Wearing their Pink Week jerseys, the Lady Owls -- (from left) Morgan Lamberson, Jade Jenkins, Marti Coldiron, Cassie Hemeyer and Payton Ehrhardt -- claimed the second-place trophy at the Class 1, District 4 Tournament. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Marshall girls' golf team may have looked pretty in pink, but the swings weren't so appealing.

The Lady Owls knew heading into the Class 1, District 4 Tournament at Marshall that Southern Boone would be the team to beat, having finished ahead of them by 27 points two weeks earlier in the California Tournament.

However, the Lady Eagles tore around Indian Foothills Golf Course in fine fashion Monday, while Marshall didn't fare as well on its home links as it did last week during its invitational meet, the team score ballooning by 25 points.

By a 374-413 margin, Southern Boone grabbed the district title from the Lady Owls, who were wearing pink shirts as part of Cancer Awareness Week.

"I thought they'd score a little better," admitted MHS coach John Weaver. "I was hoping to get three or four through" to the MSHSAA Championships, which will be held Oct. 20-21 at Nixa.

As it was, all-state junior Morgan Lamberson qualified with a third-place performance, as did senior Jade Jenkins -- for the first time -- by coming in fifth.

Lamberson had beaten the top Lady Eagles during the California meet, but senior Naomi Starr and sophomore Payton Schooler -- who led Southern Boone to sixth place in the state a year ago -- finished 1-2 with scores of 80 and 81.

Four strokes off the lead with an 84 was Lamberson, who had three double bogeys and a rare -- for her -- triple. She birdied two holes and hit par six times, but after her two-over-par 74 last week, Lamberson was hoping for more.

"My putting was really bad and my drives were going a little to the right," she explained. Although there was an occasional stiff southerly wind kicking up, "I don't think if affected me that much."

Conversely, Jenkins' 92 was two strokes better than last week, breaking her personal course record. She avoided some of the truly awful holes which have plagued her in the past, with nothing worse than triple bogey, and posted par or bogey 13 times.

"I'm really happy for Jade," Weaver said. "She took advantage of the situation where she knew she needed to shoot low."

The rest of the Lady Owls weren't quite as crisp as they had been during the previous tournament. Junior Marti Coldiron was two strokes over that mark, her 115 for 18th place missing the cut for state qualifying by four strokes. Junior Cassie Hemeyer came in at 121, five strokes higher than the home meet, and came in 22nd.

Freshman Payton Ehrhardt followed the best performance of her young career, a 107, with a 125. It was disappointing considering how, according to Weaver, "she came along well" during the season.

Still, even if Marshall wasn't at its best, the second-place showing was the highest for the program since claiming third in the 2004 district meet at Indian Foothills -- and with four underclassmen on the team.

The Lady Owls will have one last show together Oct. 15 in the NCMC Tournament at Moberly, after which Lamberson and Jenkins head for state -- the former in hopes of again bringing home hardware after tying for 12th place a year ago.

"First, I want to win, but I certainly want to improve from last year," Lamberson said. "Hopefully, top five."