Natalie Henson

AMES — The Bobcats closed the gap, but not enough to chase down the Little Cyclones.

The Marshalltown girls’ golf team inched closer to catching Ames on Tuesday, but the hosts would not be denied in a 171-175 victory to claim the Iowa Alliance Conference’s North Division regular-season title.

Ames beat the Bobcats by five strokes at the Linda Bloom Invite and by 18 shots in the Turk Bowman Invite last week, but Marshalltown couldn’t cut into the deficit enough at the daunting Veenker Memorial Golf Course.

Ames had four of the six best scores of the day to defeat the Bobcats in the head-to-head battle for the divisional dual title.

“Another close one with Ames that came down to the last couple holes,” said MHS head coach Lucas Johnson. “We closed the gap on them compared to how we played at the Turk Bowman, but just let a few shots slip down the stretch that cost us.”

Marshalltown senior Natalie Henson claimed meet medalist honors with her round of 37, but Ames was just too consistent for the ‘Cats to track them down.

Elizabeth Duncan was runner-up for the Little Cyclones with a 38, followed by Macy Button (42), Jessie Lohman (45) and Estelle Wong (46).

Harper Wilson finished out with a 44 for the Bobcats, while Gaby Estabrook and Morgan Hilderbrand both shot 47.

“We’re heading into the home stretch of the season and looking forward to see what our regional will look like when the pairings are released [Wednesday],” Johnson said. “We’ve put ourselves in a great position to get a favorable draw.”

MHS closes out the week with the Southeast Polk Invitational on Thursday at Copper Creek Golf Club.