Girls golf: Brunswick has good day at Rocky River Invite

FAIRVIEW PARK — The Brunswick girls golf team and sophomore Ellie Gonzalez-Ribble added to their hardware collection Wednesday. Both the Blue Devils and Gonzalez-Ribble were steady at Big Met Golf Course to win the Rocky River Invitational. Brunswick turned in a 329, 15 shots ahead of second-place North Royalton, and Gonzalez-Ribble carded a 1-over-par 74 to earn medalist honors despite bogeying her final two holes. "We're having a lot of fun," Gonzalez-Ribble said. "We are excited to try to get to state this year. We think we have a pretty good chance. We missed out on going last year, and I'm really hoping our team can have that fun experience." Medina (375) finished fourth at the 12-team event behind seniors Lily Zimmerman (87) and Corinne Christeon (89). Cloverleaf (383) shot its best 18-hole round of the season to finish sixth, with junior Quinn Malarkey pacing the Colts with an 84. Individually, Brunswick freshman Emma Gonzalez-Ribble (80) and junior Rylee Roth (83), along with Malarkey, finished third, fourth and fifth out of 69 golfers. Zimmerman was ninth. Armed with a new putter, Ellie Gonzalez-Ribble was excellent around the greens, finishing her round with 31 putts. One par-saving 30-foot putt was particularly memorable. Her second shot on the 389-yard par-5 14th found a green-side bunker. In one of her few missed shots of the round, Gonzalez-Ribble needed two shots to get out of the bunker, setting up the long par putt that she sank. "It took me two to get out of the bunker and I still had like 30 feet left," she said. "I drained a 30-footer for par and was able to just kind of laugh that hole off. It was just kind of funny." Out of five par 5s, Gonzalez-Ribble birdied the 381-yard fifth, the 459-yard 13th and the 450-yard 16th. Emma Gonzalez-Ribble was nearly as good with her putter, needing only 33 strokes from the green. Her lone birdie came on No. 14, a dogleg right where she sank a 30-foot putt. She added 11 pars to her round. "I feel like I could have done better, but I also could have done a lot worse," Emma Gonzalez-Ribble said. "I'm pretty happy with how I did, scoring-wise. I love our team and think we're doing awesome so far." After a slow start, Roth began to heat up with a birdie on the 421-yard, par-5 ninth. She added birdies on back-to-back par 5s, Nos. 13 and 14. She also parred four of her final five holes. "The greens were definitely slower and trickier, but I had 31 putts," Roth said. "My short game was pretty good. My ball striking was not that good. I could definitely practice that a little bit more." Brianna Behrend (92) rounded out Brunswick's scoring. Malarkey, who started on No. 13, found her rhythm in the middle of the round with pars on nine of 10 holes starting with the 284-yard 17th. That run had her at 4 over through 14 holes, a position that had her in contention with Rocky River's Rylie Quaiser (77) for runner-up. A bogey on the ninth led to a closing four-hole stretch in which Malarkey went 7 over. "I was doing really well, but then hole No. 10 (a triple bogey) got me and I couldn't finish from there," Malarkey said. "I was hitting the ball really well and putting decent. My wedges were really good today." MacLaine Bell (91) was the only other Colt to break 100. The highlight of Zimmerman's round was a birdie on No. 16. She added six pars. "I'm feeling good," she said. "I'm a lot more confident than I was last year. My scores are starting to go down and it's really good so far." Christeon had five pars, while teammate Marissa Nugent carded a 96. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Results at par-73 Big Met G.C. Standings: 1. Brunswick 329, 2. North Royalton 344, 3. Rocky River 368, 4. Medina 375, 5. Bay 380, 6. Cloverleaf 383, 7. Strongsville 396, 8. Olmsted Falls 413, 9. Westlake 420, 10. Midview 421, 11. Shaker Heights 438, 12. Vermilion 500. Brunswick (329) — Ellie Gonzalez-Ribble 74, Emma Gonzalez-Ribble 80, Rylee Roth 83, Brianna Behrend 92, Jess Buzinski 96, Autumn Muslusky 100. Medina (375) — Lily Zimmerman 87, Corinne Christeon 89, Marissa Nugent 96, Honor Hlavna 103, Madison Roose 109. Cloverleaf (383) — Quinn Malarkey 84, MacLaine Bell 91, Cameron Todd 102, Jaelynn Holmes 106, Avrielle Dalton 113, Lily Dluzynski 124.