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League championships have been difficult to come by for Clay High School athletes ever since the Eagles left the Great Lakes League to join the Toledo City League in 2003.
The Eagles' girls’ golf team, however, ended seven years of frustration when it claimed its first CL championship on Sept. 30 at Detwiler Golf Course. It was the final opportunity for the Eagles to win a girls golf title in the CL.
Clay is joining the newly-formed Three Rivers Athletic Conference beginning next season.
“It was an awesome experience,” said 12th-year Eagles golf coach Kevin Crosson. “The girls put so much work in during the offseason and during the season. We knew coming into this season that we could have a chance to contend for the City championship. They put a lot of work in, and obviously it paid off.”
Clay finished fourth at the league tournament last year; St. Ursula Academy had claimed the previous four CL titles.
Senior Jennifer Scharer shot a 13-over-par 85 to lead Clay at this year's tournament. The Eagles shot a combined score of 358 to claim the title, followed by St. Ursula (360) and Notre Dame Academy (361).
Clay's Amanda Maze shot an 88, followed by fellow seniors Alexa Orr (90) and Heather Pollauf (95). Scharer, Maze and Orr all finished in the top 10. Clay sophomore Tylor Brummett shot 101 but did not figure in the team standings.
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The Clay golf team — City League champions — first row, left to right: Heather
Pollauf, Santana Allred, Kaitlyn Sheahan, Tylor Brummett, Alexa Orr, Emily
Yoder. Middle row: Courtney Quinlan, Samantha Maze, Jennifer Scharer,
Amanda Maze, Alexis Shafer. Third row: Coach Kevin Crosson, Alyssa Fussell,
Geena Rodriguez, Rachel Orr, Chelsea Heneger, Coach Jeff Martin. Not pictured:
Alyssa Volmar. |
Scharer earned first-team All-CL honors for the second straight season, and she led the Eagles with a 46.78 stroke average for nine holes.
“Jennifer had a nice season,” Crosson said. “She started off playing really well and she kind of hit a rut in the middle of the season, but she came back strong and led us to the City championship. She's a long-ball hitter, one of the longest in northwest Ohio, so she really tries to capitalize on her length.”
Maze and Orr earned second-team all-league honors for the second straight year. Maze had a 47.04 average this season and Orr had a 47.9 average.
“Amanda Maze is similar to Jennifer, one of the longest hitters in northwest Ohio,” Crosson said. “Alexa just grinds it out. She gets every ounce from every swing and just does a good job.”
Pollauf, who had a 52.2 stroke average this fall, was a first-team All-CL performer as a sophomore and a second-team performer as a junior.
“Unfortunately, she didn't get that recognition as a senior, but her score definitely helped the team win the championship,” Crosson said. “Tylor (50 average) is a sophomore this year and did a great job competing against and pushing the seniors. The seniors knew if they took a day off from practice or a qualifying round, Tylor could beat them at their position. I'm looking for big things from Tylor over the next two seasons.”
The rest of this year's Clay squad included senior Alexis Shafer, juniors Rachel Orr and Gena Rodriguez, sophomores Chelsea Heneger and Alyssa Volmar, and freshmen Samantha Maze, Courtney Quinlan, Kaitlyn Shehan, Alyssa Fussell, Emily Yoder and Santana Allred.
The Eagles ended the season with an eighth-place finish out of 16 teams at the Division I sectional tournament at Detwiler.
“They lengthened the course almost 1,200 yards longer than we played at the City tournament,” Crosson said. “Everybody played the same yardage. I don't know if we were coming down from that City League championship high and weren't focused. The girls accomplished what they wanted by winning the City championship.”
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