The North Central Missouri College Women's golf team traveled to Effingham, Illinois to compete in the first ever NJCAA Central District Championship held at Effingham Country Club. NCMC and Metropolitan Community College also competed for a Region 16 title on Monday and Tuesday. The Pirates finished 3rd in the team portion of the Central District behind champion John A. Logan and Rend Lake but beat out MCC on Tuesday to win the Region.
"Huge thanks to Tim Krouse at ECC and Coach Gray over at Rend Lake for putting together a great District Championship. The course played around 6,100 yards which is the furthest anyone has saw this year so everybody struggled with the length and also getting no roll out because all of the rain the country club got prior to the event. I was very pleased with the attitude the girls brought to the tournament. Far from the girl's best golf but we ended the year on a high note with a few 1st team All Region golfers. Taylor Hileman led the Pirate charge at the tournament with a 36-hole tally of 205 finishing in 9th place in the Central District and earned 1st team All Region recognition. "Taylor really made some good strides for us this year. She doesn't have the splashy length off the tee as some other girls but her short game makes up for that and I'm very proud of the work she put in this year."
Emily Long placed 13th in the Central District with a two-day total of 213 and also earning 1st team All Region. "Emily kind of had a roller coaster year to say the least. Some days her Tee to green was terrific and she would have a few miscues with putting. She was not happy with her scores these past few days but that is from her drive and willingness to compete on a day to day basis. I'm going to miss Emily and Taylor very much and those are two important roles to fill next Fall." Lexi Hutton shot a 215 for the District Tournament and placed 14th and was the 3rd Pirate to earn 1st team All Region. "Lexi put in a lot of work this year and made some changes with her golf swing. She still has ways to go but she has an outstanding work ethic and will put it in a ton of work over the summer to be ready for the Fall. We have not saw the best from her yet and she will be the first to tell somebody that."
Laynie Sweiger rounded out the scoring for the Pirates with a 36-hole score of 237. That score placed her 16th in the Central District Championship. "I'm proud of Laynie for sticking it out this year and having a good attitude all the time. She made a lot of improvements since August and even though the scores weren't ideal as a Coach I am very happy with all of the girls this year. Outside of Lexi we will have a fresh group coming into our program who are hungry and ready to work. We are on the right track with this program and I am already excited for August.