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The second-year team earns Mitchell's first trip to state in any sport by finishing second.
By JOHN SCHWARB
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 30, 2001
SARASOTA -- Amanda Moore said the Mitchell girls team mind-set going into the regional tournament was one of quiet confidence.
After all, there's little room to talk or make rash predictions when you're a second-year bunch competing with established teams.
The Mustangs can talk, now.
Monday at Heritage Oaks, Mitchell earned the school's first state-tournament berth in any sport with a second-place finish at the Class 2A, Region 4 tournament. Its team total of 375 held off rival River Ridge (378), Lakewood Ranch (382), district champion Clearwater (395) and Countryside (400).
Sarasota Riverview (328) won the tournament on its home course, also qualifying for next week's state tournament at Pointe West Golf Club in Vero Beach.
"We just expected to go to regionals. I'm so thrilled," said Moore, who led the Mustangs with 89. "We knew we had a chance to (advance). We didn't go in with a cocky attitude. We all just decided to play golf and have fun." Coach Steve Knobl thought that if four players came in under 100, advancing would be possible. He was right when Moore, Christina Beach (92), Laura Reeves (95) and Katie Taylor (95) all kept their scores in double figures on a windy, difficult day. Only Riverview duplicated the feat.
"We were kind of up and down throughout the day. I saw double bogeys and pars," Knobl said. "But I knew we'd get four in under 100." River Ridge continued its solid play, but again Mitchell was its nemesis. The Royal Knights finished four strokes behind the Mustangs at last week's district tournament.
Three Royal Knights broke 100, led by Heather Hagerman's 85.
Brittany Lincicome, a home-schooled student playing for Seminole, won medalist honors with a 70.
She had a three-hole stretch of birdie-eagle-eagle on the par-72, 4,737-yard layout to pull away from Stanford signee Kelly Husted of Riverview, who closed late to finish one stroke back at 71.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- Windy conditions and a tough St. Augustine Nease team figured to be the only things capable of keeping Saddlebrook from claiming the title.
Neither proved to be much of a roadblock.
The Spartans, behind Mariana De Biase's 6-over-par 76, had four top-10 finishes to shoot 318 to win the regional and advance to state. Nease, which won the District 5 title last week in convincing fashion, stumbled to 352, two shots behind second-place Daytona Beach Seabreeze, which also reached state.
"I'm very pleased," Saddlebrook coach Neil Postlethwait said. "I was excited that they came together as a team. They really wanted this. I understood that Nease was a good team so I expected it to be close."
It wasn't.
Five players broke 80 at the par-70 Oak Bridge course and three of them played for Saddlebrook. The defending Class A state runner-up had no trouble with the cool temperatures and 30 mph winds, which made life miserable for many. Mickey Cho and Kelly Froelich, the District 6 champion, each shot 78 while Aya Tonegawa carded 86.
Saddlebrook dominated despite not having a practice round on what is Nease's home course.
Kim Goedecke of Nease reached state by finishing first with 75, but only one of her teammates shot better than 88.
"We're looking forward (to state)," Froelich said. "We can all play better than what we did here."
Citrus, with 403, was fourth. The Hurricanes, who placed second behind Saddlebrook at the district tournament, were led by Christina Mitchell's 86 and Kristin Klauder's 99.
Zephyrhills finished sixth with 455. Sarah Johnson had the Bulldogs' low round with 105.
Wesley Chapel's Hana Young, who qualified for regionals as an individual, tied for sixth with 82. Tara Allen and Alison Frazier of Hernando each shot 88. Crystal River's Morgan Owen finished with 89.
-- KEITH NIEBUHR
GAINESVILLE -- Central's Francesca Gonzalez probably summed it up best for the six North Suncoast golfers in Monday's tournament.
"I didn't play well out there today," she said. "If I could find a rock, I'd go crawl under it."
Lecanto coach Doug Warren would probably not be far behind. Though his team shot better than it did in last week's district tournament, it was still nowhere near the pace of eventual champion Gainesville Buchholz (329), which won by six strokes over Oviedo.
"They did better than they did last week," Warren said. "They seemed to have fun and this is a nice course."
The Panthers were paced by Lisa Lamontagne, who toured the par-72 layout at Meadowbrook Golf Club with a round of 94. She was followed by Erin Fields (97), Stephanie Copple (99) and Tiffany Toy (115) for a total of 404, which put Lecanto last among the eight-team field.
Buchholz and Oviedo clinched berths in next week's 2A state championships in Vero Beach as the top two teams. Lions No. 1 Amanda Smith (77) won medalist honors, besting teammate Sharah Davis by one stroke in a one-hole playoff.
Gonzalez finished third among the group of eight individuals -- 20th overall -- after a round of 92 that put her five strokes off her pace at districts. Gonzalez birdied the par-5 third and par-4 16th holes, but, like many on this day, struggled with her putter.
"Today was an awful round," Gonzalez said. "My putting was really, really bad, and I had some trouble sinking my putts. My iron game was okay, but I have to work on my short game a little bit. The course isn't harder, but the greens are. The ball doesn't go the way the green reads."
The Panthers echoed Gonzalez' troubles.
"I had a horrible round," said Lamontagne, who improved by six strokes over last week. "The front nine I played okay, but the back nine I just lost it. I fixed my iron shots and my drives for the most part. Last week, it was my irons and driving. This week, it was my chipping and putting."
-- CAREY FREEMAN
No North Suncoast boy qualified at the 2A-2 or 2A-4 tournaments Monday.
Springstead junior Mario DeAngelis shot a 14-over-par 42-44-86 to finish tied for 38th at the 2A-2 tournament at Ironwood Golf Club in Gainesville.
Bobby Gates (Gainesville Buchholz) was the individual medalist with 69.
Belleview won the team title with 308.
At the 2A-4 tournament in Bradenton, Mitchell's Kyle Laux shot 85 to finish tied for 10th. Ridgewood's Nick Smith shot 96.
-- TIMES STAFF