Ochoa, Adrian Shoot Season Bests to Help Regina Top Liberty High in Dual
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Practice makes perfect.
In the sport of golf that old adage often rings true.
That wasn’t exactly the case for Regina junior Tatiana Ochoa in Tuesday’s dual with Liberty High.
Weather has limited practice opportunities for Regina this season and an illness forced Ochoa to miss a few of the times the Regals could get on the course this spring.
That lack of practice didn’t stop Ochoa from posting a career-best 50 on Tuesday at Brown Deer Golf Course to help Regina down Liberty High in a cross-town dual.
“It’s been really cold and we haven’t had many practices and then I was sick for a few of them too so I’ve had even less practices,” Ochoa explained. “We’ve had one meet and I think I’ve been to three or four practices so to shoot a 50, which is my personal best, I can’t really explain it but I was excited with that.”
The 50 by Ochoa tied with teammate Alyssa Adrian for runner-up medalist honors as Regina fired a season-best 203 to down Liberty High by 14 strokes.
Grace Sharpless shot a 51 and Ellie VanLandschoot a 52 for Regina on a sunny Tuesday that provided some of the best playing weather of the spring with temperatures close to 50 degrees.
“It was 46 degrees but it felt like a heat wave today compared to what it has been,” Adrian said. “We’ve only had like four practices so it’s been pretty tough with the weather but we are coming together as a team and we are building each other up.”
Liberty High freshman Neely Maurus was the medalist with a 49 as the Lightning shot a season-best score.
Cassidy Sundine and Grace Crimmins each carded a 55 as Liberty High lowered its team score for the second consecutive meet.
“Our goal today was for everybody to see if they could drop two or three shots and almost across the board we were able to do that,” Liberty High coach Brian Wernimont said. “We had a 242 a 222 and now a 217 so we are going the right direction.”
Regina (203) – Tatiana Ochoa 50, Alyssa Adrian 50, Grace Sharpless 51, Ellie VanLandschoot 52, Suzy Lobodiak 72, Alisa Pursley 82
Liberty High (217) – Neely Maurus 49, Cassidy Sundine 55, Grace Crimmins 55, Marit McCaffery 58, Ella Johnson 60, Brianna Butterfield 60
