(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil)
Above, Gehlen Catholics Jayden Barthole tees off from hole #1 in front of the clubhouse at Willow Creek Golf Course on Monday. Barthole dominated the field with a 48 score across nine holes, ending 14 strokes better than second place.
LE MARS The weather at first golf meet of the season felt more like the end of the season on Monday as golfers from Gehlen Catholic and MMCRU met at Willow Creek Golf Course for a War Eagle Conference battle. Temps soared into the 80s with a strong southerly breeze.
The home course advantage seemed to pay off for the Jays as they won both the boys and girls matches. The Gehlen boys edged out a five stroke win by a 193-198 score. It is the first conference regular season dual win for the boys team against a full team opponent since the 2016 season.
The team went 0-10 in 2017 and 2018 while their only regular season win in 2019 came against a West Sioux team which did not have the four members needed to compile a team score. The Jays did edge a full Trinity Christian team in the 2019 conference tournament as well as claimed a win over the shorthanded Falcons to finish that season 3-17 overall.
The teams played the par-36 Black course at Willow Creek with the top individual score coming from MMCRUs Cade Pepper. He shot a 42 on the day.
It is the third time in his career he has been the individual champion in a dual meet. He did so twice in his sophomore season in 2019 when he was a first team all-conference honoree.
(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil)
Above, MMCRUs Cade Pepper follows through on his tee shot in Mondays War Eagle Conference action. Pepper was the overall individual champion in the boys standings as he shot a 42 for the day.
He is one of just four out of the 20 first and second team all-conference honorees still around from the 2019 season as the rest graduated either that year or last year when the season was cancelled. The other three are all from Harris-Lake Park.
Gehlen freshman Dawson Barthole was the runner-up with a 45 score. Sophomore teammate Aiden Spangler was third with a 48 round of nine holes.
Tying for the fourth best score were MMCRUs Brennan Rolfes and Gehlens Jordan Reuter. Both individuals finished with a 49. The tiebreaker for fourth place went to Rolfes on the scorecard playoff.
Finishing off Gehlens counting four was freshman Gabe Wiltgen with a 51.
The final two counting scores for the Royals came from Brayden Olson (52) and Caden Sands (55).
The girls competition saw Gehlen pick up a 238-285 victory. Jayden Barthole easily led the rest of the field with a score of 48 which was 14 strokes better than the next best score of the day.
The second through fifth best scores were crowded within a few strokes of each other. Gehlens Virginia Freking was the runner-up with a 62, one stroke better than third place which went to MMCRUs Kristina Goth. Gehlens Olivia Bunkers and Raine Foreman matched with 64s with Bunkers getting the edge via the tiebreaker as they rounded out the Gehlen team score.
The fifth Lady Jays score of 70 from Chloe Otto was still better than the three next MMCRU scores. Sophie Hohbach shot a 71, one stroke better than Molly Reuter. The Royals rounded out their team score with a 79 from Kaleigh Gravenish.
The Gehlen teams are 1-0 on the season and are scheduled to travel to Deer Run Golf Course in Hinton on Thursday.
The MMCRU teams drop to 0-1 in the conference with the losses. The Royals will host Trinity Christian and Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in Marcus on Thursday for their next scheduled War Eagle matches.