Saturday, September 15, 2012

Santamaria Leads Cabrillo To Victory Over Orcutt

GIRLS GOLF

At Village Country Club 
[Front 9 - Par 36, Double Par Rule in Effect]

Cabrillo 310, Orcutt Academy 318

The Conquistadors hosted this very friendly rematch on an absolutely gorgeous Friday afternoon at "The Club". It was so amicable that CHS Head Coach Dave Schroeder gave many of his regulars the day off after they braved the La Purisima course on Thursday en route to a tournament topping tie. It was an especially popular decision since it gave several girls a shot at a varsity letter.

For a variety of reasons, Orcutt's Carl Cudworth also had several of his top girls missing from an already young squad, so the team that took to the links consisted of 1 junior, 1 sophomore, and 4 freshmen. The sophomore, Maddie Cross, was the Medalist from the August 28th contest at VCC when Cabrillo was also missing 4 of it's regulars. In an "amazing coincidence", Cross is the grand-daughter of CHS' Schroeder. This day, however, would belong to Karen Santamaria.

Most of the competitors spent so much time in the trees, some began to wonder if Coach Schroeder was leading one of his horticulture classes on a forestry expedition, and Santamaria was no exception. What she did, though, was a very good job of playing herself out of trouble.

Scrambling, scuffling, whatever you want to call it, she kept her composure, and kept making shots. Good shots. Some incredibly good shots. Like the shot on the 6th from over in the right-hand trees.  She drilled it straight down the back of the tree row, then curved it into a gap between two trees, and plopped into the fairway just short of the green.

The lead foursome of the day - Santamaria, Cross, Kathryn O'Niel, and Cristina Sawyer, all played well enough to have a chance at Medalist Honors, but each seemed to have a 'fatal flaw' on Friday. Santamaria struggled off the tee. Sawyer, who was killing drives all day, appeared to be playing with a force field over the green. Cross would inexplicably find a tree at odd moments, and O'Neil, who was perhaps the most consistent shot maker on the day, had one really bad hole early in the round. Karen Santamaria managed her recovery from problems the best and came out on top.

As good as that group was, though, the best foursome on the course Friday was the gathering of deer in the copse of trees just west of the 7th tees.

Cabrillo [310]: Karen Santamaria 53, Cristina Sawyer 64, Devan McCune 62, Aiden Badua 65, Adia Hernandez 67, Haley Holloway 66.

Orcutt Academy [318]: Maddie Cross 55, Kathryn O'Niel 58, Ariana Manzo 70, Sydnee Engel 70, Sienna Pita 66, Melissa Wehlander 69.

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