Julie McLaughlin wasn’t going to allow herself to get too excited.
 
At least not until the rumors the Seaman girls golf coach was hearing were proven true.
 
“I kept trying not to get my hopes up,” McLaughlin said of the impending rumblings that Emporia standout Elise Eckert was transferring to Seaman for her senior year. “Maybe it wasn’t really going to happen. But it did, and it’s pretty special.”
 
In Eckert, Seaman has gained one of the top golfers in Class 5A. The former Spartan isa three-time state placer in Class 5A, finishing fourth last fall after placing fifth as a sophomore and 14th as a freshman.
 
Eckert has been nothing short of stellar in the first month of the season for her new team. In fourth tournaments this season, Eckert has posted three victories. In two of those, Eckert has finished with under-par rounds, including Monday’s Topeka City Championship at Western Hills Golf Course.
 
Eckert fired a 2-under 68 to win the city title by eight strokes over Hayden’s Lauren Borjon.
 
“I started off my round with a double, which was pretty rough,” Eckert said. “But I was able to pick it up and get myself back in the competition. I felt pretty comfortable all day.”
 
All season, really. Despite finding out last spring that she was going to be leaving Emporia after her mother, Sandra, got a teaching job at Seaman, Eckert saw any apprehension or nerves about the move quickly dissipate once she arrived in Topeka.
 
“It really didn’t take long (to fit in) because I knew most of the girls; I’d played with them before,” Eckert said. “They just accepted me and it was amazing.
 
“It was sad (to leave Emporia) because I loved that school and I miss my friends. But I’m glad I’m getting these new experiences and new opportunities with these girls. There are so many more opportunities here and I get to play so many more courses. It’s been good.”
 
Perhaps the biggest difference for Eckert is not having her dad, Rick, as her coach. Eckert had served as Emporia’s golf coach for more than two decades before retiring after last spring to move to Topeka as well.
 
“It’s very different not having him as a coach, but I feel like it’s good for me to learn a little more independence in my own game, especially if I want to play in college,” she said. “I can’t have him right there telling me what to do every shot. But he still helps me out and I practice with him on the weekends.”
 

 
Eckert helped Seaman fill the void left by the graduation of lone 2024 state placer Jaycee Zimmerman. She’s teamed with returners Makenna Stuke, Kaitlynn Frye, Chloe Schmidtlein and Molina Quintana to give the Vikings a team that’s won three of its first four meets of the season.
 
The Vikings posted a 341 team total at Monday’s city meet to capture the program’s first-ever city championship. Seaman finished 14 shots ahead of defending city champion Hayden and 20 ahead of perennial city champ Washburn Rural.
 
“(McLaughlin) went over that in the van on the way over here,” Eckert said of the possibility of the first city title for the program. “It feels great to help them win that and I’m grateful to be a part of this team with some good girls.”
 
McLaughlin said that aside from Eckert’s scoring, it’s the presence she’s brought to the program that’s been just as big of an addition.
 
“She brings a calm and she has a very calming demeanor out on the course,” McLaughlin said. “She fit right in and I think she was really nervous about how she’d fit in and how accepting the girls would be. But our girls accepted her right away and she’s jumped right in and played some great golf and you couldn’t ask for anything more. Her (leadership) is great and she does it in a way that she’s not lording over them. She’s truly enjoying the team aspect of it. She’s bringing something to us and we bring something to her.
 
“This (title) is pretty special. I had hoped last year we’d make a run for it, and we just came out and didn’t play very well. We’d come in second a few times and that was great and exciting, but this was something I wanted them to have for a long time now.”
 
Monday’s round also was a big one for Eckert. She’d finished under par at just two other tournaments during her career prior to Monday’s 68. However, both of them came on her former home course, Emporia’s Municipal Golf Course, including a career-best 3-under 68 in this year’s season opener at the Emporia Invitational.
 
To prove she’s one a one-course pony was big.
 
“I tried to put in a lot of work this summer and I feel like it’s really paying off,” said Eckert, who also shot a 2-over 74 to win the Seaman Invitational and had a 4-over 77 at the Hayden Invitational to take second to Wamego’s Addison Douglass. “I feel like the team has helped out. They’ve really supported me moving here and the coaches are great.
 
“It feels good to shoot something like that somewhere else rather than the course I play all the time. I hadn’t played this course very often, so it’s nice see where I can go on different courses.”
 
Eckert will once again be a top contender for the Class 5A title in early October, though the competition is once against stacked with the top six finishers at last year’s state meet all returning this year, including two-time reigning champion Ximena Sarinana of Kapaun Mt. Carmel.
 
Andover’s Regan Dusenbury was runner-up last year and Newton’s Naomi Koontz was third with Koontz recently setting the women’s course record at Turkey Creek Golf Course in McPherson with a round of 63.
 
“I definitely want to do good at state and beat some of those girls who’ve been beating me at state the past few years,” she said. “But I’ve mainly been focusing on my game and not what they’re doing this year. I’m focusing on my mental aspect and what I can do differently.”
 
 
OTHER GOLF STANDOUTS

• Wamego’s Addison Douglass is now four-for-four with tournament victories this season after taking titles at the Wamego and Hayden Invitationals. Douglass shot a 1-under 69 to win the Red Raiders’ home meet and then shot a 73 to win the Hayden meet. Wamego won the team title at both meets as well, posting a season-low 325 at Hayden with five Red Raiders placing in the top 12.
• Concordia’s Mya Niehues picked up her second win of the season, shooting a 2-over 72 to take the crown at the Salina South Invitational. Niehues won by six shots over Bishop Carroll’s Mary Bina.
• Manhattan’s Maddie Myers posted a 3-over 73 to win the Firebird Invitational at Lawrence Country Club on Monday, edging Shawnee Mission East’s Ella Slicker by one shot for the title. Lily Bahr was third and Kat Ball fifth for the Indians, who matched East for the low team total with each posting 316s, East taking the title on a fifth-player tiebreaker.
• Osage City’s Peyton Pitts edged Silver Lake’s Kailyn Hanni by one stroke for the title at the Indians’ home meet, shooting a 40 to Hanni’s 41. Jefferson West won the team title by 14 shots with a 179, led by a fourth from Dearah Garrett.
• Prairie View’s Harley Wade shot an 82 to tie for low honors at the Chanute Invitational along with Columbus’ Cali Carpino.