Mustangs vault to the top

By STEVE LEE
Published October 11, 2006

2A-12

TRINITY - Emily Van Etten went from district runnerup last season to medalist Tuesday, leading Mitchell to the team title.

The senior lowered her score from last year by seven strokes to shoot 38-34-72 at Heritage Springs. East Lake's Whitney Wenglasz also shot 72, but had 36s on the front and back nines. Van Etten won the tiebreaker, which was the back nine score.

Afterward, a subdued Van Etten was not overly thrilled with her tally.

"I three-putted No. 1 and if I wouldn't have done that I would have been (solely) in first place," she said. "I'm not extremely disappointed, but I should have done better."

For her part, Wenglasz was ambivalent about second.

"I would rather have a playoff, because that's my competitive spirit," she said, "but I'm a little tired."

Mitchell, a district runnerup last year, will be joined at regionals by Palm Harbor University, the defending district champion that finished second, and third-place East Lake.

"I had chills when we started to see the scores put up," Mitchell coach Joe Castellano said. "It's exciting."

Mitchell teammates joining Van Etten at regionals will be her sister, Megan (79), Jackie Sendker (95) and Victoria Kinney (101).

Individually, Tarpon Springs' Elizabeth Gillette, Countryside's Hana Koba and Gulf's Bailey Logan qualified as the top three not on a region qualifier team.

[Last modified October 11, 2006, 01:31:38]