Saint Joseph High School’s girls’ golf team saw its season come to an end at the Indiana High School Athletic Association Regional Tournament at Noble Hawk Golf Links in Kendallville, Ind., on Sept. 16.The Indians combined for 349 strokes, good for sixth place overall. One day earlier, they finished in second place at the Knollwood sectional with 367 strokes.
That sixth-place finish provided an exclamation point for what was a solid season for Lexi Kilcoin and her teammates.
“Junior year had its ups and downs, for sure, but if you look at how far we’ve come by regionals, it was very impressive,” Kilcoin said. “We all dropped at least 10 shots off of our normal scores, especially the younger kids. To see how the freshmen and sophomores improved was amazing.”
Senior, Allison Coyne, led the way with an 85, while Kilcoin shot an 86. Claire Kloska, Rose Veldman, and Katie Kloska all came in with an 89.
“We have a very good team and we all work very hard on our game,” Kilcoin said. “It was very satisfying because we were the only team at regionals that all five girls broke 90. The top four scores are what get you through to state, but all the other teams had at least one girl that was an outlier in the high 90s or 100s.”
Even though Saint Joe did make it to state in 2017, it was a great building block for the 2018 season.
Individually, Kilcoin was pleased with the progress she made throughout the season.
She started off strong as medalist in six of the first eight tournaments. Although Kilcoin hit a bit of a rough patch in the middle of the season she regrouped to contribute to her team’s effort in the postseason.
“I made a lot of progress, especially the first eight tournaments,” she said. “I shot my best score, which was a 38, in our second tournament. Seeing how much I improved was kind of crazy. You don’t realize how much you improve until after you finish a round like that and think, ‘Wow, my scores dropped that much? I didn’t even realize that.’ All that hard work paid off.”
Kilcoin credited her work during the summer tour season for preparing her to start the season on such a hot streak.
With just one season of high school golf left, Kilcoin is more focused than ever to fine-tune her game in an effort to lead the Indians to the state tournament after three straight regional appearances and back-to-back top three individual honors at sectionals.
“Next year we are going to go to state for sure; it’s going to happen,” she said. “We have a very good team coming into senior year. I think for sure we can all break 80. The upperclassmen will definitely break 80 by regionals and the underclassmen will break 85 no problem. I like our chances for 2018.”
After already being chosen as captain for the upcoming 2018 season, Kilcoin understands the importance of teaching the younger players the right way to approach each practice and match or tournament.
“I think being in the No. 1 spot on the team, there’s a lot of pressure and you have to be an example to the younger girls,” she said. “I’ve been told that I’m a natural leader. I know that helping these girls and showing them that the hard work they do now will get them ready for the 2018 season. I want to be that role model and show them that this is where you can be if you work hard.”