Taylor Kisic and Kristin McCoy shoot 83 at Sandy Pines to lead Chesterton to sixth-place finish at the regional on final day of the season

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The girls golf regional field at Sandy Pines was so loaded Saturday that Chesterton would need four golfers delivering strong rounds to have a shot at advancing to state.
No. 1 Kristin McCoy and No. 2 Taylor Kisic were up to the challenge, each firing an 83, but they were the only Trojans in the 80s and the team finished sixth among 15 schools with a team score of 366.
Lake Central (332) won its second consecutive regional, and South Bend St. Joseph (341) and Penn (347) also advanced to state.
Munster (358) and Crown Point (363) finished ahead of Chesterton but didn’t make the state cut.
Valparaiso freshman Kennedy Gutierrez, the lone golfer from the DAC not from Lake Central to advance to state, shot a 2-under-par 70, good enough to win the regional in most seasons, but only good enough for second place on Saturday. Gutierrez birdied two of the first three holes, shot 35-35 and was so steady that her card on the back nine had eight pars and one birdie, yet she finished three strokes behind the winner.
Rochester’s Olivia Bailey fired a 67 with a hole-in-one on No. 17, part of a remarkable finish during which she made up five strokes on par in the final four holes. She finished birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie for a 32 on a back nine that started with a double bogey. Munster’s Hannah Ingersoll (76) joined Gutierrez and Bailey in advancing to the state tournament as an individual.

Even with good putting days, McCoy and Kisic could not have contended with the top two finishers, but they did have terrific ball-striking days. Munster’s Hannah Ingersoll (76) joined Gutierrez and Bailey in advancing to the state tournament as an individual.
“My driver was on fire,” McCoy said. “My irons were too. It was my putter today, and it’s half the round.”
McCoy said she had five three-putt greens and Kisic said she had six.
Kisic started her sophomore season with a 99 on Sandy Pines on Aug. 4 and finished it with an 83 on the same course on Sep. 27.
The difference?
“I’d say staying in my own game, not focusing on what the other girls were shooting, not focusing on beating them, just staying in my own game, one shot at a time, forgetting the bad shots,” Kisic said. “That’s what I struggled with at the beginning of the season, causing me to shoot those higher 90s.”
Same golfer, different mindset by the end of the season.
“I felt that like when I hit a bad shot, I would just let it go and come back with my next shot,” Kisic said. “I learned how to control my emotions more because golf is a very mental sport”
Every golfer tries to do that, but it’s difficult to achieve. How did Kisic do it?
“Just breathing through it, loosening my swing up, not trying to control the ball too much,” said Kisic, whose lone birdie Saturday came on No. 15, a par 5. “Just line up, hit the same shot you hit every time, and it’ll go where you want it to go.”
The ball did that for Kisic and McCoy during their final round of the season.
Chesterton’s top four players return next season, including Genevieve Driscoll, who shot a 96 Saturday and Liz Dodds, who shot a 104. Caitlyn Robison (105) was the lone senior who competed for the Trojans at the regional.
“I don’t know if Kirstin missed a fairway all day. Taylor, I don’t know if she missed a fairway. It was that good. The par 3s were landing,” Trojans coach Pat Ward said. “Putting was our biggest downfall today, but it’s OK. On this course it’s what’s going to happen. The putts were just sliding past, so many opportunities, so many. I’m very excited about what we’re going to be doing. They played really well today. A little bit more time and I think we’re going to be in good shape next season.”
Ward, in charge of the boys’ program when Chesterton made it to state in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024, shared what he would like to see the girls team learn from that group.
“I hope they play as many days of the week as they can,” Ward said. “They should be playing every day. When the boys team had success, they were out there every day together, playing holes together, practicing every day during the summer. … . I’m hoping the girls do the same thing. Obviously, we have a couple of multi-sport athletes here, but if they can find time, we have a bright future.”
Rare is the day McCoy is not either playing a round or practicing at Sand Creek, weather permitting.
“I want it really bad, so I hope they do too,” McCoy said of teammates. “I spend most of my time out there, so if they want to hang out with me, that’s where they have to go.”
Kisic, who like Dodds plays basketball and softball, said she expects to see a lot of McCoy over the summer.
“I think that we all need to play consistently and not take breaks over the summer if we all want to come back here and all shoot well, shoot in the 80s,” Kisic said. “If we take a break over the summer, we won’t be as good.”