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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
HUNTINGTON –- Rochester’s Kristianna Lingenfelter earned medalist honors at the Three Rivers Conference girls golf tournament at Maple Grove Golf Course Saturday.
Lingenfelter shot an 85 and edged Northfield’s Alex Cartwright by one stroke.
A senior, Lingenfelter made the all-TRC team for the third straight year. She was the lone RHS player to make the all-TRC team, which includes the top 10 players plus ties.
RHS shot a 401 and finished fifth in the eight-team field. (North Miami had an incomplete team, and Southwood does not have a team.) Tippecanoe Valley won the title with a 382.
In addition to Lingenfelter, younger sister Karah Lingenfelter had a 101, Payton Moore had a 104, Kat Rensberger had a 111, and Delaney Barkman had a 127.
Lingenfelter is the fourth sister from her family to win TRC medalist. Karsten Lingenfelter was the medalist in 2013, and Karsten and Kovenant shared it in 2014. Kinley Lingenfelter won the title in 2015 and 2016.
Asked what was working well for her, Lingenfelter said, “Really nothing actually.”
“I started out extremely average, and I was fighting trying to stay below bogey all day,” Kristianna explained. “And I was getting bogey on every single hole, and I got a double-bogey, and I had to even it out with a par and luckily striped that par but then I finished out with a double-bogey again, so I was one-over bogey golf on the front nine.
“And then on the back nine, I started out with a double-bogey. I was just not playing very well. My swing was really bad. But then I got everything together around the last four holes. On hole 15, I almost made eagle, it was three inches from the hole, and I did par-birdie-par (over the last three holes).”
RHS coach Chad Thomas also said the hot finish made the difference.
“She couldn’t get anything really going on the front,” Thomas said of Kristianna. “But then on the back nine, she had a stretch there where she threw some birdies in and really closed it out down the stretch.”
Kristianna said the course has some “odd nooks and crannies.” She said it helped that she knew where the trees were.
She also said she is able to self-correct her swing when things aren’t going well. But she also acknowledged that she must channel her emotions. She said she is like Kinley in that respect.
“It is difficult to correct it, especially if I’m in a bad mental state, like I’m upset or really angry or sad,” Kristianna said. “Then it’s really difficult for me to get the swing to actually flow better. … I’m extremely emotional when it comes to golf.”
Thomas said the team had an “average day.” The season started three weeks after other teams due to a shutdown because of coronavirus exposure.
“401 is about what we’re averaging,” Thomas said. “I didn’t know what the other teams had coming in really to be honest with you. We played a match with Maconaquah and Valley that got rained out, and we were right there with them. And so I knew coming in, we could make a run, but we had to have a really good day. And we had an average day, and Valley had a really good day.”
Because of the shutdown, this was RHS’ first 18-hole tournament of the season.
“I wasn’t concerned fatigue-wise, but mentally holding it together and realizing it’s a marathon when you play 18 and not a sprint at some point,” Thomas said. “So I thought they did overall mentally, they held it together and didn’t get down on themselves too much, and I was proud of them.”
Rochester’s Kristianna Lingenfelter won Three Rivers Conference medalist honors at Maple Grove Golf Course in Huntingon Saturday. She shot an 85 and won by one stroke. Lingenfelter made the all-TRC team for the third straight year.
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