Plenty of competition on Lady Crusaders golf team

Jenna Kosmatka, a two-time state qualifier, returns to lead the Helias Lady Crusaders this season.
Jenna Kosmatka, a two-time state qualifier, returns to lead the Helias Lady Crusaders this season.

Competition is a nice problem to have.

Last season, Helias girls golf coach Dan Mathes changed the starting varsity lineup after the first tournament of the season. The lineup stayed that way the remainder of the year.

"I do not see that happening this year," Mathes said as the Lady Crusaders prepare to start this season this afternoon with a quad at Railwood Golf Club. "During qualifying, the players in spots 3-7 were separated by four total strokes.

"This year, if you don't have a good day or two on the varsity, there is going to be somebody ready to take your spot coming up from the junior varsity. There is nothing wrong with a little competition."

The Lady Crusaders will be led by Jenna Kosmatka, the lone senior on the squad. Kosmatka is a two-time state qualifier, including a 13th-place finish as a junior.

"You can tell she is a senior," Mathes said. "She's really stepped forward and is taking care of things at practice."

Kosmatka is coming off a successful summer of competition, including being selected as one of five girls to play for Missouri in the Southern States Junior Cup in Cape Girardeau.

"She was ready on the first day we were out here, she didn't need three weeks of practice," Mathes said. "She was shooting a lot of low scores this summer and she played against a lot of great competition."

Lauren Plunkett, a junior, will be the No. 2 player for the Lady Crusaders. She was a state qualifier as a sophomore.

"I can see a pattern similar to what Jenna has gone through," Mathes said. "Lauren is pushing her way toward the top and I'm looking for her to take a big step this season."

Ashton Lorts and Maggie Kehoe, also juniors, will be joined by freshman Alex Nelson in the starting lineup today.

Among the others battling for varsity spots are Lucy Francka and Emily Bexten.

The group has posted some good scores in practice, Mathes said.

"We've had a couple in the 30s, but there have been as many as eight players in the 40s," he said.

And that's the key to being a successful team. Mathes said in four of Helias' five tournaments last year, the team had to use a score of 100 or more.

"We can't be an elite team with that score," he said. "Our No. 4 and No. 5 girls have got to step up and post competitive scores. We're capable of that. We have good players at the top of the lineup, how successful we are is going to come down to the 3-4-5 girls."

Mathes noted St. Joseph's Academy finished second in Class 2 last season without an all-state player.

"But they had two girls in the 80s and two in the low 90s and that's how you are successful as a team," he said.

Helias will drop from Class 2 to Class 1 this season.

"For a lot of years, we were in the big class and if we were still there, OK," Mathes said. "But the first thing I told the girls was the top teams in Class 1 posted the same scores as Class 2 on very similar courses last year. So there are a lot of talented teams at the top of Class 1 that can play with anybody in the state."