Photo by Kim North Earning all-OVAC honors during Wednesday’s third annual conference tournament at the sun-scorched Crispin Golf Club were, from left, St. Clairsville’s Olivia Baker; Fort Frye’s Kohen Coursen; University’s Abby Kingora; Barnesville’s Kennedy Little and John Marshall’s Kianna Garrison. Not pictured is Morgantown’s Angela Yao.

WHEELING — A record field of 108 golfers took to the sun-scorched 18-hole Crispin Golf Club layout inside Oglebay Park on Wednesday morning, but it was the same names at the top of the leaderboard nearly eight hours later.

St. Clairsville’s Olivia Baker won for the second time in the three-year existence of the event. She won the inaugural tournament in 2023 and placed second last year, losing by one shot.

“Losing like I did last year really motivated me to practice harder than I’ve ever worked. Thankfully, it worked out for me today,” Baker said.

The Red Devils senior carded rounds of 33 and 36 on the front and back nine, respectively, for a 2-under-par 69 to win by six shots over Fort Frye’s Kohen Coursen, who finished fifth last season. Morgantown’s Angela Yao, last year’s winner, was third at 77. University’s Abby Kingora was fourth at 79, followed by Barnesville’s Kennedy Little and John Marshall’s Kianna Garrison who both shot 80.

Baker credits a lot of her success to playing with a really good St. Clairsville boys day-in and day-out.

“Playing with the boys has really taught me a lot, especially how to manage the courses and shoot better scores,” she explained.

“She camps on the course. She had to have a lot of grit today and she defines grit,” St. Clairsville coach Heidi Mooney said. “When she plays against the boys, she holds her own.”

It also helps that her father, Ron, is the head professional at Belmont Hills Country Club.

“He has helped me so much from telling me how to hit different shots, to getting me whatever equipment I need and pushing me to work harder and harder every day.”

In addition to winning, Baker said the funnest part of golf is meeting new friends. She is still undecided where she will play golf collegiately.

Fort Frye won its second team title in three years, topping last year’s winner — Morgantown — by nine shots, 343-352. Columbiana (354) was third, with Marietta (355) and Wheeling Park (375) rounding out the top 5.