Lady Falcons are aiming to bring home state title

By Gean Leonard
Correspondent
Published May 11, 2010

The Clear Lake Lady Falcons travel to Austin’s Jimmy Clay golf complex for the 5A state finals Thursday and Friday. That makes 10 state appearances to go along with 24 district titles in the last three decades.

Coach Karolyn Criado, who played at Dulles, now leads the Falcons after having played collegiate golf at Texas and paid some dues on the Futures Tour. She knows the Clear Lake winning tradition, and she knows what it takes to have a winning team.

Most importantly, she knows she has a team of winners.

Senior and team captains Paulina Wynkoop and Kelly Jackson will be joined by junior Courtney Ferguson and sophomore Taylor Stockton as they try to improve on last year’s seventh-place finish.

Coach Criado is confident this group will not go three consecutive years without bringing home the championship.

Region III Wrap

Sixteen schools teed up at Eagle Point on April 22 to watch phenom Cory Whitsett take home his fourth consecutive medalist title as he heads to the state finals in Austin along with teams from Clements and Memorial.

All-District first teamer Cody Gonzales missed state qualifying by a shot, while teammate Ryan Hargrove finished eighth and made the All-District second team.

Friendswood’s boys and girls teams dominated All-District selections with Nathan Mabry leading the way among the boys by earning first-team honors.

Spencer Langhart, Austin Martin, David Dirks and Blake Hubbard earned second-team honors and were joined by Texas City’s Bill Martin.

Santa Fe’s Haley Harris garnered first-team All-District honors and was surrounded by members of the Lady Mustangs squad from Friendswood. Paige Lemon, Kolby Duke and Taylor Kaufman all landed first team berths.

The Lady Mustangs also took three of the four second-team spots, this time surrounding Lady Indian Manon Burkhart to top off a successful season.

Galveston Island Rotary

Ben Jay Stein, David O’Donohoe and Scott Kusnerik are tuning up their games for the May 24 fundraiser at the Galveston Country Club. (At least two of the three are wasting their time according to insiders.)

For $150 you can be part of the action and enjoy the golf, lunch, dinner, raffles and maybe collect your fair share of the $5,000 in prizes being awarded … or perhaps even take home a new car.

It’s a handicapped scramble with 11:30 a.m. lunch and a 1 p.m. start. Call Stein, O’Donohoe or Kusnerik at 409-762-7821, 409-744-1888 or 409-763-5252.

Galveston Country Club

Match play was the format for both Thursday and Saturday, with Gail Batson out a clear winner and a non-playoff tie between Isabel Turner and Edie Mazzucco.

Turner won again Saturday with a round that included a birdie at the 17th hole.

Ellen Otte carded lowest putts, a birdie at No. 2 and a win to cap off a successful week.

Brag On

Add Sam and Cheryl Boyd to the list of proud grandparents who doubtless will be reading more in this space about the accomplishments of their family.

Granddaughter Hannah Price, a barely 16-year-old at Stratford High in Katy, only took up the game just more than a year ago. Hannah was named her team’s MVP last week and will be a team captain next year.

In her first season of competitive golf, Hannah was low team scorer in all except her very first outing, in which she was second low scorer.

Move over a little, Ben Hargrove! I’ve got some more people waiting in the wings to challenge you for those braggin’ rights.

Eligible to brag on herself is Jean Robinson who during the May 5 playday at South Shore Harbour aced the par 3 seventh hole on the South nine.

Playing partners Mary Jane Dorman, Claudette Olkowski and Karen Bishop describe the shot as uphill and into the wind all the way to a far back pin placement. A well struck driver did the trick.

Congratulations, Jean! They say the first one is the most difficult.

Be safe, on and off the course.

Daily News golf columnist Gean Leonard can be reached at Gean.GDNgolf(at)gmail.com.


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