3A girls golf: Andrews rolls to second straight team crown

AUSTIN There was no delay to this celebration.

That's because the Andrews Lady Mustangs left no doubt Friday during the final round of the UIL Class 3A Girls State Golf Championships.

On a day filled with soaring scores across Roy Kizer Golf Course, Andrews shot a 315 and finished at 620 for its second consecutive state team title and the eighth state title in program history.

Addison Long made it a little more special by becoming the first Lady Mustangs golfer to win a state medalist title, shooting consecutive rounds of 72 to finish at 144, good for a four-shot victory.

"It feels pretty good to get two in a row," Andrews senior Addison Long said. "Not many people get to do that. It's very rewarding. We work our butts off for this, so it's very rewarding. I'm speechless, really, winning individually and as a team."

The 36-hole score of 620 set a new scoring record for the 3A state tournament, eclipsing the 635 by Snyder from the 2006 tournament.

Long and fellow seniors Jennifer Joyce, Kaylan Brownlee and Desiree Gallegos all were making their fourth consecutive appearance at the state tournament and left their marks with the victory, along with junior Morgan Dockery in her first state appearance.

Joyce finished sixth in the medalist standings at 155 after shooting a 78 in the final round. Dockery shot 80 in the final round and finished at 156, tied for seventh in the medalist race, with the top 10 players earning all-state honors.

Also, Brownlee carded an 85 to come in at 165 and Gallegos shot 86 to finish at 167 in the state championship effort.

"This team, we've broke -- I honestly dont know -- how many records," Joyce said. "We were the record-breaking crew and we broke another record at state. We've been together since our seventh grade year, four of us have, and then Morgan is a super strong player and has helped pull us through and it was a really good year."

The Andrews seniors returned with the experience of outdueling Snyder for the 2007 state title, a battle that came down to the very last hole.

As that round completed, there was a hushed silence as numbers were crunched to figure out the champion.

After opening up a lead of about 20 shots by the turn in the final round, though, the Lady Mustangs simply had to hang on. They did and each player walked off with smiles and to smiling Andrews supporters, finally celebrating on the closing green -- No. 9 in this case -- after Long and the final group finished the round.

"We wanted to leave with a good tournament win and just play good and play the best that we can because it's our last tournament," Brownlee said. "We did, so we're happy. It's another good memory."

Long, Joyce, Brownlee and Gallegos all are seniors and all made the state tournament four consecutive years, including twice in Class 4A in 2005 and 2006 as freshmen and sophomores. Dockery is a junior and will be the only returner next season along with alternate Kaitlyn Gilbreath.

"It's pretty amazing because we've grown up together since seventh grade," Gallegos said. "It's fun to be with your friends and accomplish something great, like win state and break records. It's pretty cool."

While three of the four seniors are off to play golf in college, Dockery -- who overcame a back injury to play this season -- will return along with alternate Kaitlyn Gilbreath to help keep the program rolling along.

She helped in a big way by having scores count in each round at the district, regional and state levels.

"I felt like I had to do this much work just to be where I am now," Dockery said. "I saw my brother (Dylan) at state last year and that's what I wanted to do and I wanted to be a part of it."

The annals of history won't lie simply by the numbers Andrews put up throughout the season, by setting course records for the program just about everywhere possible to setting the 3A girls state scoring record.

Mark Burgen, who is in his fifth year as the program's head coach and also was a state champion when the Andrews boys won the state team title in 1987, said such performances don't come on accident.

"I give our girls a lot of credit for playing smart," Burgen said. "That's not the lowest round of golf we've ever played, but it may be one of the smartest we've ever played. We put ourselves in position as best they could to try to avoid mistakes.

"Last year was a different situation. It was celebration and tears and slight relief. This year we actually got to celebrate each girl coming in because we knew we had a comfortable lead. It was a totally different atmosphere, but no doubt the same joy because you're celebrating at the end."