Girls golf: Cloverleaf gets to decade of dominance with MAC tournament win

WADSWORTH TWP. — The Cloverleaf girls golf team's conference supremacy officially reached a decade Tuesday. The Colts outpaced Streetsboro 366-389 to win the Metro Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament at Pine Valley Golf Club, which was more than enough to win a 10th straight league title. Cloverleaf also captured the MAC Preseason Tournament and went undefeated in matches. "It's great," junior Quinn Malarkey said. "It's really nice and I'm so happy that I get to share it with all of my teammates. I'm glad that I get to be a part of it. It's really cool." Malarkey paced Cloverleaf and tied for second with Springfield's Lily Headley with a 14-over-par 87. They finished one stroke behind the Spartans' Kylee MacDonald for medalist, but Malarkey secured MAC Player of the Year. The score was higher than usual for Malarkey — she had the team's only birdie on the 277-yard 16th — but the rest of the Colts made sure to preserve victory. Freshman Jaelynn Holmes (91), junior MacLaine Bell (92) and senior Avrielle Dalton (96) rounded out the counting scores, with Holmes and Dalton recording personal bests. Sophomore Cameron Todd (97) and freshman Kora Klinect (102) also notched PRs. Bell joined Malarkey on the All-MAC first team, while Todd was second team and Holmes and Dalton were honorable mention. "They all did really well today," Malarkey said of her teammates. "I'm really proud of all of them. Our freshmen coming in are doing really well this year. "We were worried that we weren't going to have as good of a team this year because we lost three seniors, but now it's looking like were now even a little better, actually." Dalton and Holmes produced counting scores at the MAC Postseason Tournament for the first time. "It's exciting," Holmes said. "I didn't know much about golf, but it's fun being a part of a team and still contributing your own score to help. We all have fun together, practice together and do all the things." Prior to entering high school, Holmes was strictly a softball player. Toward the end of one season, she is learning what she needs to do to be successful at both sports. Holmes highlighted her round with three pars. "I'm happy because this is my first year, and I wanted to do well," she said. "My drives have gotten really good. I'm a softball player, so I had a batter's swing. Now I've finally figured it out, so my shots are semi-decent and I'm hitting it well." Each of the Colts improved from when Cloverleaf won the MAC Preseason Tournament with a 403, also at Pine Valley. That was something Bell in particular was looking for after shooting a 95 at the beginning of August. "Last season I went from playing pretty well in the preseason to not my best at postseason," Bell said. "I'm happy that I was able to improve from preseason to postseason. It's not my best round, but I'm happy to have played well and my whole team did well." Bell was cruising at 8 over through 12 holes before running into a tough three-hole stretch. She was able to close with two bogeys and her fifth par. "Honestly, it's really great," she said of the team's legacy. "I love being able to tell people about it. It feels nice to tell people that don't know the sport that we've won it for 10 years. "It's a little hard to follow in these footsteps sometimes, but it's really nice that we all want it and work really hard." Dalton got warmed up later in her round, recording two of her four pars over the final five holes. Norton's Abigail Collins sank a hole-in-one on the 91-yard 12th. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Results at par-73 Pine Valley G.C. Tournament standings: 1. Cloverleaf 366, 2. Streetsboro 389, 3. Springfield 390, 4. Norton 427, 5. Field 456, 6. Woodridge 458, Season standings: 1. Cloverleaf 30, 2. Streetsboro 24, 3. Norton 19.5, 3. Springfield 19.5, 5. Woodridge 14.5, 6. Field 13 Cloverleaf (366) — Quinn Malarkey 87, Jaelynn Holmes 91, MacLaine Bell 92, Avrielle Dalton 96, Cameron Todd 97, Kora Klinect 102.