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Come and take it

Marshalltown boys golf team looks to defend state title at Brown Deer

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - The Marshalltown boys golf team is preparing to defend its state title from a season ago. Pictured are, from left, Brent Johnson, Grant Greazel, JD Pollard, Cole Davis, Mason Reid and Colin Schmit.

It’s been a year since the Marshalltown boys golf team finished atop the leaderboard at Elmwood Country Club to win the 2017 Iowa High School Boys State Golf Tournament, and it’s been a year since former Bobcats Nate Vance won the individual state title with an eagle putt on the 18th hole to win a four-way playoff.

That championship was a coming out party for MHS golf, which hadn’t been back to the state tournament as a team for 14 years prior to 2017, but now the Bobcats have re-established themselves as one of the premier golf programs in the state.

Marshalltown earned its way into its second-straight team qualification for the state tournament by tying Pleasant Valley for the best score in the district meet at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion on Monday with a 311, and Bobcat head coach Lucas Johnson — who has avoided comparisons to last year’s squad all season — said the first goal has been accomplished.

“This was the goal at the beginning of the year and that was what we started out with,” Johnson said while standing on the putting green at Elmwood during a team practice on Tuesday. “We ended here at the state meet last year and we knew that we had the talent to be here, and when the district pairings came out we knew that we had a good shot.”

From 1998 to 2003, MHS made six-straight trips as a team to the state tournament, winning the overall title three times in that span. Johnson said it’s too early to say his team has gotten back to where it was at the turn of the century, but they are taking the right steps by getting back to the state tournament, which runs at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville on Friday and Saturday.

“This is a level that we’ve wanted to get to for a while,” he said. “It was at that level in the 90’s and through 2000, they had a stretch of a lot of consecutive years at the state tournament so to do it two years in a row shows that we are heading in the right direction.”

While both the 2018 and 2017 squads both qualified for the state meet by placing second in the district meet, that’s about where the similarities end.

Last season Marshalltown was a force on the course that rarely took a backseat to other teams. Seniors Vance, Luke Appel, Tate Carlson and Keygan Hansen were battle-tested golfers who had been through the ringer, and they were the core of the squad.

This season the Bobcats have flown under the radar, mainly due to the loss of the four seniors from last season. What’s kept MHS still fighting is a strong core of experienced players in senior JD Pollard and juniors Cole Davis and Mason Reid, who Johnson said have done everything he’s asked of them so far.

“We are fortunate we have a talented crew of golfers right now that are giving us a lot of good play. It’s not often that you get a group in back-to-back years that has this much talent, so we are happy with where we are at and I think we can surprise some people this weekend,” Johnson said. “Those three guys are the three we look at to be consistent. They are the heart of the lineup and they are the ones that if we are going to put together a good team score then they are going to need to perform. We have that trust in them to do that.”

Davis, who was in the playoff alongside Vance after both finished with a 142 after 36 holes last season, said this has been a different feeling making it back to the state tournament because the team hasn’t been looked at as world beaters all year.

“It’s a lot more relaxed and laid back, I think last year we were all tensed up because we wanted to win,” Davis said. “This year we are all just happy to be there and given a shot to play in the state tournament.”

Pollard, who was the district meet medalist at Hunters Ridge after shooting a 2-over-par 74, said he is proud of how far the program has come in such a short time, and a lot of that credit goes to Johnson.

“Coach has definitely made this team a lot better over the years, and being able to have the friends that we have every day, we are all close,” Pollard said. “We all hang out and stuff, here in a couple years down the road I think they will still be going to state and I will come watch them a few times, make sure they are all playing well. Hopefully this weekend will be a big part of that.”

Reid, who shot an 81 to help solidify the state qualification on Monday after not playing in the district meet in 2017, said though the faces may have changed this team is just as dangerous now as it was a year ago.

“We won it last year and we had a good team, but I believe that this year we can still do the same thing,” he said. “We have the same goals and the same things to look forward to.”

