Lexington Christian was runner-up in its region. Now it has two state titles.

There’s a first time for everything, and Lexington Christian Academy this year decided it was time to take everything.

LCA swept the individual and team titles at the 2018 Leachman Buick-GMC-Cadillac/KHSAA Girls’ State Golf Championships on Wednesday at Bowling Green Country Club. It was the program’s first time accomplishing either feat.

Laney Frye, a junior who finished runner-up in the 7th Region Tournament last week, took the top spot with a 2-over-146 following two days of play in Bowling Green. She bested Shelby County’s Grace Clark, with whom she tied for 15th overall in last year’s state event, by three strokes. Scott County junior Rylea Marcum finished third with a 6-over-150.

Click here for complete individual results from the girls’ state golf championships.

Click here for complete team results from the girls’ state golf championships.

LCA unseated two-time defending champion Sacred Heart with a 7-over 639 as a team over the two rounds. Sacred Heart finished second with a 647 while Madison Central, this year’s 7th Region team champion, was third overall with a 672.

“Winning state as a team has been a goal of ours and winning as an individual has been a goal of mine, so to knock ’em both out in one day is pretty awesome,” Frye said in a phone interview. “It was really exciting.”

LCA overcame a four-stroke deficit to Sacred Heart after day one thanks to top-30 finishes from juniors Sarah Harper (tied for 22nd with a 162) and Emily Sparks (tied for 26th with a 163) in addition to Frye’s medalist effort. Freshman Mary Keene Marrs tied for 40th with a 169. Harper, Sparks and Marrs each shot at least two strokes better on day two than day one while Delia Gibbs, a junior, improved by eight strokes in the second round, finishing with a 172 overall.

“They all rose to the challenge,” said B Frye, LCA’s head coach and Laney’s dad. “They worked really hard this season. I think the first day they were expecting to have better scores. And to play the way they did the first day and not to be too far out of the lead I think took a little bit of the pressure off. They knew ‘If we play our games today, we can win this.’”

Frye and Madison Central’s MacKenzie Neal were tied for the lead after the first round of play. Clark had the best day-two round with a 1-over-73 but was four back after day one.

B Frye didn’t want Laney to know her standing in the field or how her other teammates were performing throughout the decisive round.

“I kept asking my dad where everyone else stood as individuals to see if I needed to birdie and he said, ‘Don’t. Just focus on the tournament and on each hole as a separate event,” Laney Frye said. “We call them boxes. ‘Just try to do your best in each box and we’ll see where that puts us.’”

Her dad finally relented when she got to the 18th green with an opportunity to putt for birdie.

“He said, ‘You promise you’ll still try to make this putt?’ And I was like, ‘Yes,’” Laney said. “He said, ‘I think you have a 4-up lead over the field,’ and so that gave me a little safety cushion but my hands were still shaking and my heart was pounding.”

Correction: The original version of this article stated that Delia Gibbs’ score did not factor into Lexington Christian Academy’s overall final score. Her second-day total was counted for the Eagles’ day-two team score.

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 6:45 PM.