JONESBOROUGH – Led by a dominant performance from Layla Fox the Chuckey-Doak girls golf team captured the District 1-A championship on Friday afternoon at The Crossings Golf Course.
As an individual Fox was 14 strokes better than second place as she claimed the medalist honors at the tournament for the first time in her already impressive high school career.
“It feels really good to win today,” Fox said. “I’ve been practicing a lot, and I guess it paid off. My putting was not good the first few holes, I was missing three footers. I don’t know what got into me, but I started banging everything into the hole, and I think I just got more confident. Once I got settled in it felt like everything was clicking.”
Fox has twice qualified for the Class A State Tournament, but on Friday she claimed her first district championship. She did win the Region 1-A championship in 2022 and will now be looking to claim another region title on September 30 at the Country Club in Morristown. Fox knows the field will be strong and the course will be tougher at the region, and she plans on spending the next week honing in her skills.
“I’m really excited about the region. I’m going to go play Morristown a couple times over the next week,” Fox said. “It will be good competition over there. I’m going to have to work on my bunker shots, because they have some tough bunkers. I just have to keep putting in the work.”
As a team the Lady Black Knights shot a 172 with Kyleigh Crawford carding a 95. Crawford came in fourth place as an individual. Harley Thompson shot a 109. Chuckey-Doak will now try to advance to the state tournament as a team.
“It feels great to be going to the region as a team,” Fox said. “And I’m really hoping we can go to state as a team.”
In the boys District 1-A Tournament South Greene and West Greene finished in second and third respectively to advance to the region tournament.
The Rebels were led by Kolben Gregg who shot a 74 and finished in second place, one shot off the leader, Mason Wilson of Unaka.
“I played ok today, but two holes really hurt me today,” Gregg said. “I had to battle through it, but the lack birdies and those two holes where I banged around in the tall grass kept me from winning.”
Even though Gregg is excited to be moving on, and is hoping to advance to state for the third year in a row, he knows he left some shots on the course and is hoping to do bigger things next week in the regional.
“Morristown is a really tough golf course, and the most important thing is to play smart,” Gregg said. “It’s about putting the practice in. I know today I didn’t give myself an opportunity to win, but if some of those shots are little different I know it can be a different outcome at the region.”
As a team South Greene shot a 349 to place second. Benji Conner had an 85, Colby Brooks 93 and Cameron Kinser 97.
West Greene shot a 370 as a team led by Connor Campbell with an 82. Keaton Potter had an 89, Aiden Willett 99 and Eli Brown 100.
Chuckey-Doak Avery Armstrong is also moving on to the region tournament as an individual after shooting a 91.
University High won the boys team championship with a 341. George Holt led the Buccaneers with a 77. Unaka’s Wilson (73), Hampton’s Ezra Tolley (76), Happy Valley’ Colton Pemberton (87) and Johnson County’s Ethan Smith (89) are all advancing to the region
North Greene shot a 400 as a team. Ethan Dilks had a 92, Isaac Gaby 96, Tyler Britton 97, Lawson Davenport 115 and Brady Malone 147.
Chuckey-Doak shot a 400 led by Armstrong’s 91. Kaleb Blankenship had a 93, Gavin Murray 98, and Tylen Shelton 118.
In the girls tournament Happy Valley was second as a team with a 214 and Unaka was third with 225.
As individual’s Marlee Cornett of Unicoi County shot a 91, University High’s Kalani Nabalta (106), North Greene’s Kallie Dobson (120) and Unicoi’s Hannah Davis (143) all advanced to the region.
