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Bobcats’ 2nd round rained out

MHS boys golf finishes sixth at state tourney

JD Pollard

As the Marshalltown boys golf team traveled to Brown Deer Golf Club in Coralville early Saturday morning for the second day of the Class 4A Iowa High School Boys State Golf Tournament, it felt ready to make a move after finishing the first day in a tie for sixth with a score of 305.

That chance never came for the Bobcats, however, as an overnight downpour made the course unplayable and the second day of state was cancelled, meaning the results of day one held as the final results for the tournament.

Marshalltown finished sixth as a team, nudging out Dowling Catholic who also finished with a 305 due to a fifth-score tiebreaker. Both junior Mason Reid and senior Brent Johnson finished with 10-over-par 81s for the final two scores for the Bobcats, while the Maroons’ fifth score was an 82, and MHS head coach Lucas Johnson said the play of his team as a whole led to the higher placing.

“From top to bottom we had one of our most consistent rounds of the year,” Johnson said. “I looked and if we counted one-through-six and added all those scores together, we actually would have had a top-three finish just because of the fact that everybody was in the mix for our team. The back end of our lineup made the difference between us finishing sixth or seventh, so that’s one of those little things you can point to and say every score counts.”

What stings for the Bobcats is, while they finished in sixth place, they were just three strokes behind Johnston in third with a 302 and just nine strokes back of Pleasant Valley in second with a 296. Waukee took home the top team prize with a 289, though Johnson said even that score wasn’t necessarily safe had the second round played.

“It would have been nice to have that second day to see if we could have moved up a little bit because I think our guys were poised to make a run at a top-three finish, but Mother Nature had different ideas and that’s something that is out of our control,” Johnson said.

Senior JD Pollard also had an opportunity to move even higher up the leaderboard, as he finished the first day in a tie for third place with a 2-under 69. Once the round was cancelled, however, Pollard was awarded the fifth-place medal on a cardback, a placing that still secured a spot as a first-team all-state player. Matthew Garside from Bettendorf was the individual champion after he shot a 6-under 65 on the first day.

“JD took the most of his opportunity on a shortened season, the awesome part about his year in particular is he was playing his best golf at the right time,” Johnson said. “He didn’t necessarily lose the top spot, there were just kids that were playing great. The Garside kid from Bettendorf is going to be a great college player, so JD can be super proud of how he performed over one day.”

Pollard admitted after day one that he left some scoring on the course after missing multiple mid-range birdie putts on the front nine, but Johnson said he can’t beat himself up too much about finishing in the top five.

“I think he will look back and think, ‘man, if I just could have gotten a few more putts to drop it could have been even lower,’ but that’s one of those things in golf. You have to give yourself the opportunity to score,” Johnson said. “He’s a kid that will keep working and keep getting better at the game of golf. Like you’ve seen with some of the guys that graduated last year, I think college golf will be very good to JD no matter where he ends up. He’s improved so much over the last four years, so the upcoming years he will keep working at it and keep getting better.”

Brent Johnson also closed his final meet in a Marshalltown uniform on a high note, cutting his score of 114 from the district meet at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion to an 81 on the first day of the state tournament.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the way he came out and played. He made the comment before the meet about the fact that he didn’t really have any pressure on him so he was going to go out and shoot a good score, and that’s exactly what he did,” coach Johnson said of Brent. “For him to go out as a senior and put that number up, especially after shooting one of his worst rounds as a Bobcat, shows that resilience that we look for. That will be a good memory for him.”

While MHS says goodbye to both Pollard and Brent Johnson, four of the six players will be back and ready to make it three-straight state tournament appearances for the program.

“The idea that we have four guys that have played in a state tournament and four guys who have counted with a score at the state tournament, that’s a huge positive for us coming back in the 2019 season,” coach Johnson said.

Junior Cole Davis in particular should be set up for a good senior season, especially given his struggles at the end of the first day at Brown Deer. Davis, who finished as a state runner-up a year ago, was 1-over through 12 holes but finished 6-over on his final six holes to come in with a 78.

“Cole is going to be as hungry as anybody to make his senior season count and make it matter,” Johnson said. “It’s going to start in March and April of next year, starting to put together a calendar where he can have a great summer because he’s looking not only at the high school season but what the next step is and playing in tournaments that will give him exposure to higher levels of competition around the state and around the country. He wants to play at the Division-I level, and that’s what it will take for him.”

Mason Reid also returns for his senior season after playing in the state tournament in back-to-back years, and he too should be a key factor in the Bobcats’ bid for another state run.

