By Glen Miller/Staff Writer

With three of her four golfers having experienced the pressures surrounding a state tournament, the last thing that El Reno High School head coach Lanae Goucher expected was her team to get a case of the jitters.

However, that’s just what happened as El Reno carded its two highest rounds of the season last week to place ninth out of 12 teams at the 2007 Class 5A Oklahoma Girls State Golf Championship —played on The Territory in Duncan.

“I can’t explain why we shot so badly at state,” Goucher said. “I think we may have gone out and not played smart golf, but for some reason we were out of our game at state and I expected us to play and finish better than that.”

El Reno carded a season-high 418 on the first day of the tournament and stood in ninth place. The Indians made a slight charge on the second day, cutting 27 strokes to close with an 809 for the 36 holes. However, seven of the eight schools ahead of EHS tied or bettered their first-day efforts as well — leaving no room for movement in the team standings for the Indians.

Duncan won the 5A title with a 661 (343-318), followed by Tulsa Bishop Kelley with a 712, Coweta 718 and Altus in fourth with a 732. Chickasha had its highest state finish in fifth with rounds of 390-375 for a 765 total. Lawton MacArthur was sixth at 791 and Carl Albert took seventh with a 794.

“Our season average was a 356 and you can tell by the scores that if we had just shot our season average that we would have been second or third,” Goucher said. “We had a chance to place better than we ever had at state if we just shot like we normally do.”

El Reno entered the state meet having carded no worse than a 371 in any tournament this season, but struggled with the “native grass” hazards and long fairways of The Territory.

“It was a beautiful course and they treated us well,” Goucher said. “But they were playing it longer and tougher than they did earlier in the year. It’d a very difficult course and you can tell when fourth-three scores the first day were over 100.”

And those pesky nerves compounded things even more.

“I do thing the first day it was a case of the nerves for us. You can usually expect that for the first couple of holes, but after that you have got to settle down, relax and play,” Goucher said. “But the nerves grabbed us and kept us all day long. The second day we played better but not well enough to say we relaxed and played – our scores were still too high.”

Junior Madison Haley was the top El Reno scorer with rounds of 87-79 for a 166 total – which placed her 10th in the individual medalist race – her best finish ever at state.

“I’m very proud of her to have placed at state,” Goucher said. “Her being able to cut those strokes during the second day got her into the top 10. She bogied the last four holes to shoot 79, but I’m proud of her for staying in there and grinding it out.”

Junior Leilani Gradle carded scores of 85-88 for a 173, while senior Andrea Dyer ended her fourth straight state appearance with a 117-112 for a 229 tally. Alisha Preno struggled to a 129 during the opening round, but made the biggest jump by an EHS golfer over the final 18 holes, trimming 17 shots to ink a 112 and a 241 for the tourney.

“We were disappointed to have finished ninth, because we were expecting to play better at state,” Goucher said. “But we are still proud of going to state.”