The 2007 Western Girls Golf Sectional at Chippendale Golf Club was a battle of twos Saturday, with two teams waging war for the championship, two teams going stroke for stroke for third place — even two individuals locked in a payoff for third place.

When the smoke cleared, though, it was still defending champion Kokomo that came out on top, capturing a third consecutive title with 335 strokes, 14 better than runner-up Northwestern (349).

Western (361), after having a long string of regional appearances snapped last season, regained a berth in Saturday’s Lafayette Jeff Regional by edging Maconaquah (363) for third place. Peru, the only other team to shoot better than 400 strokes with a 387, was fifth.

The rest of the field settled out with Taylor (411) a surprising sixth, Cass (413) seventh, Logansport (414) eighth, Tipton (417) ninth, Eastern (474) 10th and Pioneer (506) 11th.

“Three-peat is just an awesome feeling to know we can do it three years in a row,” said coach Andy Carpenter.

As expected, the No. 6-ranked Wildkats and the No. 11 Purple Tigers locked horns and were tied after nine holes with 174 strokes apiece, but while Northwestern mostly spun its wheels on the back nine of the Championship Course, Kokomo pulled away with an inward nine of 161.

“The turn that we had was just horrendous but we just said, ‘Girls, you’ve got to buckle down, you know? Put it in overdrive and let’s go,’” Carpenter said.

In particular, Carpenter was speaking to his rookies, freshman Kylie Kern and sophomore Lindsy Jenkins.

Kern went out in 50 and came home in 45. Jenkins’ turnaround was even more dramatic, improving from a front-nine 58 to a back-nine 41.

“Kylie and Lindsy, I just said, ‘Hey, if you guys want to go, we need your score,” Carpenter said. “One of you has to do something.’ But they both turned it on and we can’t afford that at regional. We have to put it in overdrive from hole No. 1 and go.”

The Kats were led by their trio who have been there for Carpenter for all three sectional championship teams, seniors Ali Linville and Mary Kate Thatcher and junior Kristi Cardwell.

Linville fired nines of 39-39 for a 78 total. She was runner-up in the medalist chase, which was about the only contest that wasn’t a nail-biter. Cass senior Jessica Layman posted a 74 in the second group of teams that held for low medalist honors.

Cardwell finished third with an 80 after winning a three-hole sudden-death playoff with the Braves’ Katie Powell. Thatcher shot an 82 to finish fifth overall.

“I’m excited and happy for the team,” Linville said the sectional winning streak. “I hope [the underclassmen] can do it again next year when I’m gone.”

Linville gave much of the credit for the team’s success to Carpenter, who has been her coach all four years at Kokomo and has brought stability to the program — although as Linville puts it, he’s not exactly a technique-type of coach.

“He’s always there for us,” Linville said of Carpenter. “He’s not the person to help you with your swing or anything like that, but he’s always there to bring us up when we’re down.”

Sara Poppas led the Tigers with an 83, good for sixth overall, but, once again, it was bridesmaid for Northwestern and never the bride. The second-place finish for the Tigers was their ninth in 10 years since winning their last sectional in 1997.

Jackie Adams shot an 86, Alyssa McClure 89 and Laura Roseberry 91 for the Tigers.

“It wasn’t our best day but we’re advancing and that’s the main point,” said coach Mary Clem, who noted that her players had 14 penalty strokes on the day — the same as their losing margin. “There were a lot of penalties for our girls. First nine we were [OK], but then we got into some trouble on the back.

“[Kokomo] played good, consistent golf and we’ll give [credit] to them. ... [The girls] are all disappointed with their scores, but when you turn it around and say we get to go on [to regional], then that puts a little smile on their faces.”

The Panthers trailed Maconaquah by six strokes after nine holes but all five girls posted lower scores on the challenging back nine. They were led by Ashley Young’s 84, Maggie Talbert with 87, Carlee Cossell 93 and Mary Harbaugh 97.

“We knew we were behind by so many strokes [at the turn], but [the girls] came back on the back nine and did what they needed to do,” coach Steve Hoppes said. “I knew it was going to be a dogfight. Maconaquah is a good program and Katie Powell leads them well.

“I’m just real proud of our kids, especially with no seniors. They honestly wanted to go [back to regional] so bad because we missed it last year after I don’t know how many years. They felt like that sort of let me down and let the school down.”

Powell finished fourth overall and was the second-best qualifier among girls not on an advancing team. After finishing tied for 14th in the state in 2006, not being able to lead her team back to regional was a bitter pill for her to have to swallow.

“I feel like I let them all down,” Powell said of her teammates. “They were counting on me to play well and I just didn’t pull through.”

The Braves had played in the Huntington North Sectional previously and finished fourth in the Marion Regional last year, but a revamped IHSAA tournament brought them to Chippendale for 2007. Powell wasn’t using that as an excuse either.

“I used to be a member here and I’ve played the back [nine] so many times,” said Powell, who had nines of 40-40. She double-bogeyed No. 18 with three putts. “If I don’t double the last hole we probably go on.”

Like Powell, Layman also was playing the Western Sectional for the first time in her career. She was defending medalist of the former Logansport Sectional and was somewhat surprised by her score Saturday.

“Lately I’ve been kind of off,” she said. “[Saturday] I was playing kind of good and I was really happy with it. My putting probably could have been better — I wasn’t really used to those greens — but my driving was really good.”

Peru’s Kelly Sharp grabbed the third and final regional-qualifying spot as an individual with an 86.