Jefferson Girls Golf

Furnish ties for medalist honors at Linn-Mar

Ali Lindo admits she's stubborn.

A lot of golfers would have retired for the day after aggravating a painful knee injury in the middle of their round, but Lindo stayed on the course and limped through the final 11 holes of the Linn-Mar Invitational at Hunters Ridge Golf Course Tuesday in Marion.

Remarkably, the Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior shot an 11-over-par 83 to finish only one shot behind the leaders on a warm, sunny day.

Lindo said she never thought about quitting.

"No. I don't like quitting," she said emphatically, sitting in the clubhouse with an icebag on her right knee. "I had to do that over the summer in a tournament because I got diagnosed with asthma or some kind of breathing disorder, and I just don't like walking off courses."

See? Stubborn.

"Yeah, I'm stubborn in a lot of ways," she said. "That's definitely one of them."

Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior Megan Furnish tied Taylor Roberts and Megan Brewer of Cedar Falls for medalist honors with an 82, but Furnish was not happy with her round. "Not so good," she said. "I played terrible."

Furnish won medalist honors at the CRANDIC meet last week and is 2-for-2 this season at the top of the leaderboard in major events.

Lindo originally hurt her knee in December while participating in show choir at Kennedy. "I was jumping over a box of stairs and I slipped," she said. "I don't know what I did. Neither do the doctors, because they told me nothing was wrong. But if it's hurting, I'm going to go with something's wrong."

Lindo was leaving the seventh green Tuesday when she aggravated the injury.

"I was going down the hill and I slipped, which kind of restarted the pain," she said. "So now my knee hurts and I need to ice it before it swells up again."

She said the knee has bothered her ever since she got hurt in show choir. "Yeah, pretty much," she said. "Whenever I walk too much."

High school golfers can ride a cart between holes, but otherwise they have to walk the course. Hunters Ridge measures 5,090 yards for the women from the gold tees, so she walked roughly two miles Tuesday on the rolling course after aggravating the knee injury.

"I didn't start limping until the back-9, because it started to hurt a ton more," she said. "I didn't have any ice when we came around the turn (after nine holes), so it got worse as the holes went on."

Lindo described a stabbing, throbbing pain. "A little bit of both," she said. "It stabs in the back (of the knee) and then throbs if I don't put ice on it after a while."

Doctors have taken an MRI, but found nothing wrong. Still, it hurts.

"I've been taking Advil pretty much daily to keep the pain away, and I didn't have any in my bag today," she said. "I'll be prepared from now on."

Lindo planned to seek expert advice when she got home. "I'll probably just talk to my dad, because he's a doctor," she said. "I'll just talk to him and see if he thinks anything is wrong. I'll probably just end up icing it for a couple of more weeks."

Lindo finished third at the CRANDIC meet last week with a 75 at Airport National and tied for fourth Tuesday with MJ Kamin of Washington with her 83. She said she's improved significantly from last season when she shot mostly in the high-80's to mid-90's.

"Last summer I played in tons of tournaments," she said.

Lindo was satisfied with her 83, considering she played half the round in pain.

"I could have shot a lot worse. I could have shot better," she said philosophically. "I was trying not to put too much pressure on it when I was walking between holes or between shots, because I wanted to be able to put pressure on it when I actually swung."

The Cedar Falls Tigers, who won the Class 4A state title last year, ran away with the team championship Tuesday with a four-girl score of 335. The Linn-Mar Lions, who placed eighth at the state meet in 2011, finished second at 379. Emma Lorenz led the Lions with a 91.

LINN-MAR INVITATIONAL
At Hunters Ridge
5,090 yards, Par-72

Team Standings

1. Cedar Falls 335, 2. Linn-Mar Black 379, 3. North Scott 419, 4. Prairie 424, 5. Jefferson 428, 6. Waterloo West 437, 7. Kennedy 438, 8. Anamosa 438, 9. Linn-Mar Red 452, 10. Marion 453, 11. Clinton 464, 12. Washington 468.

Top 10 Individuals

1. Megan Furnish, Jefferson,            82
Taylor Roberts, Cedar Falls            82
Megan Brewer, Cedar Falls            82
4. Ali Lindo, Kennedy                     83
MJ Kamin, Washington                83
6. Allison Rolinger, Cedar Falls          84
7. Hannah Hagarty, Cedar Falls        87
8. Lauren Denning, Waterloo West  89
9. Emma Lorenz, Linn-Mar              91
10. Taylor Wade, Marion               92

LINN-MAR BLACK: Emma Lorenz 91, Julie Pople 94, CJ Davis 97, Lauren Coughlin 97, Rachel Thrune 98, Danielle Toy 101.

