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Centre High School?s Adam Matz swing at a ball in the rough on the first hole of Thursday?s Hillsboro Invitational. Matz shot a 39 to help boost the Cougars to the four-man team title. |
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Goessel?s Austin Cooper sinks a putt on the way to a round of 49. |
Hillsboro, Marion and Centre came away with team titles Thursday at the rain-abbreviated Hillsboro Invitational Golf Tournament.
Eleven teams competed in the event, which became a nine-hole competition instead of 18.
Marion?s Luke Gordon dominated the individual race, carding a 35 for a three-stroke edge over Hillsboro?s Daniel Kunan?taev.
Hillsboro claimed the six-man title with a 265, edging Marion by one stroke and Centre by three. Following Kunantaev at 38 were Daniel Dick at 43, Devin Dick and Jake Kenney at 45 and Thane Hurst and Jared King at 47.
Hillsboro was third in the four-man competition (173) and fourth in two-man (92).
?I was please to see all six varsity players in the 40s on the front nine,? coach Scott O?Hare said. ?I would have really liked to have seen what our 18-hole totals could have been.?
Centre won the four-man championship with a 167, outshooting Halstead by four strokes and Hillsboro by six.
Tyler Klenda and Adam Matz each shot a 39 to pace the Cougars, who also got a 44 from Heath Hill and a 45 from Jacob Jennings. Also competing for Centre were Josh Olsen (49) and Kacey Hanschu (52).
Centre?s six-man score was third-best at 268 and its 101 placed the Cougars seventh in two-man.
Marion won the two-man title with Landon Leiker shooting a 42 to go with Gordon?s 35. The 77 total gave the twosome a 10-stroke edge over Minneapolis. Also competing for Marion were Lindsay Hett (43), Niklas Bronnert (46), Scott Jones (50) and Tim Costello (50).
The Warriors combined for a 266 as the runner-up in six-man and 189 for fifth place in four-man.
Goessel took third among two-man teams with a 43 from Hayden Goerzen and a 45 from Tyler Schmidt for an 88 total. The other Bluebirds were Neal Brubaker (46), Austin Cooper (49), Chad Wedel (54) and Bryant Miller (58).
Goessel finished seventh in both six-man (295) and four-man (207).
In addition to the four Marion County schools, the field included teams from Halstead, Chapman, Hesston, Bennington, Minneapolis, St. John?s Military and Wichita Collegiate.
HHS at Lyons?Hillsboro placed second as a team in its season-opening meet at Lyons April 7, finishing 15 strokes behind Russell in the 10-school field.
Daniel Kunantaev led the team with an 80 over 18 holes, good for second place individually. Following were Jacob Kenney and Daniel Dick at 90, Jared King at 97, Devin Dick at 99 and Evan Just 114. The top four scores counted toward the team?s 357 total.
The previous day, the junior varsity teams competed at Lyons in a meet limited to nine holes because of weather. Thane Hurst shot a 33, Landon Herbel 61, Daniel Kenney 71 and Kyler Borg 72.
The top two scores from Hurst and Herbel were added to the top four varsity scores the following day to give a six-man total for Hillsboro of 462, which kept the Trojans in second place overall, 16 strokes behind Russell.
?Our scores at Lyons were higher than I expected, but it was the first tournament of the season, conditions were not ideal, and Lyons is a fairly tight course where you can get into some trouble if you hit the ball off line,? coach Scott O?Hare said.
Coming?Hillsboro is scheduled to compete Friday at the Wichita Collegiate Invitational at the Hidden Lakes course.
?The guys are really working hard to improve when they get the chances to practice,? O?Hare said. ?Hopefully we can get some good weather for some opportunities to get quality practice time in.
?Although I am pleased with the team finishing near the top in all of the tournaments last week, we still certainly have a lot of work to do.?
Marion?s varsity is not schedule to compete again until April 20 at Council Grove.
Likewise, Goessel will next compete April 20, but at the Bluestem Invitational.
Centre was scheduled to compete April 14 at the Northern Heights Invitational at Emporia.
