OAKLAND – For the past 11 years Lori Frost has watched her children’s athletic successes while putting aside some of her own interests.

But now that the kids are out of the house Frost is putting the focus back on her athletic success.

Frost, a Brewer resident, returned to the Women’s Maine State Golf Association championship tournament for the first time since 1993 and put up an even-par 73 Monday to take the first-round lead at Waterville Country Club.

Frost was two shots better than Tiffany Shoppe of Lamoine, who finished with a 75. They will tee off in the second round Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. with Pennie Cummings, a five-time champion who shot a 76.

Suzanne Roberts and Kathi O’Grady followed with 80s.

Defending champion Abby Spector, who is still recovering from heart surgery last fall, shot an 84 and is 11 strokes behind Frost.

Frost had birdied the third and fifth holes, which are both par-5s, and bogeyed the fourth and sixth holes for an even-par 37 on the front nine.

“Very happy,” Frost said of her effort. “I was very solid on the front. … Overall I felt more solid more in control on the front nine but I hung in there on the back.”

Frost started out strong at the turn with birdies on 10 and 11, both par-5s, to go to 2-under for the round. After a tee shot into the rough that led to a bogey at 12 she made five straight pars before winding up with a bogey on 18 after missing a par putt.

Frost saved par on the 167-yard, par-3 13th after hitting her tee shot into some trees on the right side of the fairway. One more approach shot and she was on the green with a one-putt for par.

“I got up and down and that was the story, getting up and down, because my iron game was struggling,” Frost said. “I’ve been off and on with my irons.”

Frost is a four-time WMSGA runner-up. She last played in the tournament when it was held at Springbrook Golf Course in Leeds. The Frost family, then living in Calais, was busy with AAU basketball, Little League and trips to camp.

“When I got done it was time to get done because of kids,” she said. “I was so busy with kids I really didn’t even check the paper. … I think a part of me missed it but a part of me didn’t want to miss it.”

Now in Brewer and playing out of Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, and with the three Frost children all graduated from high school (Andy, a 2004 Brewer High graduate bound for Husson College, was the last one to go), Frost can focus more on her golf.

“People are like, this is your year,” Frost said. “Well, maybe. I don’t know. I’ve worked really hard handling the competition and handling the bad shots, picking it up. It’s a challenge.”

There’s plenty of support from her family with husband Jim, the Brewer High School principal, serving as her caddie for the tournament. Oldest son J.J. walked part of the course Monday.

Shoppe, an Ellsworth High graduate, said she was happy with how she played Monday considering she hasn’t playing much golf this summer – she’s busy with four different jobs.

“It went well today,” she said. “My putting on the front was a little shaky but I was kind of holding back. The back came around. That’s pretty much how it went. My front was a little shaky, the back was better.”