The Amherst women’s golf team, hot on the trail of a NESCAC title, faced two challenges this past weekend in the Massachusetts State Championships and the Jack Leaman Invitational. It was an awkward schedule for the Jeffs, during which they played Friday at The Orchards in South Hadley for the one round State Championships, then only the first round of the Leaman at Hickory Ridge in Amherst because they had to head back to The Orchards for the second. All this moving around didn’t affect the team, however, which finished fourth at the State Championships and tied Holy Cross College for fifth at the Jack Leaman.

Atop the leaderboard at the close of the Jack Leaman was—you guessed it—first-year Hayley “Young Gun” Milbourn. Again dropping her score six strokes from day one to day two, she finished with an 82-76-158, five strokes better than her closest opponent, Middlebury Panther Courtney Mazzei. This win came after Milbourn almost took the Mass. State Championships Friday, but was bested by two strokes on the day by Kimberly Eaton of Williams College.

“The greens were unpredictable at the Orchards, which made it tough on all of us to score well, but everyone was able to pull it together and put up good scores both Friday and Sunday,” said Milbourn. Another top performer for the Jeffs over the weekend was sophomore Kinne Schwartz, who finished 10 strokes behind the leader and tied for fourth (83-85-168). Her score, however, was not the only story of the weekend.

After a solid tee shot on the 11th hole of The Orchards, Schwartz hit her second shot into a water hazard. On approach to the hazard, however, she realized that she had hit the wrong ball. Being the upright NESCAC athlete she is, she reported the incident, took a drop and was penalized two strokes. Despite the penalty, however, Schwartz still took five strokes off of her count form the front nine to finish with a 93 on the day.

Amherst women’s golf enthusiasts should remember last year’s story of Hayley Milbourn in the Maryland State Championships, where she was disqualified for accidentally finishing her round with the wrong ball. With all of the issues of cheating and foul play in sports today, it’s comforting to know that the women’s golf team at Amherst prides integrity over winning.

The team heads to Williamstown next weekend for the Williams Invitational where Milbourn and the rest of the team will be under fire from the region’s best.