The mountains of deficit were too big to traverse Wednesday.
Boyd-Buchanan and Signal Mountain's girls' golf teams couldn't mount a strong enough charge to contend for the Class A/AA state championship at Willowbrook Golf Course in Manchester.
The same goes for the Notre Dame and McMinn Central boys.
Other teams in the tournament simply played better this year.
"The girls played OK, but it wasn't as good as they can play," Signal Mountain coach Rodney Mitchell said. "We were outplayed this year. CPA and CAK really played well."
The Lady Eagles placed third at 331 and were 15 strokes behind champion Christian Academy of Knoxville. The Lady Bucs placed seventh with a 383.
Signal Mountain senior Bethany Burns had the best individual performance of any Chattanooga-area golfer in either tournament. She shot a girls' second round-best 76 and placed third. Meigs County senior Kaitlyn Sneed tied for fifth.
"Bethany rebounded, but it wasn't enough this year," Mitchell said. "She hit the ball well and played a good round of golf."
Signal Mountain's Taylor Gardner tied for 13th and teammate Haley Buttram tied for 16th. Hixson's Ali Barker and Chattanooga Christian School's Anna Beth Harris shared 21st place and were the only Chattanooga-area girls to break 180 for the tournament. Siarra Stout of CPA earned medalist honors with a 9-over-par 153.
Davis Shore, a former Tennessee Junior Amateur champion who has committed to play at Alabama, earned boys' medalist honors in a sudden-death playoff over Davis Armstrong of Lipscomb after each shot 3-under 141.
Notre Dame senior Reese Scobey tied for fifth at 4-over 148, including a par 72 on Wednesday. Hixson senior Tate Truong tied for 17th at 10 over and Signal Mountain's Jacob Bailey - like Truong, he played as an invididual - rounded out Chattanooga's top-20 finishers with a tie for 17th at 11-over 155.
The Irish placed fifth as a team with a two-day total of 640. In addition to Scobey, the Irish had Zach Riddle (76) and Jared Nelson (78) break 80 in the final round.
McMinn Central placed eighth at 715. John Houk had the best score each day, including an 80 on Wednesday.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.