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SEDALIA — Heading to the 18th hole at Sedalia Country Club on Monday, Tolton girls golfer Audrey Rischer looked to add another victory to a resume that already has plenty of them. Rischer was 2 under and led Rock Bridge’s Tierney Baumstark by one and St. Joseph’s Academy’s Rylie Andrews by three, but the final hole provided a dramatic finale.

Andrews and Baumstark teed off first with both missing the fairway and making a Rischer victory seem all that more inevitable. But the door was opened for the two challengers when Rischer’s drive leaked out right narrowly, avoiding a cemetery and an out-of-bounds penalty.

Following Rischer’s mistake, Baumstark was just hoping to have a chance to take advantage after tugging her own drive left.

“I didn’t see (my drive) down,” Baumstark said. “So I was wondering, do I even have a shot for my second shot?”

Luckily for Baumstark, she found her ball just left of the cart path and was able to lay up before reaching the green in regulation , giving herself a birdie opportunity to tie Rischer.

While Baumstark worked around her poor tee shot, Rischer navigated around her drive and hitting a tree with her second shot. However, when all the commotion was finally over, Rischer joined Baumstark on the green with a look at birdie.

While both Rischer and Baumstark grabbed their putters from their bags, Andrews — who’d mostly been out of the picture for medalist honors after missing a short par putt on 17 — put herself firmly back in the picture with a spectacular hole-out eagle from the fairway.

“Forty yards is a good yardage for me,” Andrews said. “Everyone has that one yardage that is in the bag and that’s my yardage. I just lined it up, hit it, and then it happened.”

Officially in the clubhouse with a 1-under 69, Andrews applied the pressure on Rischer and Baumstark to two-putt.

Baumstark went first and calmly lagged her putt to close-range ensuring she made par, but Rischer took a more aggressive approach.

“I tried to make my birdie putt which was probably dumb,” she explained. “It ended up rolling about three and a half or four feet past.”

With a tester coming back to win the tournament, Rischer calmly stepped up and drained the putt to shoot 68 and seal medalist honors.

Andrews (69) took second on a tie-breaker with Baumstark (69) based on their scores on the first hole.

While Andrews may have come up a stroke short of Rischer in the individual competition, St. Joseph’s took home the team championship over with a score of 22-over 302. Tolton came in second, shooting 337. Kate Ryan (74), Katelyn Ankenman (99)and Savanna Hazelrigg (96) rounded out the Trailblazers’ four counting scores.

Led by a Baumstark’s round of 69, Rock Bridge (392) took seventh in the team competition, but the elder Baumstark wasn’t the only member of her family who contributed the Bruins’ cause Monday. Emma Baumstark, Tierney’s younger sister, playing through injury, nearly holed-out for an ace on 17, and posted the Bruins’ second best score of the tournament.

“Emma shot 102 and she had cut open her toe last night so weren’t sure what to expect from her today,” Rock Bridge coach Travis Gabel said. “She really put together a good round.”

Hickman (412) joined Rock Bridge and Tolton in the top 10 of an 18-team field with a 10th place finish.

The Kewpies were led by Elly Ross, who shot 86 — a season-low. “Right now she’s starting to manage the course a lot better, making better club decisions,” Kewpies coach DJ Johnson said after Ross’ round. “I think her short game was probably what was most impressive today.”

On Tuesday, Rock Bridge and Hickman will square off again at Osage National in Lake Ozark and will be joined by Battle and Jefferson City. Meanwhile, Tolton will travel to St. Louis to face Notre Dame in a match.

Sports reporter, Fall 2022 Studying Sports Journalism Reach me at kvincent@mail.missouri.edu, or in the newsroom at 882-5700

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