Wheeling Park Girls Golf Team Moves Up in Ranking

By: David Gaudino
The Wheeling Park Girls Golf Team moved up from the novice to the Championship Division in its second year to win the West Virginia Girls Golf Team Tournament held at the beautiful and lush Highland Springs Golf Course in Wellsburg. The match played at a college length of 5,700 yards. The Lady Patriots of Coach Stephanie Goodrich were led by sophomore Abby Thomas with a 93. Other scorers for WP in the WV Boys four count three format were fellow sophomore Carter Kidd with 106 and freshman Katelyn Maloney with 104.
The first year team from Fairmont Senior finished second with 328 followed by Brooke and Wheeling Central. Tyler, John Marshall and University did not have the three players minimum to have a full team.
The medalist competition came down to a showdown by juniors Abby Kingora of University High School and Kianna Garrison of John Marshall. The match was intense all day as Garrison took a one stroke lead on the first hole and the two players then matched scores for 15 holes. But Kingora, playing on the course where her father, John Kingola, became a Ohio Valley golf legend, birdied the 17th hole to throw the match into a tie.Garrison then edged Kingora on the par five 18th hole by one shot shooting 88 to earn Medalist honors.