Leftwich leads Tigers to second place finish

MCHS freshman Brooks Leftwich was a man on fire Friday afternoon; firing a clutch, eighteen hole score of 79 to lead the Tigers to a second place finish at the District 11A/AA Golf Tournament.

Leftwich's 79 tied him with Cascade's Blake England for the second best round of the day and the two golfers had to go back out for a sudden death playoff for the second medalist spot, won by England on the third hole.

MCHS head coach Brent Johns said about Leftwich's performance, "A huge day for a freshman, Brooks came in tied for second medalist, but lost in a playoff with Cascade's Blake England, but it was a huge day for Brooks."

The top medalist honors went to Community's Zach West with a 78, Justin Killian from MCHS finished in the fourth spot with an 81, and Blake Tansil from Forrest rounded out the top five with an 82.

Cascade won the team portion of the event, shooting a 333, MCHS was next at 354, and Page won the final region qualifying spot with a 365.

"When I got the scores in from the other teams to put the pairings together, Cascade was far and away ahead of everyone else in the tournament with Marshall County, Forrest, and Page all three being a close second," said Johns. "That's kind of the way it played out, except for Forrest not holding up their end of the bargain."

The three teams' individual scores were as follows:

The top four scores are used to determine the final total.

Cascade-England (79), Lucas Dunnivant (84), Jake Pimental (86), Chad Gordon (84), and Bryce Clinton (94).

MCHS-Leftwich (79), Killian (81), Austin Blade (95), Ben Briggs (99), and Miller Sale (103).

Page-Hunter Pons (89), Ross Potere (89), Ben Brannum (91), Tyler Watts (96), and Micah Robbins (97).

"Killian's eighty-one is about the way he has been playing all year and I will take eight-one every day from Justin," said Johns. "We lost it with our three, four, and five today. Our one and two came through, but our four and five kind of let us down today."

Other individual qualifiers for the region were MTCS's Barron Corley (88), Summit's Grant Robison (90), and Forrest's Ryan Daughrity, who tied for the fifth spot with Community's Tanner Simmons with a 92.

Daughrity and Simmons had to go back out for a sudden death playoff and Daughrity won the final spot when he bested Simmons on the Par 5 third hole.

The other Forrest scores were Dillon Dowler (100), Austin Nichols (107), and Ty Hoeft (126).

The Rockets finished with a 381 total, tying them for fifth place with Community.

Cornersville finished with a 420 total as Jacob Griffis carded a 93, Neal Adams shot 97, Tate Lowery had 100 strokes, Andrew Belt 130, and Taylor Carlton signed for a 138.

The Cornersville girls were the only Marshall County squad that played in the event and the Lady Bulldogs earned a Region 6A/AA Tournament qualifying spot with a third place finish.

Kaylee Cook led the Lady Dawgs, shooting a 106 and was followed by Martha Jane McMasters with a 128, and Kaitlyn Rogers, who carded a 134.

Eagleville won the girls title for the second year in a row, totaling 182.

Lindsey McRee shot an 82 for the Lady Eagles, Brooklyn Snell carded an even 100, and Nicole Duke signed for a 115.

Only the top two girls' scores were used to determine the team total.

Cascade finished second with Kelli Ann Williams coming home in 107 strokes, Alli Knighton shot a 123, and Allison Massey signed her scorecard with 131.

Page's Jessica Zweifel tied McRee for the day's best score with an 82 and then beat the Eagleville senior on the second playoff hole for the top medalist honor.

Kayla Hickey from MTCS qualified with a 103, Summer Shelton (Fayetteville) made it into the region with a 121, Caitlyn Plunkett (Fayetteville) shot 125, and the final qualifier was Anna Horn from Summit, who carded a 133.

The Region 6A/AA Tournament will be Monday, Sept. 19, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at Henry Horton.