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Lakeview girls chase Division II state title
Neumeister, Bulldogs
look to finish strong
By Brian Dzenis
LAKEVIEW
Kaylee Neumeister has little left to prove at this stage of her amateur golf career.
Heading into the final weekend of the Lakeview senior’s high school career, she has two Vindicator Greatest Golfer in the Valley titles, three appearances in the state tournament and a verbal commitment to Cleveland State among many accolades, but she hasn’t won a state title as an individual or alongside her teammates.
That last trophy isn’t an obsession for Neumeister, but she agrees it would a fitting end to things.
“I definitely want it,” she said. “I don’t think I need it, but it would definitely be something to end my high school career on a high note.”
It’s very much about what is and isn’t being discussed as the Bulldogs chase a Division II state title this weekend at Ohio State’s Gray Course. There’s little talk of actually winning a state title. Coach Mike Turco wants to keep his team’s nerves low, but they have talked about being in the conversation for a championship.
“We definitely talked about expectations. Any time you’ve been there, you want to improve and the only place to improve is No. 1 and then you have to talk about winning it,” Turco said. “It just has to happen, if they play as well as a team that I think they’re capable of, then that’s definitely a good possibility and that’s their goal.”
Lakeview was the state runner-up in 2014, losing by nine strokes to Sugarcreek Garaway. That deficit came on the first day and despite matching the Pirates stroke for stroke on the second day, it wasn’t enough.
“That was crazy honestly, going into the next day nine shots behind,” Neumeister said. “Winning was the goal and we didn’t quite reach it, but we had a strong showing.
“We definitely have room for improvement this year and that’s what we’re looking for and we’re very excited to get back there.”
Both Neumeister and her coach want this weekend to have a similer flow to last year’s tournament. They would prefer spending the weekend chasing an opponent with the lead than holding off a challenger.
“I would rather chase someone — it gives me a goal and gives me more motivation to pull off more shots that I need to pull off instead of sort of playing defense the whole time,” Neumeister said.
Looking at scores of teams coming out of district play, Lakeview sees itself amoung the top three. Garaway shot a 335, Milan Edison shot 346 and then there’s Lakeview with 356.
“We definitely have a lot of room for improvement since districts, but I think you’re looking at a pretty even field in the top three,” Turco said.
After Neumiester, Ashley Frasca, Taylor Horn, Emily Coller and Molly McAllister round out the Bulldogs’ top five. With four of the team’s starters graduating this spring, there’s plenty of talk about college plans, something Neumeister is glad to already have sorted out.
“I kind of wanted to get it out of the way before my summer season began so it would kind of be one less thing to stress about,” Neumeister said. [Cleveland State] was just a perfect fit for me and I wanted to jump on it.
“It’s a big relief. My teammates have been talking to coaches and they’re asking me for advice on that process, so I think it’s a benefit for me and my teammates as well.”
And that leads to the final subject no one is quite ready to acknowledge just yet — that it’s the final tournament for Lakeview’s four seniors.
“We’ve been counting down the last practice together and last practice round together and there’s 36 holes left in that Bulldog uniform, so it’s been an emotional week, but we’re trying to keep that to the side during this trip down there to focus on our goal,” Neumeister said.