The Aplington-Parkersburg, Grundy Center and West Fork boys golf teams each earned state tournament appearances with strong performances at Monday’s district meets.
At the 2A district at Lake Mills, the Falcons placed second with 323 strokes to clinch their spot as a team.
“Very proud of our young men,” Head Coach Gary Flanigan says. “It wasn’t a good day, and I know it wasn’t a good day for everybody weather wise, but you know, they stuck to it. And I know some of them had some bad holes and some bad shots, but they stuck to it and just kind of muttered their way through it. And I’m really proud of Brandon Hartbarger, who’s our sixth man. He shot a 77 and he was actually tied for third overall, and he would have made it as an individual if we didn’t make it. So pretty proud of him as our number six man and, and also Nate Peters, our number five, he came through with an 81. So, you know, the bottom of our lineup kind of carried us today.”
Brandon Hartbarger led the Falcons by placing fifth at 77, Benny Waller placed seventh at 80, Nate Peters was 11th with 81 strokes and Mick Steege had 85 strokes to place 25th. Flanigan on the team’s performance in unfavorable weather.
“Every day is different, every course is different. And so the weather, truly was a test today. And we talked about that before we teed off, that those who are mentally tough are going to be the ones that come through, and there’s going to be bad shots. The wind’s going to take it. You know, we had a downpour when we took off, and we had a little bit of a delay. Even that mental part of it, we stayed tough. Overall, you kind of feel like you’re disappointed with a 323, but we were the second in our district. So pretty proud of them because there’s other teams that were pretty good teams that didn’t have good team scores. Our guys fought through it and very, very, very, very proud of them.”
At South Hills Golf Course in Waterloo, Grundy Center had 323 strokes to place second and punch their ticket. Judd Jirovsky was the individual champion with 77 strokes, Preston Martens tied for third at 78, and Eli Wegmann and Jaxon Kiewiet tied for 22nd with 84 strokes. Individually, Dike-New Hartford’s Carson Costello placed ninth and Lewis Textor was 54th, and came short of advancing.
The Class 2A State Tournament will start Tuesday, May 27 at Gates Park Golf Course in Waterloo.
At the 1A district in Mason City, West Fork placed third with 340 strokes to advance. Levi Staudt placed second with 77 strokes, Nolan Schreckengost was fourth with 81, Aiden Rembe tied for 35th with 90 and Wyatt Bonnema was 45th with 92. North Butler’s Nolan Reser placed 15th and didn’t advance.
The Class 1A State Tournament will start Tuesday, May 27 at South Hills Golf Course in Waterloo.
