Lady Pioneers come in second at state championship tournament
TULSA – Vying to become back-to-back state champions, the Stillwater girl’s golf team fell just short Tuesday MeadowBrook Country Club.
The Lady Pioneers came out of Monday with a one-stroke lead, but they knew some other teams would make a run Tuesday. A slight dip in their performance led to a nine-stroke deficit, but they rallied and finished two strokes behind champion Edmond North.
“It was a little too late, but I’m exceptionally proud of these girls and how hard they worked to put themselves in a position to win it,” coach Angela Knott said. “It was quite the feat.”
The weather was perfect Monday and fair for most of the round Tuesday. There was a consistent sprinkle as the Lady Pioneers golfed the back nine, and the rain was “miserable” for the last three holes. But they didn’t let it faze them.
“I’ve had a lot of experience playing in weather like that, and it honestly made it more fun,” senior Amy Reavis said. “It rained really hard there during my sophomore year, as well, and it was more of a mental struggle that year compared to this year.”
Knott knew three of their returners from last year’s state championship team – Reavis, sophomore Maggie Ruby and junior Nikki Pitts – would play well enough to contend again. But Knotts needed a fourth girl to step up. Senior Meredith Baker did just that.
Reavis finished as the individual runner-up, marking the second consecutive year a Stillwater golfer did so. Ruby placed fourth, Pitts placed 11th and Baker placed 28th. Junior Kennedy Reed rounded out the Stillwater lineup, placing 45th.
Reavis put up an even score Monday and shot three over par Tuesday for a two-round total of 147. Ruby carded a 151, Pitts a 157, Baker a 173 and Reed a 184.
Harlow Gregory of Norman North was the individual state champion with a two-round score of 144. Reavis said she avoided looking at the leaderboard throughout the tournament. After sinking a birdie putt on her last hole, she was surprised when her mom informed her of her runner-up finish. Last year, she placed ninth.
“There was a lot less pressure. I just went out and tried to have fun instead of having this mentality that I had to do good and nothing else mattered,” Reavis said. “It was more about enjoying the moment.”
Knott said Reavis is a special golfer and has believed that since Reavis was a sixth-grader: her knowledge of the game, her contact with the ball and scoring in junior high tournaments.
“Kids who put in so much time at that age to perfect their game don’t come around very often,” Knott said. “A lot of it goes back to her dad, Brandon Reavis, who has been our assistant coach for the last three years.”
Knott said that not just Reavis’ support system, but the entire team’s from families to Stillwater Country Club and Lakeside Memorial Golf Course is a big reason for the program’s success over the past few years.
“We hope that we can keep getting girls in,” Knott said. “A lot of it is those girls wanting to put the time and effort in to be really good golfers. You have to spend a lot of time on the golf course, the putting green – getting some of those finesse skills down – and I hope that’s something we see for a long time in the future.”
