Lady Wildcats win big
- Updated: May 11, 2016
White Plains repeats as 4A-5A girls state champs in big way, sweeps its four championship events by an average of more than 50 shots
White Plains senior Morgan Prickett checks out the posters her family made after her final high school round in the state tournament Tuesday.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
HUNTSVILLE – Domination.
It’s the only way to describe the way the White Plains girls golf team won its second straight AHSAA Class 4A-5A girls state championship Tuesday.
The Lady Wildcats posted a second-day 241 on the Hampton Cove Highlands course for a two-day total 484 that was a whopping 51 shots ahead of runner-up UMS-Wright.
They counted a 78 from Layne Dyar, an 81 from Hanna Dyar and an 82 from Morgan Prickett. And even though the round didn’t go towards the team score, Lexee Cunningham got them started with a “fearless” 85 that was 13 shots better than her opening-round score.
“I guess the quote would be ‘back to back, baby,’” White Plains coach Marcus Harrell said. “Today is just a roller-coaster as far as emotions go. You’re so excited the girls go back-to-back and you’re also losing two seniors, just proud they’re got to finish on top. … They went out the way they should have.”
Entering the day with a 31-shot lead that took all the pressure off, the goal with potentially bad weather coming was to go as low as they could for as wide a margin as they could get. It wasn’t like intentionally running it up on a defenseless opponent; the Lady Wildcats simply played their game and even if it wasn’t as sharp as usual they were still that much better than the competition.
In their four Grand Slam victories this season – Calhoun County (83), sectionals (40), sub-state (42) and state (51) – they won by an average of 54 shots. The sectionals and sub-state were one-day events.
“There were times we played this year we could compete with college teams,” Harrell said.
“We just go do our thing,” Prickett said. “It’s pretty awesome. Everything we’ve done this season has just blown my mind.”
It was more of the same Tuesday. They would have easily won the 1A-3A tournament and tied for fourth in the 6A-7A event.
“Our goal coming into today was see how many strokes of a lead we could get,” Hanna Dyar said. “We wanted to go big.”
A year ago the Lady Wildcats played the state tournament in honor of Keaten Beam, the teammate they lost in an automobile accident a week after they won the County Championship. Keaten was still very much a part of the team’s thought process this year in addition to sending their two seniors out with out with another ring.
Layne Dyar said she believed the Lady Wildcats worked even harder this year than when they won the school’s first-ever state championship last year. And that’s saying something because they were at the course every day trying to be the best they could be.
“We’re determined every single shot,” she said. “We don’t take shots off.”
CLASS 4A-5A GIRLS
Team scores
White Plains 243-241—484
UMS-Wright 277-258—535
Demopolis 274-296—570
Russellville 304-300—604
Individual Top 10
Grayson Gladden 77-70—147
Anna Reid 76-74—150
Sophie Burks 73-77—150
Layne Dyar, White Plains 79-78—157
Anna Fassnacht 77-82—159
Hanna Dyar, White Plains 82-81—163
Morgan Prickett, White Plains 82-82—164
Abby Stevens, Alexandria 81-82—164
Lauren Gilchrist 81-83—164
Ashton Moore 84-95—179
Others
Lexee Cunningham, White Plains 98-85—183
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