NATCHITOCHES – Teams from Sabine and Vernon parishes took top honors Saturday in the Don't Die Wondering Golf Classic XXVI, a four-person scramble tournament held since 1989 at Northwestern State's Demon Hills Golf Course.
 
Over 80 golfers teed off in morning and afternoon flights Saturday in a highly-successful fundraiser for the NSU Lady Demon basketball program, which won 21 games and played in the NCAA Tournament last March under second-year coaches Brooke and Scott Stoehr. Nearly all of the 2014-15 team members were on hand greeting golfers and hosting the event Saturday along with the entire coaching staff.
 
Team CP-Tel was the overall champion, carding an impressive 16-under score on a Demon Hills course softened by heavy rains on Friday and featuring perhaps the most challenging pin placements in the 26-year history of the tournament.
 
The first-place foursome included Dale Barnhill, Brandon Bell, Stuart Carline and Adam Founds of Many. Founds also won the closest-to-the-hole contest on the long par-3 ninth hole.
 
One shot back was a foursome from Vernon Parish headed by Eddie Thomas, father of incoming freshman guard Sami Thomas. George Thomas, Mike Morgan and Johnny Bosley joined in for a 15-under card.
 
The Many-based foursome of Larry Hataway, Clay Henry, Charlie Mason and John Migliore won a three-way scorecard playoff for third place, posting a 14-under score.
 
In fourth was the Natchitoches Regional Medical Center foursome of John and Emma Boozman, Joe Cunningham Jr., and Jeff Peoples, also at 14-under. Emma Boozman, a member of the Graduate N Club Hall of Fame for her basketball and volleyball play as a Lady Demon, also won the women's long drive on the 16^th fairway.
 
Fifth place was claimed by a team including the father, husband and sons of former Lady Demon point guard Rachel Penny Cunningham. The foursome was headed by her dad Ray Penny, and her husband Roger Cunningham, and included sons Reagan and Ryan Cunningham, who shot 14-under, catching fire after their mother made it to the course.
 
The sixth-place squad, shooting 13-under, was the University of Yang, led by former Demon golfer Jim Rogers and including Adam Bouchie, Jared Roge and Bryan Stamey.
 
Eugene Austin captured the men's long drive on the No. 12 fairway, with a shot that wound up past the flagstick on the 330-yard hole.
 
Merchadise prizes were awarded to the winning teams and individuals.
 
Nobody won the annual  Foy Motors Challenge, which would have awarded a hole in one on the 176-yard 10^th hole with a new truck from Foy Motors in Many.