The Waynesville Lady Tigers played in the Ozark Conference Tournament today at the Horton Smith Golf Course in Springfield. The weather was perfect and this women friendly golf course was in the best shape I have seen it in the last 3 years.

The Tigers really came out firing today as they posted their best team score in the last 2 years with a much improved 430 score. The ladies started the year at the Helias Invitational and scored 504 as a team. They continued to improve at the MSU Relays with a 475, then the Eugene Invitational with a 453. From start to finish they improved their scoring by 74 strokes at an astonishing 14.8 strokes per player improvement. Now, if we can take this fuel and continue into the offseason, the ladies could really make themselves competitive next season! Not only that, but the ladies are no longer the cellar dwellers of the conference as they finished 6th overall. This is also their best finish at conference since the program began in 2007.

We had a lot of improvement from our 2 through 5 players as each of them posted their season low scores. Karissa Keyes was 5 better at 108, Hana Hosick was 7 better at 113, Paiton Quinones was 13 better at 121 and Catherine Roman was 17 better at 122. Junior Victoria Hooker completed our scoring with an 88 which was good for 1st Team All Conference honors by tying for 10th place. The 88 was 5 strokes better than her Sectional score a year ago at Horton Smith.

The tournament was won by the Glendale Falcons with a score of 349. Amber Wilson of the Camdenton Lakers was the medalist with an even par 70 score.

The ladies will next play at Osage on Thursday as they compete in their last match before their Class 2, District 5 tournament next Monday, 26 September at the Whispering Oaks Golf Course, formerly the Marshfield Country Club in Marshfield.