High School Golf: Iola Mustangs, Humboldt Cubs, Yates Center Wildcats
Iola traveled to Independence on Thursday and brought five golfers including three players who competed in the first tournament of their high school careers.
Newcomers Nic Zimmerman (junior) and freshmen Josh Kaufman and Grant Luedke were joined by junior Jeremy Waldman and senior Drake Sell for the Mustangs season-opening tournament.
Iola struggled as Waldman was the only golfer who shot below 100. His 96 led the Mustangs effort and his consistency on the course pointed to better performances as the season continues.
Waldmans 96 was a solid score especially considering that he had a hole where he shot a 10 and that really hurt his overall score, head coach Nick McAnulty said. He was able to recover mentally and play some solid golf after that.
The mental aspect of golf can make it very difficult to move on from a bad hole and suddenly one bad hole turns into two bad holes, and so on, so it was really encouraging to see that Jeremy didnt let the one bad hole ruin the rest of his round.
Fellow returner Sell struggled in the season opener, turning in a 116.
He had a rough day, McAnulty said. He putted well but struggled to find any consistency. I know that he will bounce back and get back to playing golf like he is capable of.
Zimmerman shot a 116, Kaufman shot a 123 and Luedke shot a 134 but was disqualified.
Iola will hit the links again on Tuesday when they travel to Pittsburg.
Humboldt
The Cubs competed at two different meets on Thursday with the varsity traveling to Burlington and the junior varsity competing at Uniontown.
Senior Ryan Sellman was the lone competitor for the Cubs at Burlington and he finished third overall shooting a 78 (39/39).
The junior varsity team finished third out of nine teams led by Drake Hottenstein who placed fifth with a
50. Reid Smith placed 12 with a 55 and Roni Bulk, Jacob Fudge and Michael Young all shot a 58 to tie for 13th. Tanner Church rounded out the team with a 71.
Overall, I thought that both meets went well and it was nice to get team and individual medals, head coach Eric Sparks said. They are all progressing and improving their scores from meet to meet. One thing we need to work on is consistency and eliminating three-putts on the green.
Up next, the Cubs junior varsity team will travel to Erie today before the varsity heads to Pittsburg on Tuesday.
Yates Center
The Wildcats joined Humboldt at both the Burlington tournament and the Uniontown junior varsity tournament.
