Johnson varsity girls pose for a photo with the Reagan varsity girls after both team qualified for the UIL State Golf Tournament - photo by Christa Long
After three long years of building two quality high school golf programs the Johnson Jaguars have arrived. The Varsity girls two days after watching the boys take second at their Region Iv Championship and qualify for State did the same thing in theirs.
The second place finish behind Reagan puts the Johnson girls into the State Tournament for the first time and extends both teams’ season a few more weeks.
Before this season Johnson had seen only one golfer (Christian De la Cruz) advance to the State tournament and before 2012 no Johnson girls golfer had made it out of district 26-5A. That changed this past month when the Jags advanced to the Region IV Championship as district champs and they will advance to the State Tournament as a team after finishing in the runner up spot on Thursday.
The two district 26-5A rivals Johnson and Reagan were in a stoke for stroke battle both Wednesday and Thursday and after Johnson tracked down and past Reagan at the district meet the Rattlers needed no more motivation to hold off the Jags at the Regional Tournament.
The Jags posted a day-1 total of 315 and were sitting in second place after the first round of play. The Jags were lead by their freshman/sophomore due of Taylor Coleman and Nikki Long on day one as they shot 72 and 77 respectively. As the other scores were posted the Jags found themselves three shots back of Reagan and 9 up on O’Connor and 13 up on Sharyland.
Sharyland playing on their home course and by far the best program in the valley was a concern as the boys had just missed beating Sharyland on Tuesday for first place.
The final round on day-2 was a fight to try and chase down Reagan while keeping an eye on O’Connor and Sharyland for the ever important second place team total. The top two teams and top two individuals (not on the top two teams) advance to state from each Region; so the last place the first time regional team of Johnson wanted to end up was third.
The Jags would struggle a little with the course in round two and finish with a total of 315-322=637. Reagan would expand its lead holding off Johnson by 7 strokes. O’Connor would battle but could only make up a couple of strokes from round one finishing in third at 644. The home team Sharryland faded to 662.
Coleman posted a day-2 74 and placed 4th overall. Long matched her day one total with another 77 and finished in 9th overall.
Johnson will be the only school in Region IV that will send both it’s varsity boys and varsity girls to Austin for the State Tournament. The State UIL golf tournament is played this year on the far south side of Austin at Onion Creek. Boys and Girls will both play on the same course on the same days April 30 and May 1.
Go Jags!!
