It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Lawrence High’s Sydney Wilson will be competing in this year’s Class 6-5A state girls golf championship.

The mystery lies in whether any additional city golfers will be joining her.

The answer to that question will come today when both LHS and Free State travel to Topeka to compete in a Class 6-5A regional at Cypress Ridge Golf Course. The 18-hole tournament will tee off at 9 a.m.

The two local schools will be joined by Shawnee Heights, Topeka, Topeka Seaman, Topeka West, Highland Park and Washburn Rural.

The two teams with the lowest scores at the completion of today’s play will advance to next week’s state tournament at Salina Country Club, as will the five lowest individual scorers who aren’t members of the qualifying teams.

“I feel good about our team,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said. “I’m excited to have the girls come over and play. We had a practice round (Sunday) and got a pretty good feel for the golf course.”

Barring a major meltdown, Wilson seems to be a safe bet to punch her ticket to the state tourney. Last week, the senior polished off the Sunflower League individual title, finishing 18 strokes ahead of the nearest competitor in a 36-hole format encompassing the Lawrence Invitational and the Olathe East Invitational.

Wilson also was the medalist at the Lawrence event and last month’s Firebird Invitational, two tournaments that included many of the same players whom will be battling in today’s competition.

Also figuring into the individual portion of today’s tournament is fellow LHS senior Jamie Shmalberg, who finished fifth in the Sunflower League field.

“I think both of them should go in (today) and play well,” Lewis said. “I think their expectations are high.”

Of course, the pathway to state play can be made easy for the two LHS seniors should the Lions find solid production deeper in the lineup and make a push for one of the two team berths. That’s a big if, especially in the wake of Lawrence’s failure to record a team score Monday at the Olathe East invite after two key players were unable to compete and another withdrew during her round.

Lewis has made a slight alteration to his lineup, installing sophomore Charlie Garzillo in the No. 6 position, and expects the Lions to make a run at the No. 2 team spot.

“Washburn Rural : they’re the top dog. They’re most likely going to be the first-place team,” Lewis said. “I really do believe the second-place team is up for grabs.”

The other local entrant, Free State, will face a tougher road in its quest to send any or all of its players to Salina.

The Firebirds didn’t record a team score at either of the two events that made up the Sunflower League tournament and therefore don’t have a recent benchmark to see where they stack up from a team standpoint.

Free State’s two most consistent performers have been junior Katy Hoffman, who shot 200 in the league tournament, and senior Ashley Robinson, who shot 223.

“I think the kids (Hoffman and Robinson) that went to league over at Ironhorse (Golf Club) competed pretty well,” Free State coach Craig Hershiser said. “I think both of those girls are playing their best golf right now.”