SEVIERVILLE – The Greeneville girls golf team spent much of Friday reeling on the second day of the Class A State Tournament at Sevierville Golf Club. It felt like they had to grind for every single shot as they watched the lead they built on Thursday gradually slip away.
But the Lady Greene Devils did just enough to get to a 19th hole, and in a one-hole playoff with Murfreesboro Central Magnet the girls from Greeneville were nothing short of perfect as they claimed the program’s first team state title.
“This feels great,” Greeneville junior Brylee Catron said. “It amazing to do it like this, that’s the best way to do it I think. You have all of the attention on you. All the pressure on you, and it all gets relieved when you see that last shot go in.”
On the biggest stage of their young links careers Catron, Kamryn Renner and Kylee Renner were dialed in as the match went to overtime on Friday afternoon.
“All I was thinking (going into the playoff) was ‘lets go!’” Kylee Renner said. “I didn’t want to stress out about it, I just wanted to get back out there and do it. I knew we were going to do it, we were going to do it well, and we were going to win it. That’s exactly what we did.”
Over the course of the day Murfreesboro sisters Lauren and Anna Powell applied the pressure to the Lady Devils and made up a five-stroke deficit, even leading briefly before settling for a tie on the 18th hole.
With one big swing on the first tee box of Sevierville’s Highland Course Catron put the pressure back on the Lady Tigers. She pulled out the big stick and hit it long and straight. That set the tone for how the playoff would go.
“We talk about it in basketball a lot, but sometimes you have those kids that want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line. I could tell when they were practicing while we waiting to start the playoff that Brylee wanted the ball. She was ready for the moment and those first two shots really put the pressure on them,” Greeneville head coach Nathan Hale said.
Off the tee both Powells were short of an elevated fairway bunker that made the idea of reaching the par-five green in two and tall task.
Kamryn Renner landed her ball nearly on top of Catron’s, and Kylee Renner was in the short grass on the left side. Kylee went first and left her ball safely right of the green. Catron then delivered maybe her best shot of the day when she stuck her 180-yard approach shot in the middle of the putting surface. The gutsy swing had all three Lady Devils feeling good as that grinned walking up the fairway.
“That shot going into the green felt great,” Catron said. “I had struggled on that hole the first two times this week, but two really good shots there felt amazing. I had been laying up on that hole, but I knew one of us had to go for it. Kylee had already laid up and was in good position to par, so I was going to let loose. Knowing we were all in good position let me take a little bit of a risk.”
When they got to the green Catron left her eagle putt about one foot short and tapped it in for birdie. The Lady Tigers were both on the green in three, but had putts longer than 40 feet for birdie. Lauren Powell came close to a miraculous make, but settled for par.
Both Renner sisters had spectacular pitches and put their first putts close enough for comfortable par chances. Kylee was slightly further away so she went first and calmly drained it, clinching the title for the Lady Devils.
There was no need for Kamryn Renner or Anna Powel to finish the hole, because the Lady Tigers had already used the nine strokes Greeneville needed to finish it.
The state championship is the 29th team title and 86th overall state title in Greeneville High history, and the first team title for Greeneville girls golf. That accumulation of gold started with the golf program in 1983 when the Greeneville boys claimed the team title, and was followed with girls individual titles by Karen Socha in 1983, 1984, and 1985.
“In the words of the great Brian Stayton ‘They don’t call it Title Town for nothing,’” Hale said. “It pretty neat that this started about 40 years ago with the boys golf program winning the first state championship and now the girls golf team is the most recent one.”
While the physical skills shined in the playoff hole as all three Lady Devils placed shots with precision and executed the game plan perfectly, the mental fortitude it took to give themselves a chance to collect gold cannot be overlooked.
Greeneville did not play particularly bad on Friday, but they fell off the pace from the day before with two double-bogeys and two triple-bogeys dragging down their scores. Kylee Renner shot a 76 after turning in a 74 on Thursday. Catron shot a 77 after Thursday’s 73 and Kamryn Renner fell to 81 after a 77 on day one.
“Controlling the mental part of this game is sometimes the hardest thing to do. You can let things build on themselves, especially when dealing with teenagers. We talk all the time about focusing on what is front of you and not worrying about everything else, but that’s hard,” Greeneville assistant coach Todd Ricker said. “Before the playoff started I just told them they had to clear everything that had happened today and that we were starting a new game. They did that, they cleared the mistakes, and they went out and played a great hole. I’m so proud of these girls. I’ve been around them for a long time, and to see them reach this goal makes me so happy for them.”
While the Lady Devils were slipping Murfreesboro Central was surging. Anna Powell improved by four strokes from Thursday with a 75 and Lauren Powell put up consecutive 73s as the Lady Tigers completely erased their team deficit.
In fact when they came off the 18th green on Friday the Lady Devils thought they had lost with Murfreesboro Central squeaking out a one-stroke victory. The TSSAA posts unofficial live scores on its website during the state tournament, and when play was wrapping up it showed Greeneville was going to come in at a combined 301 to Murfreesboro’s 300.
But Kylee Renner’s score was wrong online and when the official scorecard was posted all things were even at 300-300. In an instant Greeneville had new life. They put all of the early mistakes behind them, and on hole 19 they found the winning touch.
“Kamryn was still at the scorer’s table when the score changed and I just ran to Kylee and we were like ‘what is going on?’ She knew she shot a 76, and at that point we knew we had another chance,” Catron said. “We were so happy right there. That was probably the best feeling ever.”
All three Lady Devils will be back next year as Catron is a junior while Kamryn and Kylee Renner are sophomores, and they were quick to mention on Friday that their eyes are already on repeating.
As individuals Catron and Kylee Renner both shot a 150 over two days and finished in a tie for fourth place as individuals. Springfield’s Elizabeth Prowse won the individual state title with a 142. Murfreesboro Central’s Lauren Powell was second with a 146, and South Gibson’s Marleigh Chicantek was third with a 149.
On the boys side South Greene freshman Brennan Gregg had a strong showing in his first state tournament appearance. He shot a 79 on Thursday and 76 on Friday for a two-day total of 155. That was good enough for a 17th place finish in the 62-golfer field.
Gregg started slow on Friday and was four over par through six holes, but he finished in style with birdies on two of his final four holes to climb six spots up the leaderboard.
Signal Mountain’s Sam Otwell won the Class A boys individual title with a 143. Parker Beck of Stone Memorial was second with a 144.
Signal Mountain ran away with the Class A team championship, shooting a 602 to beat second place Dyer County by 22 strokes.
STATE CHAMPIONS ⛳️🏆💍
The Greeneville Girls took home The Class 1-A State Championship this afternoon after beating Murfreesboro Central in a one-hole playoff. Hear from all three champions after their winning moment! pic.twitter.com/nGYlGym3fZ
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) October 10, 2025
