MORRISTOWN – The Greeneville girls golf team had a strong showing on Tuesday at the Mike Mills Morristown Invitational Tournament, earning a second-place finish in a field that included some of the top teams in East Tennessee.
“Overall we played great today and it’s nice to see them bunched up there on the leaderboard,” Greeneville assistant coach Todd Ricker said. “We had three girls in the top five and that is such a big advantage to have three girls that can go out and score well. We are one of the only teams in the state that have that. They have good competition amongst each other and push each other. They have really put the work in this year.”
All three Lady Greene Devils finished near the top of the leader board on Tuesday and Greeneville was the only team with multiple players who shot in the 70s. Kamryn Renner led the way with a 77, Kylee Renner shot a 79 and Brylee Catron shot a 79.
What was most impressive about Kamryn’s round was her one-under par 35 on the back nine after some struggles on the front nine. The rally moved her up the leaderboard and she finished the day in third place as an individual. After a score-card tiebreaker Kylee Renner finished in fourth place and Catron placed fifth as an individual.
“I did better toward the end today. The front nine was rough, but I was one under on the back. I got things figured out and had a pretty good day,” Kamryn Renner said. “I finished a lot better than I started. I just had to forget about the last shot and just focus on the next shot. We played well as a team today and I’m proud of what we did.”
The second-place finish as a team was the Lady Devils second trophy in as many tournaments after they finished in second-place at the 5 Star Preps Invitational last week in their season opener.
“With this group the key thing is not looking ahead and staying in the present,” Ricker said. “They are all great athletes and great golfers, but now we are focusing playing the shot in front of them and being great at the mental part of the game. They are looking forward to the rest of the year, but this has been an awesome start to the year. We’ve played in two tough tournaments and finished in second in both of them.”
A year ago the three Lady Devils won the Region 1-AA Tournament and advanced to the Class AA State Tournament, finishing in fifth place. Since reclassification over the offseason Greeneville has moved into Class A and feels like they have a group that can make a run a state title in October.
“We know that any day any of us can win, and I think that really pushes us in practice to get better and be the number one in the group,” Renner said. “We feel great going into this season. Our goal is to win state, and I think we have a pretty good shot at it.”
As a team Greeneville shot a 156 on Tuesday which was two strokes behind first-place Dobyns-Bennett’s 154. The Lady Devils were 35 strokes better than the next Class A program, Seymour, who shot a 191.
Science Hill was third with a 163, Hardin Valley and Lakeway Christian each shot a 170 to round out the top five.
Lakeway’s Riley Reed shot a 71 and won a playoff over Dobyns-Bennett Aliezah Robinson to claim the individual title.
Chuckey-Doak shot a 200 as a team on Tuesday. Harley Thompson led the way with a 98, Kyleigh Crawford shot a 102 and Addilyn Boesch had a 119.
