By Ben Cox
Photos submitted
Three young ladies from Jacksonville Middle School and one from Our Saviour School performed at a high level at the IESA State Golf Tournament at the Metamora Fields Golf Club on Sept. 11.
Jacksonville Middle School golf coach Derek James says that things got exciting the week before the state meet at the Sectional meet at Lincoln Greens in Springfield.
“The sectional was pretty exciting because you never know what the number of qualifying golfers is going to be,” James explains, “They tell you to shoot for a certain score and obviously all three made it. Lydia [Baptist] was the last one to make it in. What happened was two girls qualified for their team and pushed her up. Alaina [Freeman] and Rylan [Blakeman] shot career rounds at sectionals to qualify.”
It was Lydia Baptist’s second year to qualify. James said she was also the final qualifier at the sectional meet last year, as well. Baptist joins Mya Mefford as one of the only multi-year state tournament qualifiers. It is the first year that Jacksonville Middle School has had three qualifying golfers for the state tournament.
Blakeman shot a career best 89 to finish top 16 in state. Freeman also shot a career best with a 94 to finish 24th in the state. Baptist improved on her 2024 state appearance by 2 shots, shooting 100 and earning the 43rd spot in the state tournament. Coach James says he’s excited for next year as Freeman will return for her eighth grade season, “She’s just starting to play well and oh my gosh, she careered it and it was great.”
Our Saviour School had the top golfer in Jacksonville at the State Tournament. Kendyl Mudd shot an 8-over 79 for a fourth-place finish. Mudd won the Sectional meet for the second year in a row. It was also the second year in a row that Mudd finished in the Top 10 at the tournament.
OSS Coach Jason Bryant says that he and coach James helped to provide more opportunities to young golfers in the area when they started coaching, and it has caused a plethora of talent in the area to emerge at several new local tournaments.
Coach Bryant says that Mudd started improving her game after being involved in the junior PGA league in Springfield, “There’s a lot of golf outside of the scholastic programs. There’s the US Kids tour. There’s the Under Armour Tour. There’s the Hurricane Junior golf tour. I always encourage my kids on the middle school team and their parents that if this is something that you’re serious about, then look into these kinds of programs. Springfield has a junior PGA program. Kendyl is nationally ranked on the junior golf scoreboard. So, if your intention is to continue your golf career into high school and into college, these are kind of the steps that you have to take to do that.” Mudd now has the highest finish at the State Tournament for an Our Saviour School girls’ golfer.
Mudd wasn’t the only qualifier from Our Saviour School. Coach Bryant’s son, Logan Bryant, took home the top score at Sectionals on the boys’ side and finished 19th overall at the State Tournament as a seventh grader.
Coach Bryant says that it speaks volumes about the program that he and coach James have helped build in the Jacksonville community, “We’re excited for all of them. It’s a great thing when we can have Jacksonville Middle School and Our Saviour’s students go out and compete as well as they do and then bring that back here to the community.”
Coach James, who is a PGA-certified instructor, says he’s seeing the middle school program paying off, “I was trying to be impartial at the tournament. I’m Kendyl’s swing coach, but the Jacksonville community really has a good stand out group of young golfers. It’s showing at the high school right now with the boys and girls teams winning tournaments. It’s neat to see everyone pushing through and building up that program.”