While those three have carried the brunt of the load most of the season, it’s been two freshmen who have stepped up time and again to provide that all-important fourth score. First-year players Colin Schmit and Grant Greazel have done everything they can to fill in for the likes of Vance, Appel, Hansen and Carslon, and Johnson said he’s amazed at how far those two have come in such a short time.

“Colin and Grant both in stretches throughout the season have been able to put together scores in that 75-85 range, which is what you need out of the back end of the lineup,” he said. “Districts was not Colin’s best day, but overall throughout the season he has been a great asset in that 5-6 role and that’s what you need out of those players, the ability to keep it together and shoot a score in the low 80’s that will keep you in the conversation if one of your top guys doesn’t have his best day.

“Grant has been doing even more when it comes to keeping himself in the match,” Johnson continued. “He had a stretch [at districts] where he was flustered, which you expect that out of freshmen, but I was really proud of the way he battled back and kept his head because on that kind of day it doesn’t feel great when you put up a score in the 80’s when you were hoping to shoot in the 70’s but an 81 sure looks a lot better than what it could have been if he let it get away from him.”

Schmit admits the first part of his season has gone better than the second half, partially due to a long 27-day stretch where the Bobcats didn’t compete at all due to weather, but he feels like he can turn that around before heading into state.

“I just have to hit a lot more balls, we’ve played a lot and I haven’t gotten to practice all that much,” Schmit said of fixing his game. “My attitude mainly too, when I am playing I get down when I make more bogeys so I just have to keep a positive attitude.”

Greazel has almost had an inverse season of Schmit, struggling a bit at the beginning but rounding out well towards the end, even shooting a counting score at districts to help the MHS cause. He said he’s excited to take the course at Brown Deer, particularly because he’ll be one of the youngest competitors to hit the links.

“I think it’s pretty cool, you don’t get that many opportunities in life to play as a freshman at the state tournament so that’s pretty cool,” Greazel said. “I won’t take that for granted, I want to make the best of it.”

Though the rest of the team has at least one more year left to play, one other senior helps Pollard lead the way from a maturity standpoint in Brent Johnson.

Brent spent time on both the junior varsity and varsity squads this year, acting essentially as the first alternate to the team, but when his number has been called coach Johnson said Brent hasn’t hesitated to contribute.

“You never know how it’s going to turn out, people use those kind of analogies for football with the ‘next man up’ stuff, but Brent Johnson is a kid who has hung out here,” coach Johnson said. “He comes from a great family, he’s a kid that I trust to do the right thing on the course even if he’s not necessarily having the best day. He is a great influence on the team.”

Getting to cap his senior season with a trip to the state tournament is a great way for Brent to go out, and he said he’s going to give it his all.

“I’m going to be aggressive for sure,” Brent said. “Being in the sixth spot not a lot of people expect me to score, so why not go for it?”

Going into a tournament of such magnitude it’s usually a good idea to lay down some goals both team-wise and individually, and the Bobcats have followed that mantra. Coach Johnson said on the individual side he fully expects Davis and Pollard to be fighting for that top spot.

“I know JD and Cole are going in there saying, ‘if I play as well as I can I could find myself in contention or at the top of the leaderboard,'” coach Johnson said. “Cole showed it last year and JD the way he played at districts against some of the very best in Iowa shows he has that potential too. I would love to be out on the last holes on Saturday afternoon looking to see where they are at on the leaderboard.”

While the top two individuals look to defend Vance’s title from last year and keep that in Marshalltown, it will take an entire team effort for the Bobcats to maintain their reign as Class 4A state champions.

“From a team perspective, if we are able to get play out of our top guys like we’ve seen at different points of our season then it’s a matter of getting three or four other guys to put together those scores in the 70’s that will keep us in the mix and the conversation,” Johnson said. “Day one is about staying patient, then on day two when we know where we’re at we can adjust our strategy accordingly.”

All of the boys agreed with Johnson that it will take a total team effort to come out on top for a second-straight year, but Reid said the Bobcats can focus on one simple goal.

“Get it done again for a second year in a row, that’s our goal and I think we can do it,” he said.

Day one of the 4A Iowa High School Boys State Golf Tournament at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville is set for a 10:30 a.m. start.

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