It’s not very often that two players from the same high school team earn scholarships to the same college — in fact it’s a first for the Turlock High School Girl’s Golf program.
On Tuesday, THS golfers Sarah Garcia and Bergen Benedict signed letters of intent to play for California State University, San Marcos — each of them were offered athletic scholarships.
“I think the San Marcos coach knows that he is getting two motivated players that are going to raise the bar for his program,” said THS Girl’s Golf Coach Mary Krupka. “If all the ‘new’ players on the team practice and work hard to make the top six, the returning players are going to have to work harder. It is the domino effect working in a positive way.”
Bergen and Sarah led the Bulldogs to their 11th straight Central California Conference Championship this year and a CIF Championship.
Over their careers at THS, the duo led the team to four league titles and two undefeated seasons, and each earned both academic and all-league honors.
But their journey wasn’t without adversity. In 2013 THS hosted the CIF Section Championship at Turlock Golf and Country Club, but came up a few strokes short of winning and earned second-place to Lodi High School.
“After that match Bergen Benedict and Sarah Garcia stated that ‘we are going to win this tournament next year,’” said Krupka.
And they did last month to put the icing on the cake.
“Sarah and Bergen came to this established, varsity team as freshman and never looked back,” said Krupka. “They followed the lead of the older players, worked hard, became leaders and helped guide our golf team to the best year we have ever had. They are determined, goal oriented young ladies who saw the opportunity to play golf in college and they went out there started making things happen.”
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