For the first time in 4 years, the Lexington girls' golf team were denied the top prize at the S.C. High School League Class 5A final.
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon at Mid-Carolina Club in Prosperity, the Lady Wildcats finished 2nd to Blythewood. The Lady Bengals shot a team score of 621 to beat out the Lady Wildcats while Chapin finished in 8th place.

"I’m extremely proud of our team to overcome all the adversity that we had to deal with toward the end of the season to still be right there with a chance to win with 3-4 holes to go," Lexington head coach Charles Smith said. "Congrats to Coach Minkel and his team as they played lights out down the stretch to win."
Lexington did claim the individual title for the 7th time at the state final. Karlee Vardas defeated Ella Stalvey on the 2nd hole in the playoff to finish as top medalist.
The junior Lady Wildcat made a clutch putt on the 1st playoff hole to stay in the match and won on the 2nd hole. She joins past Lexington champions Danielle Dunnagan (2008), Maureen Dunnagan (2009), Sydney Legacy (2013), Lauren Stephenson (2013-14) and  Isabella Rawl (2018). 
"Karlee did an outstanding job of bouncing back from the team disappointment," Smith said. "I’m incredibly proud of the mental toughness she showed to come back from that."
Lexington's Molly Hardwick placed 6th and teammate Emily Beiers and Chapin's Emily Baker tied for 8th place to earn All-State honors. 

In other state golf results, Gilbert improved on last year's school-best showing with a 3rd finish at the Class 3A girls' tournament held in Conway. The Lady Indians shot a 647 to finish behind defending champion Oceanside Collegiate and Chesnee. Kennedy Gooding made the All-State team with a 5th place finish, 5 strokes behind champion Emma Schimpf of Oceanside Collegiate.