PRAIRIE: Kerstin Flugum 102, Alyssa Beisker 103, Emily Perrin 105, Konnor Griffith 114, Addy Shaw 121.

JEFFERSON: Megan Furnish 82, Emily Aukes 100, Sarah Tortora 121, Megan Kibby 125, Sammy Seeman 143.

KENNEDY: Ali Lindo 83, Raemi Chavez 115, Sadie Schultz 118, Hannah Harberts 122, Amanda Wiedemeier 124, Breanna Osterkamp 134.

LINN-MAR RED: Taylor Dalecky 102, Alex Dunn 112, Georgia Kolf 119, Jade Hall 119, Kristin Eiles 121, Amanda Shannon 127.

MARION: Taylor Wade 92, Ashley Reed 99, Ashley Ohl 130, Kaitie Connelly 132, Haley Shaffer 172.

WASHINGTON: MJ Kamin 83, Kandis O'Donnell 107, Elizabeth Stanczyk 133, Anna Rohde 145, Kate Nash 148.

Furnish medalist at CRANDIC meet

M.J. Kamin got some funny looks from golfers on the other teams last spring when she competed in junior varsity meets for Cedar Rapids Washington as a freshman.

"It took about five holes before they said, 'Why aren't you playing varsity?,' and then I'd have to tell them the story," she related Wednesday at Airport National.

Kamin lives in the Kennedy school district and open-rolled at Washington, which meant she was not eligible for varsity competition as a ninth grader due to Cedar Rapids district rules.

"It was frustrating at first, but I kind of got used to playing JV," she said.

Kamin showed Wednesday that she's one of the top high school golfers in the Metro area by firing a 74 and finishing second at the CRANDIC tournament.

Jefferson senior Megan Furnish won the meet with a 7-over-par 72 in blustery conditions on the 3,760-yard course in southwest Cedar Rapids. Kamin played in the same group with Furnish and finished two strokes behind.

"I really like playing with her to see how I stack up against her. It's nice to know where I was in the group," said Kamin. "It's really helpful."

Kamin attended Franklin Middle School, which sends about 75 percent of its students to Washington and the other 25 percent to Kennedy. And even though she lives in the Kennedy district, she wanted to join her friends at Washington. Her older brother Grant, a golfer and tennis player, also open-enrolled at Washington.

Furnish, who has signed to play golf at Missouri State, has been one of the premier golfers in the Metro for the past two years. Like Kamin, she also lives in the Kennedy district but open-enrolled as a frosh at Jefferson, where the majority of her friends from Taft Middle School went.

Kamin could challenge Furnish for top honors this season, and so could Ali Lindo of Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

Lindo shot a 75 Wednesday to finish in third place as Metro golfers placed 1-2-3 in a major meet against their peers from Iowa City.

Linn-Mar ran away with the team championship with a steady four-girl score of 326. Julie Pople led the Lions with an 80 and C.J. Davis, Rachel Thrune and Katie Harding all fired 82's to give Linn-Mar a 15-shot victory over Iowa City High.

Furnish had bogeys on three of her first four holes Wednesday morning in the worst of the weather, then settled down. She finished the round with 11 pars and seven bogeys.

Furnish battled problems with her lower back last year, but she's undergone physical therapy and said she feels much better, with only an occasional twinge when she makes a bad swing. "I'm pretty good," she said.

She said she's worked on her "long swing" and swing path since last season, trying to hit the ball further and with more accuracy. "It's been good so far," she said. "I'd like to be consistent in my game."

Furnish said she gained confidence last summer by competing in national junior tournaments and is looking for a successful end to her prep career. She's never qualified for the state tournament and hopes to rectify that omission this spring.

"Hopefully third time is the charm," she said.

Kamin finished her round with one birdie, nine pars, six bogeys and two double-bogeys. One of the double-bogeys came on the par-3 third hole, which is only 122 yards long. She put her drive on the green but four-putted from 15 feet.

"It just kind of got away from me," she said.

If she had two-putted on that hole, she would have finished with a 72 and tied Furnish for medalist honors.

"I felt pretty good today," said Kamin, who carries a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0-scale at Washington. "I was hitting them really well. I just need to be a little bit better on my putting."

Kamin has the same goal as Furnish this year. "I would like to make it to state," she said.

Maybe they'll battle their way to the same destination.


