The Lancaster High School girls’ golf teams wrapped up their season with many individual golfers acquiring OCC awards. Molly Stedman won First Team OCC Ohio, Honorable Mention Central District, and Central District Scholar-Athlete; Brennan Salapek won Second Team OCC Ohio and Honorable Mention Central District; Ava Zeiders won Honorable Mention OCC Ohio; and Bella Specht and Rebecca Woody won Central District Scholar-Athletes. Meanwhile, the LHS boys’ varsity team had their own positive experiences, such as playing in a tournament at Scioto Country Club, one of the top 50 courses in the country, and they also won the Logan Invitational held at Hocking Hills Country Club. Below is a review of both the girls’ and boys’ golf teams seasons.

LHS Girls Golf:
The LHS girls’ varsity head coach, Tom Stedman, said that in addition to the list of athletes that won OCC awards, the girls also reached personal goals.

“Success for us involved every player lowering their personal best score during the year and finishing second on stroke average in the OCC Ohio,” he said.

LHS junior Brennan Salapek agreed with Coach Stedman.

“The highlights of this golf season were achieving personal goals that I’ve been working towards and seeing improvement in myself. Going to different courses and playing with different girls is always a highlight too. I will be working on improving and keeping up on my game to make next season the best I can,” she said.

Specht said that one of the highlights of her season was getting her first two pars in one day and said she actually hit a ball into the back of a truck bed. Both Specht and Stedman said that they enjoyed the comradery and traveling to and from matches.

Not every aspect of the season was positive, as the golfers described some of the sandtraps of the season.

“A challenge I faced was getting caught up on the bad shots I would hit sometimes instead of looking at the positives,” said Salapek.

Specht said she had some physical difficulties with her body that interfered with her play.

“Some of the challenges I faced were my medical issues with my scoliosis and limb length discrepancy, making it harder for me to improve at the sport and of ten causing struggles during longer courses, “ she said.

Stedman said that some of the difficulties she experienced didn’t actually happen out on the green.

“The challenge I faced personally was balancing going to golf practice or matches and getting to soccer practice and games. It was hard to stay in the right mindset with having to think about everything that was going on, but in the end it all worked out and ended up being a great season,” she said.

One aspect of the season that the golfers really enjoyed was the team chemistry. They said it was special and supportive.

“We all blend together and get along well and there is always support for each other’s accomplishments no matter what,” said Salapek.

“We all congratulated each other and brought each other up even if we had a bad day. I love it a lot and how sweet everyone was no matter what situation we were in. If the weather was bad or the course was bad, we still did our best to keep smiles on our faces and support the players around us,” said Specht.

“The team chemistry we had was unmatched and made the season a lot better. The team dynamic was amazing. We had great team chemistry and everyone got along nicely,” said Spedman.

LHS Boys Golf:
LHS boys varsity head coach Luke Truex said the team made strides over last season.

“We had some incredible opportunities to play at some of the best courses in Central Ohio. We also shot the lowest round of golf as a team in my coaching career, shooting a 305 as a team,” he said.

Bryson Branham is a senior and is one of the team’s leaders and he was asked about his highlights this past season.

“During my season I shot three rounds in the 70s, improving my career low each time. But most of my moments came with my teammates, whether we were at practice or on the way home from a tournament,” he said.

Gabe Betts is also a senior at LHS and was the number one this season and he was also asked to describe some of his highlights this season.

“During OCC #2 at Darby Creek Golf Course, I holed out from 180 yards for eagle on the par 4 18th. Another highlight was shooting a 1-over-par 71 at the OCC Shootout at Eaglesticks Golf Club to help achieve a team score of 305, which is the lowest team score the Gales have had in years, maybe even decades. Another highlight of the season is our team coming in 1st place at the Logan Chieftain Invitational at Hocking Hills Golf Club,” he said.

Truex commented on some of the challenges the team faced this season.

“The challenge of the team is that only five players get to play varsity. We had a lot of boys competing for spots and that made us be a great team overall. It’s also a challenge to wake up and leave at 6am in the morning to drive and compete in these tournaments while also being great students in the classroom. It’s not easy missing days in the classroom, but I’m thankful for the opportunities we have to play in these tournaments,” he said.

“The most challenging part was trying to not shoot for a score and handling adversity. Every time I or my teammates shot low, we would feel the need to shoot low every time. We had to learn how to just be ourselves,” he said.

Betts said that the bittersweet realization that he was playing his final high school golf matches was frequently on his mind over the course of the season.
“The most challenging part of the season was trying to ignore that this would be my last game for Gales golf. I have spent four years playing varsity golf and I just can’t believe it’s over already,” he said.