saturday after surviving the regional gauntlet.
“We belong there for sure, and so I’m excited about going and seeing what can happen,” Hoover said of Center Grove, “because I still think we’ve got a chance to get on the podium. I really do.”
Franklin, meanwhile, hopes to just keep riding the wave.
“Winning sectionals, winning regionals? We might as well just go out there and try to get top three at state,” Ray said. “We have the momentum, we have the drive, so definitely.”
