CARTERVILLE, Ill. • Okawville girls golf coach Dave Blumhorst was nearly speechless Tuesday when his Rockets qualified for the Class 1A state tournament.
"The first words I said was: 'This is unbelieveable,'" Blumhorst said.
Okawville qualified for the state championships at Red Tail Golf Course in Decatur pn Friday and Saturday by shooting 369 Tuesday at the sectional tournament at Crab Orchard Golf Club. The Rockets edged Highland (370) by a stroke to claim the state-tournament berth.
"It's very exciting, and it's very nerve-wracking when you see the scores coming in," Blumhorst said. "(It's) unbelievable that it happened all by one shot."
Okawville was third at the Pinckneyville Regional last week. Blumhorst expected Tuesday's sectional finish to be tight. He said he knew Okawville's Kaylyn Fuhrhop, Alexis Lintker, Janel Lake, Kara Schnoeker, Keatyn Meier and Logan Rasch would need to be sharp to survive the 4,997-yard, par-71 Crab Orchard layout.
Nashville won the sectional with a 355 followed by Massac (368), Okawville (369), Highland (370), Eldorado (374) and Althoff (383).
"I'm just happy as heck for our girls," Blumhorst said. "By rights, the top three teams were Nashville, Massac and Althoff. Us and Highland were (Nos.) 4 and 5. That kind of held true to form. I don't think we played great. But we played just good enough to sneak in there. I'm just happy as heck."
The Rockets were led by Schnoeker, who shot 88. Okawville's other scoring rounds came from Lintker (90), Fuhrhop (92) and Lake (99).
"I knew we had it in us," said Schnoeker, a sophomore who recorded the best round of her career on Tuesday. "It's just really exciting to beat Highland by one. Myself, I just did really good on the front (43) and just tried to grind through on the back (45), and like Dave said, 'Don't let a bad hole ruin your round.'"
For Nashville, it was the first sectional championship since 2001. Sophomore Shawn Rennegarbe carded a 7-over 78 (39-39) to lead the way for the Hornettes. Also scoring for Nashville were Natalie Johnson (90), Mollie Borowiak (92) and Maddi May (95). Sara LaBusier had a 118 and Katelyn Morris a 144.
"I didn't have the luck I had (while carding a 69 at last week's regional)," Rennegarbe said. "But that's golf."
Individually, Jessa Handwerk of Harrisburg shot 74 to claim medalist honors. Handwerk was one of 10 individual qualifiers for state play. The other qualifiers were: Taylor Goodley of Eldorado (79), Nicole Johnson of Althoff (80), Heather McDaniel of Pinckneyville (80), Allie Leingang of Columbia (82), Hannah Luckett of Hillsboro (82), Kendra Kessler of Sparta (82) Morgan Maberry of Civic Memorial (84), Abby Bergkoetter of Freeburg (85) and Raechelle Leiken of Vandalia (86).
