The Lexington Wildcats topped a field which included the top-10 High School teams in the state at the WSCGA Junior Golf Foundation Invitational. (WSCGA Photo)

The high school girls golf season is only a few weeks old, and only a few weeks from the state playoffs, and one thing is becoming clear.

Lexington is the team to beat in the AAAAA ranks. So far the Wildcats have been the top team in tournament play with the top teams from other classifications as well.

The Wildcats won the team title at the Women’s South Carolina Golf Association Junior Foundation High School Invitational at the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence.

Fifteen teams took part in the WSCGA sponsored event.

Included in the field was each of the top-10 teams in the recent SC Golf Coaches All-Classification poll.

The Wildcats opened a 10-shot lead in the first round with a 297 total. Last year’s AAAAA state champion from Blythewood tied for second with Hilton Head Prep after the opening round.

In the final round the Wildcats lost a little of their lead as Blythewood improved by 10 shots.

The Bengals finished with a 604 two-day total to break out of their tie with Hilton Head Prep, but Blythewood could not catch Lexington as the Wildcats finished with a 598 total.

The winning Lexington team included Isabella Rawl, Karlee Vardas, Molly Hardwick and Emily Beiers.

The runner-up Bengals team included Ella Stalvey, Paige Paolucci, Carolina Hawkins and Lizze Madden.

There was a wide margin between the first three teams and the rest of the field.

Teams from all classifications, big schools and smaller schools, participated in the tournament so while all the teams would like to have won the event there were a couple of tournaments within the tournaments.

Chesnee finished one shot in front of their AAA-AA-A Classification rivals from Gilbert for fourth place at the WSCGA Junior Foundation High School Invitational. (WSCGA Photo)

The top two AAA-AA-A ranked teams had a good battle for fourth place.

Chesnee, last year’s runner up in the classification, finished one shot ahead of Gilbert, the second ranked team in AAA-AA-A.

The Chesnee team included Isabella Britt, Sydney Roberts, Olivia Roberts and Becca Watson.

The Gilbert team included Kennedy Gooding, Alexis Hodge, Edie Raine Hardee and Meredith Price.

Individually Rawl, a  future Clemson golfer, from Lexington shot rounds of 69 and 68 to finish at 7-under par 137 and earn medalist honors.

Belton-Honea Path’s Kennedy McGaha was the only other golfer to finish under par. McGaha shot rounds of 69 and 72 for a 3-under par 141 total.

Mackenzie Gallagher from Hillton Head Prep and Lexi Bennett from Lawrence Manning tied for third place.

MK Talledo from Boiling Springs,  Vardas from Lexington and Paolucci from Blythewood all tied for fifth place at 2-over par 146.

Complete tournament scores are available at  https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/6066242655963105221