Bailey masters par-3s, repeats as sectional medalist, goes 1-2 with Moore
- Val T.
- Sep 24
- 7 min read
Pioneer’s McKaig shoots 82, advances to regional for 3rd straight year
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
LOGANSPORT — A golf team from Rochester High School suffered the tiebreaker blues again at a sectional at Dykeman Park Golf Course Monday.
But unlike the last time, the team’s season will continue.
Thanks to Olivia Bailey and Molly Moore shooting the two lowest scores and junior Lily Chipps shooting a lifetime best score, Rochester shot a season-low 354 and finished second at the Logansport girls sectional Monday.
The host Lady Berries also shot 354 and won the sectional based on the fifth player’s score tiebreaker. Kankakee Valley finished third with a 361 and also advanced to the regional.
Pioneer’s Mia McKaig shot an 82, Tri-County’s Grace Tyler shot an 88, and Rensselaer’s Aubrey Geleott shot an 89 to advance as the three lowest individual scores on non-advancing teams.
McKaig advanced to the regional for the third straight year and will seek a second straight state berth at the Lake Central regional at Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte at 9 a.m. Eastern Saturday.
McKaig will make the trip solo. Pioneer shot a 403 and finished fifth in the field of 10 complete teams.
Among other area teams, Winamac was eighth with a 459, and Caston was 10th with a 521.
Rochester
Bailey shot a 2-over-par 72 to win sectional medalist for the second straight year. With Moore shooting an 81, it also marked the second straight year that Rochester golfers went 1-2 at the sectional.
The circumstances were different however. At the 2024 sectional, Bailey had to beat close friend and teammate Ava Thomas in a sudden death playoff for medalist.
This time, the margin was more comfortable.
Other Rochester scores included Lexi Haughs’ 95, Chipps’ 106 and Audrey Widman’s 122.
The Rochester boys finished fourth at the boys sectional June 6. Pioneer shot the same score they did, but the Panthers advanced to the regional on the fifth player’s tiebreaker and Rochester was only able to get Davis Renie to regional as an individual.
Rochester first-year coach Dan Bailey said he had not talked about winning the sectional with the girls.
“We have never talked about goals as far as winning sectional or winning conference or anything like that,” coach Bailey said. “We have genuinely tried to focus on every single shot and incremental improvement. We just had a little chat here, and I think it hit them because generally in golf, everybody thinks back to the one or two or three shots that they gave away, and I think everyone is kind of thinking about that. But it’s the same for Logansport and KV too. The good news is we get to keep playing for another week.”
Dykeman Park is known for its six par-3s, and Bailey played them the best. She birdied holes Nos. 3, 12 and 16, all par-3s, and recorded a fourth birdie on the par-5 seventh hole.
Bailey was the only player in the field of 54 to birdie Nos. 3, 12 or 16, and she was one of only three players to birdie No. 7.
She said her favorite shot was her tee shot on No. 16, which she put within “10 or 12” feet before sinking the birdie putt.
“The par-3s are long, and the par-4s are pretty short, and there are some short par-5s,” Bailey said of Dykeman Park. “I think on the back nine, what makes it so difficult is that it is very hilly and narrow. So you have to know where to hit it, and you have to hit it straight because there aren’t a lot of places you can go offline and still have a shot at it.”
Bailey will now return to Sandy Pines, a course that she has laid in tatters: She is the two-time defending regional medalist, and she was also the Kankakee Valley Invitational medalist at Sandy Pines each of the last two years.
Moore was the only player in the field to birdie the par-4 fourth hole.
Haughs crushed a drive on the par-5 13th hole and that rolled past the golf cart of the family following in the group ahead of hers and wound up parring that hole.
“She’s been fairly inconsistent,” coach Bailey said. “I made a comment to (assistant coach) Delaney (Barkman) today that over on 13, she hit a drive further than any of our girls. … She hit a drive right down the middle of the fairway further than anybody that went through that hole. So she has the ability to do that. I still think she’s pretty hard on herself. When that space between your ears isn’t 100 percent right, it’s hard to swing a golf club.”
Chipps said her favorite shot was her tee shot on No. 2, where she put her tee shot within 50 yards of the cup on a par-4. She wound up bogeying the hole.
“I feel pretty good,” Chipps said. “I think I could have done better, but it’s still a PR, so it’s fine.”
Chipps said she has been golfing competitively for two years. She had done golf as a “hobby” before then, but after golfing with current Grace College golfer and 2025 Rochester grad Thomas, she joined the team.
“It’s kind of been a love-hate relationship,” Chipps said. “I’ve had my good moments and my bad moments, but it always turns out better, I guess.”
Chipps said she feels herself getting better. She said figuring out yardage for each club has helped her score go down.
Coach Bailey said her improvement is tied to her willingness to accept advice.
