Alston wins Trinity League title

HEMET - It happened on the ninth hole here at Seven Hills Golf Club, the shot that turned Santa Margrita's Amy Alston into the Trinity League champion.

She rolled in an eagle on the 438-yard, par-five and that helped her leap ahead of Victoria Nguyen to claim a 1-stroke victory over the Mater Dei junior on Thursday.

"you want that to build momentm for the rest of the round ... remember that hole," Alston said. "But at the same time you can't get too excited. That is exciting to win by one. I had a tough summer where it seemed like I'd always miss the cut or lose by one, so it is nice to finally win by one. It is very humbling to win (the Trinity League championship). This year the scores were so low."

Alston, a Register All-County First Team selection last year, finished with a three-round total of 151 strokes after posting a 2-over 74 at Seven Hills.

Two nine-hole rounds were played earlier in the week, and Alston finished with a 3-over 39 at El Prado and a 1-over 37 on the Classic Course at Mile Square. That left her one stroke behind Nguyen, the leader of the tournament entering Thursday's final round.

Nguyen said she missed too many 5-foot putts and ended up shooting a 2-over 74 on Thursday. That combined with her 39 and 38 at El Prado and Mile Square gave her 152 strokes at the end of the tournament.

"it is frustrating. And yeah, I could have made some of those putts, but Amy played really well," Nguyen said. "And I just couldn't compete. It just makes me want to work harder."

She will join Alston at the CIF Southern Individual Regional at here at Landmark Golf Club. Seven girls in total qualified for CIF at Seven Hills, one of them is third-place finisher Maddy Smith from JSerra. She shot a final-round 81 and finished eight strokes behind Alston and became the first golfer in school history - and that includes both the boys and girls teams - to advance to CIF.

What makes that even more impressive is Thursday's round was only the second time that she played a full 18 holes.

Other CIF qualifiers include: Lexie Price (Mater Dei), Nicole Casey (Mater Dei), Kelsey Hummer (Santa Margartita). and Joanna Henry (Rosary).