With two rounds remaining in the race for this year’s H-DNL girls golf championship, it’s shaping up to be an exciting finish.
The H-DNL girls traveled to McKinleyville on Wednesday for the fifth round of league action at Beau Pre and Del Norte’s Jaylee Keeling posted the low score of the day for the second straight week.
Keeling paced the field with a round of 101, moving her within six strokes of league leader Ingrid Monaghan of McKinleyville.
It was the Del Norte junior’s second consecutive victory after she also posted the low score at Eureka last week.
Monaghan, who won the first three rounds of league play, shot a 108 to place third on the day, but she remains the leader heading into the stretch run of the regular season.
The next best golfer — Arcata’s Sabrina Macdonald — is 25 strokes further back, so it remains a two-horse race for the league title with rounds in Brookings and Baywood remaining.
Macdonald had the second best score of the day on Wednesday with a round of 105 and now holds a three-stroke advantage over teammate Quetzal Heacock for third in the league standings.
Three Arcata golfers — Heacock, Hailey Pepper and Sophia Spetzler — tied for the fourth best score of the day with rounds of 109, giving the Tigers four of the top six scores of the day and another comfortable team win.
The Tigers shot a combined 432, giving them a 23-stroke victory over second placed Del Norte (455).
McKinleyville was next best with a score of 479, followed by Fortuna (509) and Eureka (519).
Arcata now holds an insurmountable 98-stroke lead in the race for this year’s team championship.
Del Norte’s Kalyssa Moodie (112), Arcata’s Shayla Hoffman (113), Del Norte’s Taylor Horner (116) and Eureka’s Matilda Ulrich (117) rounded out the top 10 scores on the day.
Alexa McCall led Fortuna with a round of 120.
Pepper, Moodie and Horner currently sit fifth through seventh in the league standings and in line for all-league selections, with Hoffman just one stroke behind Horner in the race for the seventh and final coveted spot.
The penultimate round of league action will be hosted by Del Norte at Salmon Run Golf Course in Brookings next Wednesday, before the league season concludes at Baywood in Arcata five days later.
