EL DORADO -- The rest of Class 3A may be happy to see Christian Barrett graduate, but Camden Harmony Grove isn't.
Barrett shot an 80 on Tuesday and walked away with her third individual state championship in four years as she led Camden Harmony Grove to the Class 3A girls golf state title at the Lions Club Park Golf Course.
Barrett also won medalist honors as a freshman and junior, and finished second as a sophomore.
"I told her I was going backwards with her," said Joe Beasley, who took over as Camden Harmony Grove's golf coach during Barrett's sophomore year. "She'll act like she's rattled, but I've never seen her rattled.
"She likes pressure, but you don't have to put it on her. She puts it on herself."
Barrett's round, which began on the back nine, included a birdie on the par-3 11th hole, but she made a double-bogey on the 12th, and then bogeyed No. 14.
"I said after that I was just going to chill out for a while and play smart golf," Barrett said. "I played smart golf the rest of the day."
She one more double bogey on the par-4 No. 6, but that was her last slip-up on a course that she has played less than 20 times. She was 10 strokes better than Atkins' Gabby Shannon, who was the runner-up after shooting a 90.
"I did miss a lot of putts today," Barrett said, "but I played about as well as I could on this course."
Barrett's teammates also played well on the way to winning the school's first girls golf championship. Kaylee Mantooth shot a 99 and finished fifth. Alyssa Givens shot a 105 for 10th place.
Camden Harmony Grove finished at 284, 19 shots better than runner-up Charleston.
"I felt real good about our chances, especially with Christian coming back," Beasley said. "They worked real hard and we played real well in the district.
"We came down here [Monday] and played a practice round, which it wasn't great. I feel like maybe they got all of their bad shots out of their system yesterday."
Sports on 10/01/2014