After plodding her way through a self-proclaimed "frustrating and disappointing" regular season, it turns out all Audra McShane needed was a wake-up call.

And luckily for her, thanks to Marriotts Ridge sophomore Jenna Albright, the call came just in time.

Two days before the county tournament at the Timbers at Troy, Albright beat McShane by three points in the final match of the regular season Sept. 29. It was the first time this fall that McShane, a senior at Centennial, had lost and it also marked her second-worst round of the year (20 points).

"I was really upset and it made me realize that I wasn't playing my game, I wasn't focusing like I needed to," said McShane, whose scoring average had slipped nearly two points from her junior year. "It definitely made me want to win even more (at the county tournament), and I guess, in a way, I think I needed something like that to get back on track."

Extra motivation in tow, McShane went on to not only win the county tournament, but also captured the District V tournament title two days later.

"I'd been so close at counties before. Finishing second twice, especially by one, that's been on my mind all year," said McShane, who shot the same score (48 points) as she did last fall when she lost to Mt. Hebron's Suh Hwang. The county tournament is played under the Stableford scoring system, which awards four points for a birdie, three for a par, two for a bogey and one for a double bogey.

Switching to stroke play at districts, McShane didn't miss a beat. She shot a 5-over-par round of 75 at Fairway Hills to win by four over Arundel's Elyse Smidinger. Between the two tournaments, McShane won by a combined 17 shots and her effort at counties helped Centennial win the first-ever girls county tournament, beating Marriotts Ridge, 125-81.

Atholton's Morgan Hill also had a breakthrough week, winning the county tournament by six shots and then finishing tied for second at districts with a round of 74. Like McShane, Hill's victory at the county tournament came after a season where his scoring average had dipped.

"This season has been a real struggle at times for me, but this (tournament) was my focus from the beginning. I wanted to be ready for today," he said.

His teammate, Seong Lee, finished second at counties with a round of 47 points and those two helped the Raiders win the team title at that event as well.

For full results, go to High School Wrap-Up.

County tournament

McShane's day at the county tournament Oct. 1 really kick-started itself on the third hole when she stuck her approach shot within five-feet to set up a birdie. On that same hole, Albright, who ended up finishing third with a round of 33 points, made a double bogey and McShane had quickly opened up a comfortable four-shot cushion.

The rest of the day was played on cruise control, with McShane playing some superb irons and never seeing her lead shrink below three points. Marriotts Ridge's Tory Stader, playing two groups behind McShane and Albright, ended up finishing second with 35 points.

The beginning of Hill's round was a roller coaster. On the first hole, after hitting the green in two, he three-putted, including a miss from less than three feet for par.

"After that putt I was like 'Oh, man, please don't tell me its going to be one of those days,' ... not today," Hill said. "The conditions were tough, being so wet after all the rain, and the last thing I wanted to do was throw shots away around the greens."

Hill recovered nicely, however, making a 6-footer for par on No. 3 and then a birdie putt from off the green on No. 4. Just like that he was back to even par and, while he was steadying his ship, those around him were falling apart.

Lee double bogeyed his first hole, Marriotts Ridge's John Kim (third place with 46 points) bogeyed his first two, Glenelg's Matt Philie (tie for fourth with 44) tripled No. 3, and Reservoir's Sean Heintzelman (tie for fourth with 44) bogeyed three of his first five.

Over the final 14 holes, Hill made three more birdies and never let himself fall lower than two-over par. On the final hole, with the individual title already wrapped up, Hill sunk a 6-footer for par to secure a round of 53 points.

Lee also finished strong for Atholton, playing his final eight holes 1-over to finish one-point ahead of Kim, who was seventh in this tournament last year as a freshman. And considering Lee was playing football at this time last fall for the Raiders, the top two finish impressed even himself.

"I have to thank Morgan, because he convinced me to come out for the team, he told me I had the potential to do something like this," Lee said. "Coming into my freshman year, when I was deciding between football and golf, I told myself that there was no way I was good enough to come out here ... I guess I proved myself wrong."

Atholton's one-two punch at the top proved imperative, as the Raiders got 36 points from Chris Biggins and 30 from Ethan Wasil in their final two spots. As it turned out, the 166-point total was just two strokes better than River Hill, which scored 164 after going unbeaten during the regular season.

"It's tough because this is the second time we've been through this since golf started," said River Hill coach Matt Graves, referencing the 2005 season when his team also went undefeated and then lost at the county tournament. "If you look at the scores, though, I can't really be upset. We wanted everyone to score right around 40 and they did that, it just wasn't enough."

Will Swygert and Ryan Park led the way for River Hill with 42 points apiece, earning a tie for ninth.

Behind River Hill, Glenelg put up 158 points and Marriotts Ridge scored 150 to finish third and fourth, respectively.

District V tournament

There were plenty of good shots for Hill at the District V tournament Oct. 3, where he finished in a tie for second. But the Atholton junior said afterward that it was a couple of bad ones at the end of his round that will probably stick with him.

Hill three-putted three of his final four holes, including No. 18 after he hit the 493-yard par 5 in two. He didn't know it at the time, but had he two-putted any of those, Atholton (323 points) would have been in a playoff for a chance to go to states as a team in the 3A/4A classification.

"All day I was hitting the ball great, but I just couldn't get the putter going at all and it really cost me at the end," said Hill, whose Raiders finished fourth behind Broadneck (321), South River (322) and Severna Park (322). "I was thinking I needed to make all those first putts to catch Josh (Eure) and I was giving myself too much (green) coming back. It's tough, it really is. When it's one stroke, like that, you can't help but think you let your team down."

Eure, a senior at South River, ended up shooting a 1-over par round of 71 to finish first and three ahead of Hill and Glenelg's Alex Taylor. Lee ended up four shots back with a round of 75 to tie for fourth.

The rough finish didn't completely overshadow a very solid round for Hill, who was only 1-over heading into No. 15 and very much within striking distance of the lead.

The same can be said for Taylor, who, until a double bogey on No. 16, had also played his entire round within three strokes of the lead. His round of 74, two days after shooting 43 points at counties, led the way on a Glenelg squad that ended up qualifying for states as a team in the 1A/2A classification with a team total of 327 points. This is the fourth straight year the Gladiators have qualified for the season-ending tournament, which is scheduled for Oct. 21-23 at the Potomac Ridge golf course.

"That wasn't us out there at counties, it especially wasn't me. My mind for some reason just wasn't in it, but we knew we still had that shot to get to states," said Taylor. "All year we've been so up and down, shooting in the 90s and then in the 70s ... luckily today ended up being one of the good days."

Glenelg got a huge boost from Stephen Castro shooting a 78 and Matt Philie firing a round of 80.

Reservoir's Heintzelman (76), Centennial's Braden Poe (77) and River Hill's Patrick Bindel (80) all qualified for the state tournament individually. Heintzelman's sixth place-finish was especially notable considering he just began playing golf 14 months ago.

"I focused so much on my short game since last season, and when I got it going today it was my putting that really picked me up," said Heintzelman, who had a stretch of three straight birdies in the middle of his round. "The five to 10 footers that were missing, those started going in for me."

On the girls' side, McShane will be joined at states by Long Reach's Michelle Gravdahl (88), Marriotts Ridge's Albright (90) and Stader (99), along with Centennial's Jessica Mehta (91) and Alex McShane (94).

For Gravdahl, a standout softball player, the fifth-place individual finish among the girls was a tremendous bounce-back round after shooting only 24 points at counties.

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