McKaig shoots 84, leads Pioneer to Winamac Invite title

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Mia McKaig

WINAMAC — Pioneer senior Mia McKaig shot an 84 to earn medalist honors and lead her team to the Winamac Invitational title at Moss Creek Golf Club Tuesday.

The Lady Panthers shot a 425 and beat runner-up North Judson by 11 strokes.

Among other area teams, Triton shot a 465, Winamac carded a 474, Caston had a 533, and Culver had an incomplete team.

McKaig, a state qualifier in 2024, beat runner-up Sophia Chaffins of North Judson by 13 strokes. McKaig and Chaffins were the only players to break 100.

Pioneer’s Emma Juby was third overall with a 102. Other Pioneer scores included Kendra Hanson’s 107 and Morgan Schlotman’s 132.

McKaig said she has room for improvement in her score.

The tournament enjoyed a unique format in that players’ playing partners were their own teammates instead of players from another team. Pioneer coach Megan Peppers said it was to make it easier for coaches to monitor and help all their players at once instead of having to drive a cart around from hole to hole just checking players out occasionally.

McKaig said it is not necessarily easy playing with familiar faces.

“It felt pretty average, to be honest,” McKaig said. “I had five double bogeys, and then I had three birdies and two more four-foot birdie putts I missed. It was an easy course. It’s a short course, and so I felt a little disappointed with an 84. But I’ve never played in a format we did with having just my own girls. … I felt I got a little distracted too. It felt like practice, so maybe focus wasn’t quite there. But overall, 84 was pretty good just for the conditions today.”

Six girls came out for golf at Pioneer. Peppers said the team win exceeded her expectations.

“We came out here just hoping for the best to play 18,” Peppers said. “This is our first meet of the season, so to play 18 out of the gate is a tough way to go about it, and so I’m really excited for them to start this way.”

Winamac was playing their second 18-hole tournament in as many days after shooting a 497 at the Kankakee Valley Invitational at Sandy Pines Golf Club Monday. Hunter Hines again led Winamac with a 108, Brianna Patton had a 116, Cady Jones had a 119, Marissa Iverson had a 131, and Kandace Kroft had a 133.

Hines is the only returnee from last year. Coach Jeremy Shell said he has good athletes on the team, and the challenge is turning them into good golfers. Right now, the goal is to avoid double pars and to improve on a weekly basis.

“It’s been tough,” Shell said. “A lot of inexperience, so it’s really just trying to get the girls out and get them as many reps as possible and really put them in a competitive setting. Today was big really because when you can play together as a team, as a golf coach, it makes it a lot easier so you teach them a lot of the rules and stuff like that. When you’ve got new girls, you’ve got to throw a lot at them, so it’s very difficult really to get them to retain that stuff. It was a good opportunity as a coach to really work with the girls and see where their struggles are going to be and start to structure practices so we can start to build off that.” 

Shell also acknowledged playing 36 holes in two days is demanding of any high school golfer, especially at the start of the season.

“It’s a big ask, and we talked about that on Friday,” Shell said. “We went over the pace-of-play video. We went over some rules and just some prepped them. Taking an inexperienced group to Sandy Pines is really tough, and that course played hard yesterday, and you would expect that. Greens were fast. But they did well. They hung in there. Really we worked hard mentally preparing them for how difficult these two days were going to be. We made it though.”

Caston’s low scorer was Kylie Reidenbach with a 115. Leah Ehlinger and Audrey Ault each had a 138, Anna Rude had a 142, and Ava Russell had a 144. Reidenbach is the only returnee from last year’s sectional team.

Culver’s lone player was Madison Beach, who shot a 123.

Pioneer hosts Southwood at 5 p.m. Thursday. Both Pioneer and Winamac will travel to the Logansport Invitational at Dykeman Park Golf Course Saturday.

Winamac Invitational

at Moss Creek Golf Club Tuesday (par 73)

Pioneer 425, North Judson 436, Triton 465, Winamac 474, Caston 533, Culver (incomplete team)

PIONEER (425): Mia McKaig 84, Emma Juby 102, Kendra Hanson 107, Morgan Schlotman 132

NORTH JUDSON (436): Chaffins 97, Wright 105, Brown 114, Vessely 120, (Beauchamp 130)

TRITON (465): McKinney 104, Kitch 108, Heckaman 120, Wright 133, (Balsley 138)

WINAMAC (474): Hunter Hines 108, Brianna Patton 116, Cady Jones 119, Marissa Iverson 131, (Kandace Kroft 133)

CASTON (533): Kylie Reidenbach 115, Leah Ehlinger 138, Audrey Ault 138, Anna Rude 142, (Ava Russell 144)

CULVER: Madison Beach 123

WINAMAC EXTRA: Scarlet Browning 138

Top 5 individual scorers: 1. Mia McKaig (PIO) – 84, 2. Sophia Chaffins (NJSP) – 97, 3. Emma Juby (PIO) – 102, 4. Chloe McKinney (TRI) – 104, 5. Avaleigh Wright (NJSP) – 105