Finney

GROVE CITY — When Megan Gibson's golf career at Mars High was over, she tucked her clubs away in a closet and rarely brought them out.

But three years later, the Grove City College senior has traded in those old clubs that were collecting dust in a dim cubby-hole for a new set — and new successes.

Gibson has scored consistently lower this season than she did during her final year at Mars, helping the Wolverines to a pair of tournament wins and high finishes in several others during the fall and spring campaigns.

“I played a few times with my dad,” Gibson said of her golfing habits since graduating from Mars in 2007. “So, I got a little time in. But not a whole lot.”

All that changed in the fall when Gibson heard the women's golf team at Grove City needed players. She happily joined.

Gibson did something similar two years ago when she transferred to Grove City from Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland.

Gibson joined the depleted Wolverines women's basketball team midway through the 2008-09 season and has been a standout while coming off the bench for the team ever since.

“I like to keep myself busy,” Gibson said. “I heard the golf team needed girls and I thought it would be a fun experience. I just like playing.”

Gibson is playing well. When told she has been shooting lower scores this spring despite a long respite from competitive golf, she was surprised and searched for a reason to explain it.

“I think it's because I have better clubs,” Gibson said. “In high school, I just had a starter set. I didn't have a rescue club or a lob wedge.”

Gibson also said the competitive nature of college golf, even at the Division III level, has helped her game.

Gibson treats golf much differently than she treats basketball.

Competitive by nature, Gibson virtually froths at the mouth before each basketball game. Before she hits the golf course, though, she's much more relaxed.

“It's clearly not the same thing. I don't get that intense for golf,” said Gibson, even though she still strives to be the best whether she is shooting a basketball from nine feet or chipping a golf ball with a nine iron. “For basketball, I get so pumped up, listening to my iPod and jumping around before a game. Before golf, I relax myself and get ready for the match.”When Gibson joined the team, which won the Presidents' Athletic Conference Fall Match in September and also claimed a title at the Westminster Tournament earlier this month, she found a familiar face.Kayla Finney, a Mars graduate and freshman at Grove City College, is also on the team.Finney turned in a solid senior season for the Planets last year. When she was searching for a college, a chance to play golf was high on her list.Finney and Gibson were teammates for one year at Mars, but didn't interact very much.That has changed this season.“She was someone I looked up to because she was a senior,” Finney said. “Here, I get to talk to her a lot more than I did when we were in high school.”Finney is one of only two freshman on the team. The other is Freeport graduate Sam Weber.The Wolverines will lose Gibson as well as Lindsay Crawford and Jessica Johansen, who was recently named PAC Women's Golfer of the Week.Finney is learning all she can from the upperclassmen before they are gone.“They work with me a lot,” Finney said. “They show me what I'm doing wrong and what I can fix. They tell me about the courses and what to look out for. It's nice to rely on them and look up to them. Our team next year is going to be very different. I'm going to miss them.”

Gibson