Submitted photo – The Arcata girls golf team at Monday’s Helen Linfield Tournament.
The Arcata girls golf team took a break from league play this week to compete at the Helen Linfield Tournament hosted by Red Bluff on Monday.
And the Tigers continued to roll with one of their best performances of the season.
Arcata placed third in hot conditions, behind top-placed Salinas, which won for the second straight year, and second-placed Foothill.
“I thought they did extremely well,” head coach Troy Ghisetti said. “It’s a beautiful course, but it’s a little tough, so they did good.”
The Arcata girls travel over on Sunday and played a practice round before taking the course for the tournament in 99 degrees on Monday.
The heat, however, did not appear to have too much of an effect on senior Madyson Nelson, who continued her impressive season with another strong outing.
The H-DNL leader shot a 46 over the first nine and finished with a round of 97 to pace the Tigers.
Fellow senior Lily Cunningham also enjoyed a good round and had the second best team score of the day, carding a 109.
Lucia Hernandez, who is currently tied for third in the league standings, had the third-best Arcata score of the day with a round of 112, followed by teammates Toni Diaz with a 117, Ashlynn Bowen with a 124 and Julie Omaha with a 136.
The team total was the second lowest of the season for the Tigers.
The Arcata girls will return to league play on Thursday when they play at Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville for the second time this season.
Nelson currently holds a very impressive 25-stroke lead in the season standings as she looks to close in on a second straight league title.
And Ghisetti believe she will only get better as she continues to develop her mental game, which is such a big part of the sport.
“She’s just got a real fluent swing and she can work her way around the course,” the longtime Arcata coach said. “We’re working on getting her mentally tough and then her scores will really drop.”
The Tigers have dominated the league in recent years and that’s showing no sign of slowing down this fall.
This year’s team features three of the top-seven golfers in the league standings — Nelson, Hernandez and Cunningham — each of whom is on course for all-league honors, while the Tigers have six girls in the top 18.
And they’re a senior-heavy team, with Omaha the only junior in the top six.
“They’re all seniors and they’ve all been together for four years and they get along really well,” Ghisetti said of the group. “They have fun together and they practice well together.
“We have one junior (Omaha) and she fits right in.”
Thursday’s league round at Beau Pre marks the halfway point of league play and the round gets under way at 11 a.m.
