PREBLE COUNTY — Three Preble County golfers earned top spots in their respective league tournaments last week and three teams earned runner-up places.

Playing in the boys’ tournament, Eaton’s Sarah Willis won the Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division, while National Trail’s Makenna Jones and Twin Valley South’s Nathan Osborn won Cross County Conference championships.

Eaton’s boys finished second behind Oakwood.

Twin Valley South’s boys were second behind Newton and National Trail’s girls were second behind Miami East.

SWBL officials are researching, but it is believed Willis, who shot a 70, is the first girl to win the SWBL boys tournament.

South entered the tournament tied for first with Newton and Arcanum, but came up short of its goal of winning a conference title.

“We fell short of our goal of coming away from the tournament with a conference championship trophy in our hands,” South coach Darcy Robinson said. “Going in, there was a three-way tie for first place with Arcanum, Newton and us. All of us had just one loss. (We beat Arcanum, Arcanum beat Newton, and Newton beat us.) Honestly, we thought Newton had the edge and was the team to beat. Unfortunately, we were right.”

Despite finishing second, Robinson was happy with the team’s turnaround from a season ago.

”I was pleased with the fact that we improved over our 8th-place finish over last year,” she said. “Nate was the medalist for the day, shooting a 73. He went into the tournament, leading in points for the Player of the Year honors, just by one point. Nate played with such skill and confidence that it wasn’t even close in the end.”

For the third straight year, Osborn is the CCC’s Player of the Year.

“I don’t have access to the CCC records, but if I had to guess, I doubt that’s ever been done. We are all so proud of his accomplishments,” she said.

Also being honored was Willie Bowman, who made the All-Conference team as well, finishing eighth. Chance Sparks was selected special mention.

Robinson also praised the play of Cole Petersen.

”He played the best round of his career today and his score proved to be the second best for our team today. I think he was a big reason we didn’t slip down to third place. He really came through big for us,” she said.

South was schedueld to play in the sectional tournament at Beechwood on Tuesday, Sept. 26.

For Trail, the Lady Blazers shot a team score of 439 to finish second.

Jones won medalist honors shooting a 78, while Savanna Abner took third with a 98. Caitlin Gilland carded a 127 and Michelle Massa a 136.

“Makenna’s win secured her spot as CCC Player of the Year as a sophomore, while Savanna’s finish would put her in 4th place on the season and earn All-CCC First Team honors,” Trail coach Troy Ferguson said.

The girls will begin postseason play Wednesday, Sept. 27, when they head back to Stillwater Valley for sectional play.

“Obviously, the goal for the girls is to advance out as a team and get another week of experience and practice in as the girls continue to develop and grow as golfers,” Ferguson said. “It’s going to take a lower number than we saw Thursday but the girls are capable of it and are excited for the opportunity.”

Trail’s boys finished in 11th place shooting a team score of 446.

Tyler Porter led the team with a 108, Austin Knapp shot a 109. Chris Brubaker carded a 112 and Brad Sorrell added a 117 to wrap up the scorers. Sam Roberts added a 119 and Caleb Miller a 131.

The Blazers will begin postseason play on Tuesday at Turtle Creek in sectional play.

“We’ve had a goal all season of breaking 200 in a 9-hole round, we’ve been close (206) and we will take one more crack at it at Turtle Creek Tuesday,” Ferguson said. “The boys continue to improve, and I hope that the opportunity to play there a couple of weeks ago will help us out and give us that chance to reach our goal. After shooting a 240 in our first match we set 200 as our goal and to be six strokes away from it I think it’s obtainable, we just need to concentrate on our ‘next shot is my best shot’ mentality.”

Preble Shawnee’s boys were fifth in the SWBL Buckeye Division, shooting a 400.