I-A SOUTHERN REGION: Cooney’s score good enough to give Crusaders team title

Mark Cheney was at the scorer’s table Tuesday at Boulder Creek when he heard his fourth golfer’s unusually high score.

The Faith Lutheran girls coach quickly jumped into a cart to see how his fifth golfer was doing on the course.

There was nothing to worry about, as Carson Cooney’s score of 107 was good enough to allow the Crusaders to win their sixth consecutive team region title.

The Crusaders finished at 340, 13 shots ahead of second-place Clark. Tech was third with 442. All three teams advance to the Division I-A state tournament, which begins Oct. 20 at Elko’s Ruby View Golf Course.

“We got a nice showing from our No. 5,” Cheney said of Cooney. “Our four-five-six golfers have all been showing improvement over the course of the year. Fortunately, Carson played well today. I knew how she was playing early, so after the front (nine) I was fairly certain we’d be keeping her score.”

Because four out of six girls count towards a team’s score, Carson’s play was key for Faith Lutheran, which fielded an inexperienced group. Cooney was one of four freshmen participating in their first region tournament.

“It’s six (region titles) in a row for this school, but this is a new team,” Cheney said. “We only have one girl back from last year, so it’s a completely new group. We’re not at the level that we were the last couple of years, but we’re also very young. This is the first time for all of them except Julia (Becker).”

Becker led the way, capturing her second consecutive individual region title with a 2-under-par 70. The senior started her day with six consecutive pars and shot par 36 on the front nine on the Eldorado course before finishing 2-under on the back nine on the Desert Hawk course. The Sacramento State commit finished with five birdies.

“It went well,” Becker said. “I had some good holes. I just wanted to put up a good score, hopefully one that was under par. Putting could have been better, but I hit my driver really well. I think I played well today.”

Boulder City’s Lani Potter finished second with a 76, followed by Faith Lutheran’s Sydney Smith (77) and Grace Kang (78) and Cassandra Ho (80) of Clark.

Even after a double bogey on No. 3, Potter was just two strokes behind Becker after the first nine holes. But the freshman, who was playing at her school’s home course, had four bogeys on the back nine, allowing Becker to build her lead. Becker finished with birdies on Nos. 11, 13, 15 and 16.

“She’s always had the athletic ability to shoot these kind of scores,” Cheney said. “She’s always very long, exceptional hand-eye coordination. This year, she’s really shown that ability to focus on the process. It’s very business like. You can just see her maturation.”

Clark, which finished 51 strokes behind Faith Lutheran in last season’s region tournament, gave Faith Lutheran a run for its money. The teams have played close matches this season, as five of their six meets together have been decided by 15 strokes or fewer.

“I think if you look at the average from the league matches this year, that’s not surprising at all,” Cheney said. “I didn’t know if we could win region after last spring, and I really didn’t know until our first couple of practice rounds. I knew Clark was going to be better this year. I thought they were going to get us this year. At the start of the season, I knew what they had returning, and I knew what we had. I knew that was a possibility.”

The Crusaders will be looking for their third consecutive team title at state, and Becker will be going for back-to-back individual titles, which would make her the only two-time winner in school history.

“I just want to go up there and play golf and have fun,” Becker said.

Contact reporter Ashton Ferguson at aferguson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430. Follow him on Twitter: @af_ferguson.