TORNADO — Hoping to increase participation in high school girls golf, the Mountain State Athletic Conference crowned its first all-girls tournament champions on Wednesday at Big Bend Golf Course in Tornado.

George Washington freshman Chastyn Viars shot a 74 to finish first in the 13-player field of the 18-hole tournament, while Woodrow Wilson freshman Amelia Minter shot a 56 to win the nine-hole tournament.

Only GW, Parkersburg and Parkersburg South competed in the 18-hole tournament, while the Big Reds, Spring Valley and Woodrow Wilson filled out the six-player field in the nine-hole tournament.

MSAC commissioner Jim Hamric said the league’s goal is to have girls golf rise to the participation levels where the sport will have its own state championships, as girls basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis and track and field have.

“We’re disappointed in the numbers, but not the quality of the tournament,” Hamric said.

The WVSSAC already has its own all-girls tournament, although it does not separate boys and girls for the postseason and almost all regular-season play features both genders. GW coach BJ Calabrese approached Hamric in February about having a conference girls tournament and said he jumped at the chance.

That was before an April meeting aimed at getting incoming freshmen participating for the Patriots had nine girls turn out to play. Among them was Viars.

“We knew she could come in and help us,” said Calabrese of Viars, who turned 14 in June. “She already averaged 70 on some major courses in the state.”

She’s now the No. 3 golfer on GW’s team and played like it on Tuesday.

Viars overcame bogeys on three of the first four holes she played. A birdie on the sixth hole and eagle on the seventh sent Viars soaring into the lead.

She maintained it despite a double-bogey on 12 and a bogey on 13. The first girls MSAC title was practically hers by the time she birdied the par-3 17th hole.

“I started kind of rough,” said Viars, who started playing at 3 years old and was only somewhat familiar with Big Bend.

On the seventh hole, she even surprised herself when she planned a shot she thought would earn her a birdie and instead finished with the eagle.

“I used a 4-wood to lay up, then I hit it again and landed in front of the green,” Viars said. “I shot for birdie, and it went in.”

Viars finished 14 strokes ahead of GW teammate Jadyn Snodgrass, a sophomore. The Patriots claimed the top six spots in the 18-hole tournament, with Addison Ayres and Kamryn Stutler (97) tying for third and Tensley Heumann and Abby Long (99) tying for fifth.

Parkersburg senior Kali Grueneberg (106) took seventh, followed by GW’s Alexis Bolen (107) and Parkersburg South’s Bre Taylor (108), GW’s Mia Herron (113), South’s Karsyn Marshall (119) and Raylen Dawkins (122). GW’s Brooklynn Nolen (137) rounded out the 18-hole tournament field.

Minter’s 20-over-par led the six nine-hole tournament players and included four bogeys that helped her edge Spring Valley’s Gracen Mullens, who finished second with a 63.

Mullens, a junior, was playing at Big Bend for the first time. She said she felt more comfortable playing the nine-hole course because of her limited tournament experience.

“I’m not complaining,” Mullens said of her score. “I don’t play a lot of tournaments. We mostly just practice.”