Two players who should build off this season are freshmen Colin Schmit and Grant Greazel, who both had counting scores for Marshalltown in the state tournament. Greazel matched Davis with a 78 for the second-best score, while Schmit was the fourth score with an 80.

“This weekend is going to be a huge benefit for those guys as they kind of build their Bobcat golf career,” Johnson said. “They will play in events starting in April and May and throughout the summer and hopefully it makes them hungry to get back to that and keep building the program and their own golf careers.”

For all four returners to the team for next season, Johnson said they all got either their first or second taste of competing on the state level, and that’s something that drives you to be better.

“The benefit of playing in a state tournament is once you are there you want to get back, so that was the goal,” he said. “That was one of our main goals throughout the season was to get back there and we accomplished that goal.”

Iowa High School Boys State Golf Championship

At Coralville

Brown Deer Golf Club, par 71

FINAL

Team Standings — 1. Waukee 289, 2. Pleasant Valley 296, 3. Johnston 302, 4. Cedar Falls 303, 5. Ames 304, 6. (tie) Dowling Catholic, Marshalltown 305, 8. (tie) Cedar Rapids Washington, Valley 308, 10. (tie) Cedar Rapids Xavier, Des Moines Roosevelt, Dubuque Wahlert 311.

Individual (top 10) — 1. Matthew Garside, Bettendorf, 65; 2. Griffin Parker, WAU, 68; 3. (tie) Nick Pittman, JHN, 69; Burke Pitz, DMR, 69; JD Pollard, MHS, 69; 6. Jack Roemer, PV, 70; 7. (tie) Parker Ardary, DOW, 71; Cooper Craiger, DMR, 71; Jack Dumas, PV, 71; Schuyler Warren, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, 71.

WAUKEE (289) — Parker 68, Michael Vicente 72, Bennett Pedersen 74, Jackson Starr 75, Joshua Nichols 87, Charlie Steer 87.

PLEASANT VALLEY (296) — Roemer 70, Dumas 71, Lucas Wendel 75, Joseph Logan 80, Nathan Tillman 84, Lucas Wood 87.

JOHNSTON (302) — Pittman 69, Joe Paul 76, Jayce Palmer 78, Jarred Bowser 79, Nathan Petrak 81, Luke Kinney 86.

CEDAR FALLS (303) — Ben Bermel 72, Jack Moody 76, Trevor Heinen 77, Joe Dean 78, Luke Meyer 83, Kevin Yang 86.

AMES (304) — Sam Vertanen 74, Carter Clayberg 75, Connor Van Weelden 77, Noah Stenberg 78, Sam Balsley 84, Derek Peng 86.

DOWLING CATHOLIC (305) — Ardary 71, Will Yurgae 76, Jackson Yurgae 78, Jake Calhoun 80, Ben Freking 82, George Strawhecker 83.

MARSHALLTOWN (305) — Pollard 69, Grant Greazel 78, Cole Davis 78, Colin Schmit 80, Brent Johnson 81, Mason Reid 81.

CR WASHINGTON (308) — Nile Petersen 73, Connor Neighbors 75, Whitcomb Haefner 77, Kyle Neighbors 83, Joseph Tauber 88, Ben Skogman 91.

VALLEY (308) — Samuel Jacobs 72, John Boettcher 73, Jai Mukraj 78, Max Marshall 85, Alexander Johnson 86, Nate Miller 92.

CR XAVIER (311) — Nicholas Recker 74, Matthew Schmit 78, Michael Glavan 78, Max Henderson 81, Dan Bailey 82, Hunter Hartgrave 91.

DM ROOSEVELT (311) — Pitz 69, Craiger 71, Charlie Gaer 85, Owen O’Leary 86, Blane Bartholomew 90, Nicholas Yamamoto 96.

DUBUQUE WAHLERT (311) — Sam Ambrosy 73, Mitch Walz 77, Jack Doyle 77, Matt Becker 84, Benjamin Vaassen 84, Luke Schockemoehl 90.

INDIVIDUALS — Garside, Bettendorf, 65; Kyle Spence, Iowa City West, 72; Nick Opsahl, Sioux City North, 73; Brock Barnhart, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 74; Hunter Johnson, Ankeny, 76; Jax Stelzer, Western Dubuque, 76; Ian Johnston, Cedar Rapids Prairie, 77; Joseph Wickman, Mason City, 77; Jared Tjelmeland, Cedar Rapids Prairie, 78.

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