Platte County players Bailey Silcott, Brylie Kovar, Mackenzie Borland, Lily Ricketts and Ella Green captured the Suburban Conference White Division championship Monday in Pleasant Hill. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Platte County shines in White Division debut, claims 7th straight conference title

Green makes it 3 straight years for Pirates with individual champion, while Silcott, Ricketts, Borland join her on all-conference team.

The color might have changed but not the end result.

For the seventh consecutive year, Platte County took home a championship plaque, but the collection now includes a Suburban Conference White Division title after the Pirates took the top spot in Monday’s five-team tournament at Hoot’s Hollow Golf Course in Pleasant Hill. They won the previous six Blue Division titles before making a move up a tier this season.

Platte County finished with a 345 team total, led by sophomore Ella Green’s 9-over 81 medalist performance. This marked the third year the Pirates claimed an individual title after Kasydie Shipp won it outright in 2021 and shared it with teammate Tori Sanders two years ago.

For the second straight year, Platte County also claimed 4 of 10 all-conference honors with junior Lily Ricketts finishing third (83), senior Bailey Silcott fourth (86) and junior Mackenzie Borland tied for seventh (95). Silcott became a three-time all-conference performer, while Green and Ricketts have now earned the status twice each. Borland did not make the top five last year while playing behind current senior Brylie Kovar, who placed 11th for a second straight year.

Green set Platte County’s 18-hole round record earlier this year with an 80 at Moila Country Club in St. Joseph, and while missing that number by just one shot at conference, she did match her record score in relation to par (+9). Green placed fourth in conference last season.

Ricketts also made a move up from her ninth-place showing as a sophomore after being outside Platte County’s top five at conference as a freshman. Like Silcott, she is a two-time qualifier for the Class 3 Missouri State Golf Championships.

Silcott finished as conference runnerup to Shipp as a junior.

Kovar missed all-conference honors by just one shot with her 101 in a field of 19 individual golfers. Platte County’s 345 bested runnerup Grain Valley by 23 shots, and Belton (445) and Raytown (476) were a distant third and fourth. William Chrisman only brought one player. The Pirates’ experience with the course showed, having been successful in the season-opening Raymore-Peculiar Invitational scramble in recent years.

Now, Platte County’s attention shifts to the postseason after Wednesday’s tuneup in the Highway 92 Showdown vs. Smithville and Kearney. The Class 3 District 4 tournament is scheduled for Monday at Eagles Landing Golf Course in Belton, and Platte County has qualified a team for state each of the past two seasons and placed fifth as a team in 2020 and sixth in 2021.

In 2020, automatic team berths to state were eliminated, but Platte County qualified all five individuals and the right to compete as a team. That was the first state team for the Pirates since gging in Class 1 back in 2002 and 2003.

That season, Silcott tied for fifth at Class 3 District 4 as Platte County’s top finisher, while Ricketts tied for 14th. A lack of teams with at least four qualifiers in 2020 led to lackluster state competition. Last year, the top two teams advanced their top four from districts to state, and the next 12 individuals not from the qualifying teams also advanced.

Platte County finished second to Pembroke Hill to earn the team berth with Silcott eighth, Green ninth and Ricketts 24th to make the qualifying team. Kovar came in 33rd and did not advance.

The postseason system will be the same this year, meaning a No. 5 player will have to earn one of the 12 individual spots or tie with the team’s No. 4 player to reach state.

Smithville Invitational

Platte County returned to form in tournament play, finishing second overall with a team total of 363 on Wednesday on the Outlaw Course at Paradise Pointe Golf Complex in Smithville. The Pirates had shot 402 and 375 in the Oak Park Invitational and Liberty North Invitational.

In fact, the 402 came on the same course a little over a week earlier.

Green placed third with an 11-over 83, while Silcott finished a tie for fourth right behind her with an 86 to lead Platte County. Borland just missed the top 10, coming 11th with a 94, and Ricketts and Kovar tied for the Pirates’ fourth score with matching 101s — good enough to be part of a tie for 19th place.

“The team gained some great momentum with their performance on the course,” Short said. “We wanted to achieve a simple goal of putting the ball in the fairway off the tee. That was our main focus, and it seemed to pay off.”

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