“I think it’s been important for her to see some results to get a little bit more buy-in. You know, it’s one thing to have somebody completely change the way you swing a golf club or make suggestions to you. But if someone makes suggestions and you see no fruit from that, it’s awful hard to keep at it. So we’ve made some little tweaks and got her working on some things, and she’s starting to see some success with it, and hopefully that will just snowball, and we’ll just keep moving in the right direction.”
Pioneer
McKaig did not have a birdie but had nine pars, six bogeys and three double-bogeys. She tied for the third-best score overall.
Kendra Hanson added a 98, Selena Johnson had a 110, Emma Juby had a 113, and Kassandra Martinez had a 124.
McKaig said she golfs Dykeman Park “almost every day during the summer” but said that can work against a player if a player knows what the “bad things” are on a course and does them anyway.
“With how I played today, it’s OK, I guess,” McKaig said of her score. “I feel like I was fighting on every hole. Some unlucky things. I literally hit a bug in my backswing on a shot, so when that happens in a round, I guess an 82 is not too bad. As far as going to regionals, I really kind of expected it. So I feel good about it. I’m excited to go back. I love playing Sandy Pines.”
Pioneer won the team title at the Hoosier North tournament nine days earlier. Their sectional score was actually two strokes lower than their conference score.
“400 is about our normal for 18 holes, so we were pretty happy about it,” McKaig said of the team’s score.
Winamac
Hunter Hines, an honorable mention all-conference player, shot a 107 to again lead the Lady Warriors. Cady Jones had a 110, Brianna Patton had a 114, Marissa Iverson had a 128, and Kandace Kroft had a 130.
Winamac has not advanced to the regional as a team since 2021.
Caston
Sophomore Ava Russell was the low Lady Comet scorer with a 123. Kylie Reidenbach, the team’s lone senior, shot a 125.
Hannah Rude added a 136, Alyssa Smith shot a 137, and Leah Ehlinger had a 138.
The 521 was a season-low team score for 18 holes.
Logansport athletic director Brian Strong said during the post-round awards ceremony that Dykeman Park was asked to host the sectional only a month ago and praised course professional Dean Vietti in readying the course on short notice. Strong said that Tippecanoe Country Club in Monticello, the usual host for the sectional, had “issues” related to the weather.
LOGANSPORT SECTIONAL
at Dykeman Park Golf Course Monday (par 70)
Logansport 354, ROCHESTER 354, Kankakee Valley 361, Rensselaer 387, PIONEER 403, Tri-County 420, Twin Lakes 434, WINAMAC 459, South Newton 496, CASTON 521, North Newton (incomplete team), DeMotte Christian (incomplete team)
LOGANSPORT (354): Wilburn 82, Lundy 83, Baker 93, Kranz 96, (Graham 97)
ROCHESTER (354): OLIVIA BAILEY (35-37) 72, MOLLY MOORE (40-41) 81, LEXI HAUGHS (46-49) 95, LILY CHIPPS (49-57) 106, (AUDREY WIDMAN (65-57) 122)
KANKAKEE VALLEY (361): Norwine 84, Capellari 87, Summers 90, Putman 100, (DeBoard 115)
RENSSELAER (387): Geleott 89, Strange 94, Render 100, Kosta 104, (Veldman 122)
PIONEER (403): MIA MCKAIG (45-43) 88, KENDRA HANSON (49-49) 98, SELENA JOHNSON (54-56) 110, EMMA JUBY (54-59) 113, (KASSANDRA MARTINEZ (62-62) 124)
TRI-COUNTY (420): Tyler 88, Northup 99, Dreblow 106, Perry 127
TWIN LAKES (434): Morris 101, Ramsey 106, Woodley 108, Duffey 119, (Finn 121)
WINAMAC (459): HUNTER HINES (56-51) 107, CADY JONES (53-57) 110, BRIANNA PATTON (59-55) 114, MARISSA IVERSON (60-68) 128, (KANDACE KROFT (66-64) 130)
SOUTH NEWTON (496): S. Arrenholz 110, A. Arrenholz 120, Buckley 128, Storey 138
CASTON (521): AVA RUSSELL (59-64) 123, KYLIE REIDENBACH (61-64) 125, HANNAH RUDE (66-70) 136, ALYSSA SMITH (66-71) 137, (LEAH EHLINGER (71-67) 138)
DEMOTTE CHRISTIAN: Peterson 107, Gore 109, Marek 123
NORTH NEWTON: Wagoner 107, Busboom 118, Dortch 126
Medalist: Olivia Bailey (Rochester) – 72
Top 3 individuals on non-advancing teams: 1. MIA MCKAIG (PIO) – 82, 2. Grace Tyler (T-C) – 88, 3. Aubrey Geleott (REN) – 89
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