Steinbrenner Girls Golf Takes District Championship

The Steinbrenner Warriors girls golf team rode a wave of momentum into Monday's district playoffs in Plant City and came away with the district title. The Steinbrenner girls have at least qualified for regionals every year they've had a team. They were undefeated coming into the district playoffs and they left that way.

"Our top three or four golfers are right there," Warriors Coach Mark Mann said. "Any day any one of them could go out and outscore the other ones. It only makes them better."

The Warriors were simply better on Monday.

Top golfer in sophomore Claire Becker chased the individual title all morning and afternoon but could not quite close the gap with Freedom's sophomore Terese Romeo and had to settle for second place with a score of 78, tying her personal best.

"The conditions were not the best but we did pretty good anyway," Becker said.

The wet field and unfamiliar course were only minor obstacles that the Warrior golfers powered through taking five of the top 10 individual scores. Behind Becker, sophomores Kelsey Holbert (82) and Kayla Poff (88) both rung up strong scores. Junior Brooke Deal and sophomore Hanna Crosby both shot a 90.

"We were hoping to get an 82 average, we shot an 84 average," Mann said. "That's the kind of consistency we're looking for."

The Steinbrenner girls just missed qualifying for states last year.

"These girls that returned, they want to go to states," Mann said.