CRANDIC GOLF MEET
At Airport National
3,760 Yards, Par 65

Team Standings

1. Linn-Mar 326, 2. Iowa City High 341, 3. Iowa City West 344, 4. Prairie 351, 5. Kennedy 352, 6. Xavier 360, 7. Jefferson 373, 8. Washington 389, 9. Marion 391.

Top 10 Individuals

1. Megan Furnish, Jefferson, 72
2. M.J. Kamin, Washington, 74
3. Ali Lindo, Kennedy, 75
4. Rachel Stewart, Iowa City High, 80
Julie Pople, Linn-Mar, 80
6. Olivia Ewing, Iowa City West , 81
7. C.J. Davis, Linn-Mar, 82
Rachel Thrune, Linn-Mar, 82
Katie Harding, Linn-Mar, 82
10. Madyson Boardman, Iowa City West 83

LINN-MAR (326): Julie Pople 80, C.J. Davis 82, Rachel Thrune 82, Katie Harding 82, Emma Lorenz 84, Danielle Toy 88.

PRAIRIE (351): Emily Perrin 84, Kerstin Flugum 85, Konnor Griffith 88, Alyssa Beisker 94, Jess Boldt 98, Jenna Niccolls 100.

KENNEDY (352): Ali Lindo 75, Sadie Schultz 91, Hannah Harberts 93, Raemi Chavez 93, Amanda Wiedemeier 104, Breanna Osterkamp 104.

XAVIER (360): Grace Winker 86, Taylor Wertzberger 88, Morgan DeLong 92, Hailey Sojka 94, Lisa Olberding 94, Kara Zwanziger 94.

JEFFERSON (373): Megan Furnish 72, Marissa Fehlhafer 102, Megan Kibby 103, Emily Aukes 96, Sammy Seeman 107, Sarah Tortora 114.

WASHINGTON (389): M.J. Kamin 74, Kandis O'Donnell 102, Elizaberth Stanczyk 103, Sophia Ochs 110, Katherine Wohlers 11, Hannah Bott 121.

MARION (391): Ashley Reed 88, Taylor Wade 91, Heather McGuire 105, Ashley Ohl 107, Kaitie Connelly 115, Haley Shaffer 128.

Furnish shoots 39; Xavier wins meet

Jefferson's Megan Furnish shot a 39 Tuesday to win medalist honors at the Jefferson quadrangular girls golf meet at Jones Park.

Xavier won the team prize by two strokes over Dubuque Wahlert. The Saints were led by Taylor Wertberger's 44. Maddie Bertsch shot a 46.

Kennedy was third and Jefferson a distant fourth. Ali Lindo led Kennedy with a 47.

Teams -- 1. Xavier 192, 2. Dubuque Wahlert 194, 3. Kennedy 207, 4. Jefferson 229

Medalist: Megan Furnish (CRJ) 39. Runner-up: Amy Ihm (DW) 40

XAVIER (192): Taylor Wertberger 44, Maddie Bertsch 46, Grace Winker 48, Lisa Olberding 54

DUBUQUE WAHLERT (194): Amy Ihm 40, Amanda Loeffelholz 50, Marissa Meyer 51, Alex Earles 53

KENNEDY (207): Ali Lindo 47, Sadie Schultz 48, Hannah Harberts 53, Raemi Chavez 59

JEFFERSON (229): Megan Furnish 39, Emily Aukes 60, Megan Kibby 61, Sammy Seeman 69

Linn-Mar girls set record in MVC quad

The Linn-Mar girls golf team set a school record with a nine-hole score of 175 Thursday to win a Mississippi Valley Conference quadrangular meet at Hunters Ridge.

Julie Pople took medalist honors for the Lions with a 39. Linn-Mar won the meet with 175 strokes as Emma Lorenz shot a 44, Rachel Thrune 45 and C.J. Davis 47.

M.J. Kamin of Washington was the runnerup with a 40 and Megan Furnish of Jefferson placed third with a 41.

Team Standings

1. Linn-Mar 175, 2. Iowa City High 185, 3. Washington 225, 4. Jefferson 225 (Washington awarded third place on tiebreaker).

LINN-MAR (175): Julie Pople 39, Emma Lorenz 44, Rachel Thrune 45, C.J. Davis 47.

IOWA CITY HIGH (185): Rachel Stewart 43, Jordyn Theisen 46, Emily Koepnick 48, Katherine VanDerWoule 48.

WASHINGTON (225): M.J. Kamin 40, Elizabeth Stanczyk 58, Kandis O'Donnell 62, Hannah Bott 65, Sophia Ochs 65.

JEFFERSON (225): Megan Furnish 41, Emily Aukes 49, Megan Kibby 67, Erin Kibby 68, Sara Tortora 68.