By Jed Blackwell. Associate Editor-Publisher

Dorman coach Laura Maurer had no trouble putting the Cavaliers’ third straight 5A golf title in perspective.

“I’m just really, really proud to be a Dorman Cavalier,” she said. “Every day. But especially today.”

Dorman won the 5A Division I state golf championship at the Columbia Country Club on Wednesday, firing a two-day total of 647 to beat second-place River Bluff by 12 strokes.

The Cavaliers’ victory didn’t include any gaudy individual numbers,

just steady team golf. All five Dorman scores fell in the top 39 of the tournament, with the four scores that counted all in the top 30.

Maurer said that was typical of what the Cavaliers have done for most of the year.

“We definitely spent most of the season relying on our two captains, Londyn Rath and Ava Romansky, to train our No. 4 and 5 underclassmen. They led by example. They took them into pressure situations in practice and we saw some of them today. Leaning on our veterans
definitely helped us.”

Dorman entered the second round with an 11-shot lead over Carolina Forest thanks to strong performances up and down the lineup.

Rath fired an opening 73, while Romansky had a 75, AC Peake shot 80, and Addison Cox shot 91. Peake’s 77 led the way on day two of the tournament, with Rath turning in an 80, Romansky shooting an 82, and Cox turning in an 89.

“Honestly, this was a whole team win,” Maurer said. “It wasn’t just one of our athletes, it was all four scores that counted. I think what I’m most proud of is that the girls who had better days yesterday didn’t have to stress too much today, because the others stepped up and gave them some cushion. We picked up some strokes in places today by being really aggressive and making some easy pars and getting some birdies to drop. The course was set up really tough around the greens, and in some places it was hard to create opportunities to score.”

Maurer said she was thrilled with the Cavaliers’ third straight title.

“Two years ago, nobody expected a second title,” she said. “Three is amazing. It speaks highly of the girls and the coaching staff. I couldn’t do it without my assistant, Kristen Duncan. Her experience in coaching adds so much that we wouldn’t have from just necessarily a golf perspective. I’m just really proud of my staff and our players.”

In the individual race, Blythewood’s Caroline Hawkins ran away with medalist honors, shooting a two-day total of 139, five-under par, to outdistance Wando’s Grace Lindsey, her closest pursuer at two-over.

Hawkins shot 71 to open the tournament, and set a torrid pace on Wednesday, with four birdies on the first five holes, a front-side 33, and two more birdies to open the back nine before a bogey at the 18th.

Her second-day 68 sewed up the junior’s third straight individual title.

Rath finished fourth overall, with Romansky and Peake tied for sixth with Carolina Forest’s Savannah Sansom. Those four made the All-State team, along with Hawkins, Lindsey, Annabel Carman of Ashley Ridge, River Bluff’s Caitlyn Gaines and Charli Heaton, Claudia Mediate of
Carolina Forest, and Marlie Duarte of Fort Dorchester.

Team Final Scores: Lexington finished third in the team standings, followed by Carolina Forest and Blythewood. Wando was sixth.

A trio of Spartanburg County schools played their way into Top-10 finishes, as Byrnes finished in seventh, with Boiling Springs eighth and Spartanburg ninth. Sumter rounded out the Top 10.