GC Finishes 3rd at 6A Golf, McMillen falls in playoff

The Garden City girls golf team after claiming third place at the Class 6A State Girls Golf Tournament at Hutchinson. (Photo from Garden City Athletics Twitter)

Garden City gave it a run on Day 2 of the Class 6A Girls Golf State Championships at the Carey Park Golf Course in Hutchinson, but their efforts came up just short of making it all the way back to the top of the standings.

Their leading player at State, Alyssa McMillen, helped lead a charge, and found herself in the lead at one point on the Back 9. However, McMillen would end up in a tie for top individual honors at the end of the second round, forcing a playoff.

McMillen fell short in the second hole of the playoff to defending state champion Julia Misemer of Blue Valley West to finish second, while the Buffaloes ended up in third place . The finish for both an individual and a team is the best since 2013, when Garden City hosted the state tournament at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course.

"Words can’t express how proud Coach (Carlos) Prieto and myself are of these young ladies," said Buffaloes golf coach Trent Specht in a post on Twitter after the tournament on Tuesday. "We were mentally tough throughout the whole tournament."

Freshman Ryann Warren also finished in the Top 20 for the Buffaloes.

Shawnee Mission East held off Shawnee-Mill Valley to win the team title. Garden City improved on their Day 1 total by 20 shots, but the other teams in the Top 4 also improved their scores from Day 1 to make a comeback difficult.