Wakefield wins Cap-8 girls golf title; Wake Forest’s Bennett is player of the year

It can almost be as if Samantha Bennett golfs for Wakefield.

She practices at the same club as some of the Wolverines, and she is the closest of friends with Wakefield’s top golfer Casey Burroughs.

The pair met in the first grade.

But almost doesn’t count.

Bennett’s home is Wake Forest High School, the team she represented when she won 2015 Cap-8 Conference Player of the Year on Tuesday following the final league match of the season at Hansentree Country Club in Wake Forest.

She wore Cougars blue when she earned medalist honors.

Bennett shot a 1-over 37 and averaged the best score among Cap-8 golfers this season.

“We weren’t friends in middle school, because we didn’t go to the same middle school,” Burroughs recalled of her and Bennett. “The first high school match was at Northridge, and I just looked up and was like ‘Oh my God, is that Samantha Bennett?’ Then we just started playing golf together ever since.

“She’s an honorary member (of the Wakefield team).”

Bennett is Eastern Regional bound, along with a host of other conference individuals, including all five Wakefield golfers: Burroughs, Susannah Ireland, Shreeya Singh, Rachel Hulicki and Jaclyn Henshaw.

The Wolverines, who won the Cap-8 title for the second straight year, capped off its championship with a victory, and all players finished among the Top 15 in the league. Though each Wakefield golfer shot her highest score this season, the Wolverines still picked up a first-place finish with 137 points. Millbrook came in second with 144, followed by Sanderson with a 146 to close Cap-8 play.

The medalist Bennett shot even-par on each hole, except one hole, No. 1, where she bogeyed.

“I was in the rough the whole … time,” she said.

She played in a group with Burroughs (43) and Millbrook’s Kristen Holman (41); Holman finished fifth in the conference.

“It was my goal at the start of the season to become Cap-8 Player of the Year,” Bennett said. “But I think it was just an overall great experience. I’m really proud of myself and everyone on the team.”

Bennett, Burroughs and Leesville’s Road Mogie Adamchick finished as the top three conference golfers, as 12 – including the trio – were named to the All-Conference team.

Wakefield coach Carolyn Reitz was named Cap-8 Coach of the Year in a vote from the other league coaches, they announced after the meeting Thursday.

“They have played their hearts out,” Reitz said about her team. “They have earned their way 100 percent because of their work ethic. They worked the whole summer this year to do that. The next goal is to get into regionals and come out of regionals OK. Everyone deserves to be there.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Wakefield wins Cap-8 girls golf title; Wake Forest’s Bennett is player of the year."