Comet girls shot personal-low 18H scores at Clear Lake Golf Invitational

Press Staff Report

CLEAR LAKE — Maybe it was the challenge of playing a tournament hosted by the defending state champion, but nearly the entire varsity roster from Charles City Comets girls golf team shot career 18-hole lows during Tuesday’s Clear Lake Open Invitational at Veterans Memorial Golf Course.

Junior Shelby Effle carded an even 100 to lead the Comets, who also got career-lows from first-year high school golfer Payton Hadley (109), sophomore Izzy Crawford (113) and junior Olivia Kreger (121) — totalling a fourth-place finish (443) in a five-team field.

The lowest 18-hole team total Charles City shot last season was 452 at the Class 3A regionals held at Veterans Memorial.

To little surprise, the defending Class 3A girls state champion Lions won the meet by a substantial margin with a team score of 330 — 50 strokes lower than runner-up New Hampton.

Leading Clear Lake was junior Meghan DeLong, who shot a medalist score of 73. Senior Rebecca DeLong was runner-up (78).

Meghan and Rebecca placed third and fifth respectively as individuals in last year’s state meet.