By RICHIE HALL
When the Westfield girls golf team takes to the first tee at the Bloomington Country Club on Monday for the Bloomington South Invitational, there will be a little bit of a different look to the Shamrocks team.
Westfield graduated a strong senior class last year, and ‘Rocks coach Trevor Neu readily admits that players like that are hard to replace. At the same time, there will be some experience for Westfield, including one of the top players in the state.
Junior Jocelyn Bruch has been a star for the Shamrocks ever since her freshman year, and now will be the program’s leader. Bruch tied for ninth at the state meet last year, but was sensational from the beginning: She started her sophomore year with a 62 at Bloomington Country Club, and used that as a stepping stone to a great season, easily earning spots on the All-State and All-Hoosier Crossroads Conference teams and the Reporter’s Player of the Year award.
Two other juniors bring back some varsity experience. Natalie Shupe played in several invitationals last season, and Neu said the team expects her to be a “strong contributor and leader” on varsity this year. Grace Snyder has been on the team since she was a freshman, and has been waiting to get her chance on the big stage.
“She has a great work ethic and attitude and it will be exciting to see what she can do for us this year,” said Neu.
After that, the Shamrocks are still trying to figure out who will play the fourth and fifth spots in their varsity rotation. Neu said there are five to six kids who have been “competing hard and shooting around the same scores.”
This year’s Westfield team is trending young. There are two seniors, Megan Barker and Khloe Miller, and three sophomores: Ellie Cunningham, Cate Jensen and Alli McEvoy. In addition, the Shamrocks have seven freshmen: Avery Brooks, Brette Hanavan, Allie Hildebrand, Claire Ireland, Mallory Mortl and Tia Wallace.
As usual, Westfield will have a busy first week of the season, playing five invitationals in six days. After Bloomington on Monday, the ‘Rocks will participate in the HSE Invitational Tuesday at Stony Creek, the Zionsville Invitational Wednesday at Golf Club of Indiana, the Crooked Stick Invitational on Thursday, then the Fall Preview Saturday at Prairie View, the site of the IHSAA state finals.
Neu said he likes the direction of the Westfield program.
” We have a good mix of upperclassmen and lowerclassmen and our numbers are larger than they have ever been,” said Neu. “We obviously lost a group of really good seniors last year and you don’t just replace kids like that. But the girls that we have this year have been anxiously waiting for their turn to be the players. It is an exciting time for those players and for our coaches to push those kids to become better each time out.”
HECHT, KUC TO LEAD CARMEL
Carmel will also be competing in the same five meets as Westfield during this upcoming week, so the Greyhounds and the Shamrocks will be familiar with each other after only a few days.
Actually, Carmel’s lineup is already familiar to everybody. The Greyhounds have five returning players, led by senior Nina Hecht and sophomore Katie Kuc. Hecht has been named to the All-State team the past two years, while Kuc was part of Carmel’s regular lineup as the ‘Hounds made their usual run to the state meet.
Junior Elizabeth Hedrick will be another key varsity player; she was part of Carmel’s state lineup last year. Senior Ella Woods and sophomore Sydney Longstreth both had solid summers and will also be big contributors to the team.
And of course, there’s the anticipation of what the freshmen can do. Greyhounds coach Kelly Kluesner reports that there is a large number of ninth-graders looking for a spot on the team.
“We have 10 freshman trying out for the team so we are looking forward to adding young talent to our team,” said Kluesner. “It’s going to be a very exciting season for us.”
