Carson fifth after first day of regionals

The Carson High girls' golf team finds itself in fifth place after the first day of the Northern 4A Regional tournament at Empire Ranch.

Spanish Springs, led by first-day medalist Katrina Prendergast's 74, shot a 315. McQueen is second at 325, Manogue is third at 330, Douglas is fourth at 342 and Carson was next at 343.

The top two teams and the top five individuals not on advancing teams qualify for next week's state tournament in Las Vegas.

Carson coach Jeff Rispin anticipated that the Senators would shoot a lower score, considering Empire Ranch is a course the girls have played before.

Heather Evans led the Senators with an 82, Megan Justice was next with an 85, Taylor Krupp shot a career-best 87 and Kristen Good shot an 89. Ali Vondrak had a non-scoring 92 and Kahlia Wahpepah had a 103.

"If it wasn't for her last two holes, Heather would have had a career round," Rispin said. "She's going to have to go out and shoot in the 70s today to have a chance (to advance)."

Evans finished triple-bogey and double-bogey otherwise she would have been in the 70s.

The surprise score of the day was turned in by Krupp, whose scores have rarely counted in the play-six, count-four format used for girls golf.

"I figured she'd be in the 90s somewhere," Rispin said. "Kristen is capable of doing a little better here. She is capable of going in the low 80s."

Douglas' Koko Terada shot a 6-over 78, Molly Jordan had an 85 and Emily Gosselin finished with an 89.

Evans and Justice have the best shot at moving on individually, but there figures to be a fierce battle for those five spots.

Reno had three girls in the 80s, Galena had one, Douglas had one and Manogue had two in the 70s and two in the 80s. A lot will depend on who gets the top two team spots.

Top Individuals: 74 - Katrina Prendergast (Spanish Springs); 76 - Trae Jones (Spanish Springs), Sammi Sorensen; 78 - Elise Levy (Manogue), Carly Farthing (Manogue); Koko Terada (Douglas); 79 - Ally Gaskill (McQueen); 80 - Michelle Duan (McQueen); 81 - Kirsten Ortez; 82 - Heather Evans (Carson), Kelsey Roberts (McQueen); 84 - Amanda Scott (McQueen); 85 - Megan Justice (Carson); Molly Jordan (Douglas); 86 - Denise Wilkerson (Reno), Staci Ludwig (Wooster), Rachel Miles (Manogue).