Midland High has set the bar.
The Lady Panthers and Lady Bronchos saw it happen on their home course.
Now, there’s nothing left but to start swinging for it.
Led by medalist Faith DeLaGarza, Midland High’s girls golf team captured the team title at the Odessa Invitational Saturday at Ratliff Ranch Golf Links, shooting a two-round 620 and giving district rivals Permian and Odessa High plenty to think about while they try to catch up between now and the spring season.
Plenty to think about — and plenty to work toward.
“I think it makes us work harder, and makes us want it more,” Permian’s Emily Serrano said on the clubhouse deck, after DeLaGarza the rest of the Lady Bulldogs lifted their plaques.
Serrano finished third in the medalist standings, carding a second-round 74 to finish at 147, five strokes behind Abilene Wylie’s Maddi Olson, who finished second at 142.
DeLaGarza earned the crown with a 9-under 135.
Hailey Cernoch led Odessa High, carding an even-par 72 to finish fifth at 149, one shot behind Midland High’s Mikayla Childers.
Permian and Odessa High finished third and fourth in the team standings, totaling 663 and 679 respectively.
Midland High led after Friday’s first round with a 303, before firing a field-best again on Saturday to take the tournament.
“They set the bar for us, so to speak,” Odessa High head coach Berry Borchardt said of Midland High.
For both Odessa High and Permian, this weekend’s tournament marked a chance for players to test themselves against quality competition in the fall, ahead of the spring season, when district and regional tournaments will determine where teams end their seasons.
It also marked a chance to get an up-close look at a leading district foe in Midland High, and just what the Lady Panthers and Lady Bronchos will have to do to try to close that gap.
“We’ve still got a lot of growing to do, but at the end of the day we’ll be where we need to be when we can truly go out and compete, and that’s what we’re looking for until March — is to see how much growth we can get to go compete to our fullest,” Permian head coach Rodney Roman said.
Permian fired a first-round 331 as a team on Friday, but saw its score slip to 332 in more windy conditions on the course Saturday.
Odessa High hit 338 Friday, seeing its score slip to 341 in the final round.
“As a team, and even as individuals, we have to continue to work really hard to improve our game,” Borchardt said.
“We still have several months before it comes down to crunch time for us, but just like I told the girls right here at the end, I said, ‘If we don’t work every day to get better and better and better, we’re not going to get there, because Midland High just set the bar really high.’ So if we’re going to step up and we’re going to challenge for that, then we’ve got a ways to go.”
Fortunately for both the Lady Bronchos and Lady Panthers, the tournament offered a good chance for both teams to take some of those steps forward.
Quality players stepped their way over the course, including DeLaGarza, who shot a seven-under 65 on Friday, which organizers called a course record in a girls high school golf tournament.
Olson won a Class 4A state championship last spring, and hit a two-under 70 on Friday to go with a par 72 Saturday.
“Playing with good players can stress you out, but it’s also good for you. It’s very good for you,” Cernoch said.
For Odessa High and Permian, which are two teams bottom-heavy with underclassmen looking to fill out top-five lineups below a few upperclassmen leaders, the weekend’s experience could prove invaluable.
Permian was paced by Serrano, its senior, who sat fifth at the end of Friday’s first round with a 73.
Cernoch, the Lady Bronchos’ senior, improved to even par that matched Olson for the second-best Saturday score in the field.
But she understood when she saw some of her freshmen and sophomore teammates struggle in the second round, in a new environment against quality competition.
“A lot of our younger players hadn’t played in a two-day tournament. This was their first two-day tournament, so going into this they knew they were chasing and had to try to keep up,” Cernoch said, noting, in a learning experience, those younger players may have overextended themselves when facing a second round grouped with quality players.
But as iron sharpens iron, that competition should help both the Lady Bronchos and Lady Panthers squads in the long run.
So should seeing what’s working right for Lady Bulldogs, Serrano noted.
“I think we just need to be more focused and work as a team more,” she said. “I think that would definitely help us, working all together — because, I mean, that’s what Midland High did. You can clearly see it.”
Now the bar is set, and the Lady Panthers and Lady Bronchos know just what they’re shooting for.
“It’s great for us,” Roman said of seeing that solid opposition over the weekend.
“With who we’re competing against, it puts us in a little perspective where we know what we’ve got to do, and we have our work cut out for us.”
>> HOLE IN ONE: Odessa High junior Iris Ramirez recorded an ace in Saturday’s second round, carding a hole in one over the water on Ratliff’s Par 3 No. 12.
“It was really surprising because there’s a second where you don’t believe it’s happening and then you just hear everyone else screaming — and it’s great,” Ramirez said.
That ace helped her finish with a second-round 86, and a 170 for the weekend.
“On Par 3’s you always want to get it in the hole, but you never really expect to,” she laughed.
