NORTH MANCHESTER – A hard, dry and dusty front nine at Sycamore Golf Club was the setting for an early season triangular match as Whitko welcomed in Concord and Wawasee on Thursday evening.

A talented Lady Warrior squad arrived at Sycamore with sights set on getting two victories and left leaving no doubts as to why. Wawasee picked up both wins by comfortable margins, shooting a 181, leaving Concord (203) and Whitko (222) in the dust.

The story of the match was without a doubt the play of Wawasee’s Mikala Mawhorter, who has been swinging the club well the past two matches. On Wednesday Mawhorter took sixth place at the Huntington Invite with an 80, shooting a 40 on both sides. Thursday she led all players with an impressive 37.

Mawhorter was able to secure the only sub-40 score of the match by parring six holes and dropping in for birdie on the par-five number nine.

“Obviously Mikala (Mawhorter) played very well,” remarked Steve Coverstone, Wawasee’s head coach. “She did well for us at Huntington and she came through in our top spot again today. We had some good scores but Mikala played unbelievable.”

While Mawhorter was busy making Sycamore look like a molehill, the other fourteen varsity players on the course were just trying to get over the mountain that they had created with the course’s dusty and rough condition.

Elizabeth Jackson played the number two spot for Wawasee and had a few hiccups on her way to a 44, the second-lowest score of the match. Kylee Rostochak turned in the third-best score on the evening when she signed for a 45. Megan Goralczyk played the five spot for the Lady Warriors, shooting a 55 which would replace Courtney McDaniel’s round for Wawasee’s fourth tally.

“As a team, we have pretty good balance,” Coverstone stated. “55 was the highest score we counted, that was from Megan (Goralczyk) and she played probably even a little bit better than that, the last hole got her. Other than the nine Elizabeth (Jackson) had, she had a good round. Kylee (Rostochak) played good again and Courtney just had an off night.

“We still have to get better. We have seven girls capable of playing varsity for us, it’s a blessing and a curse because you don’t know who will be shooting well on a given night. For now we are happy to be playing well and winning.”

No official junior varsity team score was kept but Kamryn Foy had a fantastic day on the course with a 47 playing JV for Wawasee.

The prospect of having a few extra kids to throw on varsity is one that Whitko would like to have.

The Wildcats (0-2) had ups and downs on Thursday night, but there just was not enough of the ups to keep the team in contention. April Bishop had a nice round going but taking an 11 late in the contest left the talented senior with a 47.

Claire Reiff shot a 53 for Whitko’s second-lowest score. Elizabeth Gensch had some nice shots on the day and would end up signing for a 58. Kirsten Crawford and Aurelia Slusher came in a little higher than they were hoping for as both players tallied a 64.

“We are playing better at the start of this year than we did last season,” said Whitko head coach Bryan Sprunger. “So, we can see an improvement from our last season already. Our goal is to get below 200 and we still have to work for that.

“April (Bishop) had a 47 after getting an 11 on one hole, and that’s obviously not something she will do regularly, her score will be lower. We had a few other girls that had some uncharacteristically big numbers out there, so we aren’t as far off from our goal as it looked tonight, but we still have some work to put in.”

Michaela Searer led Concord with a 48. Elise Boessler (56), Erika Shirley (54), Libby Grill (51) and Olivia Kauffman (50) rounded out the scores for the Minutemen.

Whitko will jump into Three Rivers Conference action on Monday when it takes on Triton and North Miami at Rozella Ford Golf Club in Warsaw.

Wawasee’s match at LaVille on Tuesday has been cancelled but the Warriors will again meet Whitko when the two schools compete against West Noble on Wednesday at South Shore Golf Club in Syracuse. Wawasee is now 3-0 on the season.