Inexperience shows at War Eagle boys' tourney

Windy conditions coupled with inexperience negatively impacted Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn at the War Eagle Conference boys’ golf tournament on May 1.

The Hawks had competitive scores through the first nine holes at The Ridge Golf Course at Sioux Center, but stroke totals generally increased on the back nine, resulting in an 11th-place overall finish.

Jack Mastbergen was H-M-S’s best finisher, coming in 30th with an 18-hole round of 96 (44-52). He was followed by Lucas Kroese, 41st, 100 (52-48); Aiden Bush, 50th, 104 (47-57); Blake Meendering, 53rd, 108 (55-53); Charlie Conway, 62nd, 118 (52-66); and Slayton McCarter, 65th, 124 (61-63).

“We shot fairly well on the front nine, but our lack of experience overall and the tough conditions made it a rough day,” said Hawk coach Mark Japenga. “However, we did battle well and learned from the experience. The kids definitely got better in a lot of areas and persevered through some very difficult conditions.”

Akron-Westfield won the meet with a team total of 345. Remsen St. Mary’s was second at 358 and Unity Christian finished third at 361. The rest of the team scores were Gehlen Catholic 363, Hinton 364, South O’Brien and MMCRU 377, Harris-Lake Park 388, West Sioux 394, Trinity Christian 407 and H-M-S 408.

Hawk boys earn first dual win of season

Scores at WEC tourney lead to win over Tigers

Scores for the first nine holes of the War Eagle Conference boys’ golf tournament on May 1 gave Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn a dual win over Trinity Christian.

The regular season dual with the Tigers could not be played due to adverse weather, so the teams used scores from the front nine of the conference tournament at The Ridge Golf Course in Sioux Center. The result was a 195-205 win for H-M-S.

Jack Mastbergen (44), Aiden Bush (47) and Lucas Kroese (52) finished Nos. 2-4 on the leaderboard. Kroese won the tiebreaker with Charlie Conway to earn the fourth-place medal. Also competing were Blake Meendering 55 and Slayton McCarter 63.

Trinity Christian’s Alec DeBoer was the No. 1 golfer with a 40.

• Fall twice in final home meet

The Hawks recorded their best team score of the season but still fell short against Harris-Lake Park, 172-184, and MMCRU, 176-184. The final home meet of the season was played May 4 at Sanborn.

Mastbergen shot a 42 to finish as the No. 2 medalist against MMCRU and No. 3 against H-LP. Charlie Conway was listed fourth against MMCRU with a 46.

Other scores for H-M-S were Kroese 46, Meendering and McCarter 50, and Bush 55.

Kamden Bork (40) and Owen Schroeder (42), of MMCRU, were the Nos. 1 and 3 medalists against H-M-S, while the Wolves’ Caden Van’t Hul (37), Wyatt Wittrock (39) and Lucas Ahrenstorff (44) were first, second and fourth.

H-M-S fell to 1-8 in conference dual action with one meet remaining on the schedule.