By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
With the Topeka City Golf Championships on tap next Monday, four city schools got a tuneup for that event on Tuesday in the Hayden Invitational at Shawnee Country Club.
Washburn Rural senior Lauren Cox shot a personal-record 77 Tuesday to tie for second in Tuesday's Hayden Invitational at Shawnee Country Club. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman senior Elise Eckert shot a 77 to tie for second in Tuesday's Hayden Invitational at Shawnee Country Club. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural was second as a team with a four-person score of 343, while short-handed Seaman was two strokes back in third at 345, host Hayden was fifth at 355 and Topeka West had a pair of individual competitors.
Washburn Rural will enter the city meet at Western Hills as the defending champion while Hayden captured the title in 2023 to end a decade-long run by the Junior Blues and Seaman could be the pre-tourney favorite after the addition of three-time Class 5A state medalist Elise Eckert this fall.
"It should be a fun day next week for the city championship,'' Washburn Rural coach Jared Goehring said. "It will definitely be a competitive round of golf. Obviously, Seaman's proven that they're kind of the frontrunners this year so far so we'll have our work cut out for us, but with a one-day setting you just never know. Anything can happen.''
Rural earned city bragging rights on Tuesday as senior Lauren Cox tied Seaman's Eckert for second place individually with 77s.
Hayden's Izzy Glotzbach and Seaman's Makenna Stuke tied for fourth with 79s while Hayden's Lauren Borjon and Rural's Kailyn Petersen tied for sixth with 81s.
Seaman was without Kaitlyn Frye on Tuesday due to illness.
Rural's Goehring feels like his Junior Blues took another step in Tuesday's tournament.
"We definitely are moving in the right direction,'' Goehring said. "That's a career low for Lauren Cox, so if she continues to do that and we have some stability at the top of our lineup that would be a huge bonus for us moving forward.''
Wamego won the team championship by an 18-stroke margin over Washburn Rural while Wamego three-time state champion Addison Douglas shot a 73 to take individual honors by four strokes.
HAYDEN INVITATIONAL
Team scores
Wamego 325, Washburn Rural 343, Seaman 345, Manhattan 353, Hayden 355, Piper 416, Marysville 422, Tonganoxie 426, Basehor-Linwood 519.
Individual results
1. Addison Douglas, Wamego, 73; 2. (tie) Elise Eckert, Seaman, and Lauren Cox, Washburn Rural, 77; 4. (tie) Izzy Glotzbach, Hayden, and Makenna Stuke, Seaman, 79; 6. (tie) Lauren Borjon, Hayden, and Kailyn Petersen, Washburn Rural, 81; 8. Gentry McIntosh, Wamego, 82; 9. (tie) Jiyeon Kim, Manhattan, and Maizie Nickel, Wamego, 84.
Other Washburn Rural -- 17. (tie) Reese Elliott, 91; 19. Peyton Merrick, 92; 20. (tie) Taryn Jellison, 93; 22. Briley Miles, 94; 23. (tie) Taylor Smith, 95; 25. Ella Taggart, 96.
Other Seaman -- 15. (tie) Chloe Schmidtlein, 89; 28. (tie) Molly Quintand, 100.
Other Hayden -- 20. (tie) Brooke Johnson, 93; 30. (tie) Avery Becker and Kellyn Specht, 102; 40. Maura Tolin, 111; 42. Morgan Johnson, 115.
Topeka West -- 26. (tie) Berlyn Kolean, 98; 48. Lily Bowen, 124.
