PHOTO PROVIDED - East Marshall senior Cody Weaver poses with his Class 1A boys’ state golf medalist trophy after winning on Wednesday at Westwood Golf Course in Newton.

NEWTON — The leaderboard was one more variable than Cody Weaver wanted to worry about, so he eliminated it from the equation.

With no idea where he stood, Weaver simply played his game — and that was plenty good.

Weaver became the first boys’ state golf champion in East Marshall history with back-to-back rounds of 3-under-par 68, winning the Class 1A crown on Wednesday at Westwood Golf Course in Newton.

By a comfortable six-stroke margin, Weaver won the state title he’d been chasing since his freshman campaign.

“All my career I wanted to win a state title, and coming in as a freshman I maybe thought it was going to be a little easier than it is,” said Weaver, a senior who has committed to the University of Iowa. “Winning is hard no matter what level you’re at, so it’s a nice feeling to have.”

Weaver had finished fifth, fourth and sixth in his three previous trips to the season-ending state tournament, but it all finally fell into place Tuesday and Wednesday in Newton. He finished with a 136 total, six shots ahead of runner-up Keith Thompson of Hamburg (70-72–142).

“It was a couple different days out there,” Weaver said. “Day 1 I hit the ball better, my approach game was a lot better, I hit more greens — it was a simpler day.

“Today was a little bit scrappier — less greens, scrambling — but my putter was good both days, I drove it pretty solid and I played pretty steady golf both days.”

Eliminating the leaderboard from the equation was perhaps paramount to solving the state championship conundrum.

“I actually didn’t look at the leaderboard all day,” Weaver said. “My thought was … my strategy’s not going to change if I don’t look at it so I’m still hitting the same shots I would without knowing where I was.”

For the two-day, 36-hole tournament, Weaver finished with a 10 birdies, six bogeys, 19 pars and an eagle. Weaver eagled the par-5 eighth hole on Wednesday and nearly eagled the par-4 ninth, driving to within 10 feet before just missing the putt.

He finished out with a 4-under 32 on the front before battling a bit on the back nine.

“I was feeling good heading to the back but I hit some errant shots, some errant approach shots that caused a couple bogeys, but for the most part it was pretty steady.”

As a team, East Marshall did itself one better than last year’s team debut at state. The Mustangs came away with fourth place out of 12 teams in the 1A field, finishing with a 624 total that was only two shots back of second place.

Boyden-Hull claimed the crown with a two-day total of 613, followed by South Winneshiek (622), Harris-Lake Park (623) and East Marshall (624). Earlham (641) was a distant fifth. Gladbrook-Reinbeck, also from the North Iowa Cedar League, was 11th (669).

“That’s for sure an honor to be a part of those teams that made it to the state tournament,” Weaver said. “It’s a big deal when you’ve never been there before. It’s not what we wanted as far as finishing and trying to get a trophy, but it’s still an honor to represent our school and make our community proud.”

Fellow Mustang senior Jackson Bidwell turned in the second-best round of the day in the entire 1A field. Behind Weaver’s 3-under 68, Bidwell was one of three golfers to shoot even-par 71 on Wednesday and climbed from 19th to sixth place in the final individual standings with a 79-71–150.

Wyatt Stalzer, the team’s other senior, shot 86-81–167 to tie for 39th place. Sophomore Rylan Weaver shot 88-83–171, while juniors Austin Crandon (90-83–173) and Jaxson Boswell (88-86–174) finished within one place of each other. Both Rylan Weaver and Crandon accounted for the team’s fourth counting score on Wednesday, while Rylan and Boswell shared that honor on Tuesday.

“We knew statistically we were going to have a chance to get to state,” Cody Weaver said, “but once you get to state, the golf ball doesn’t care what you’re rated.

“We felt good about ourselves and we needed to play a solid round today and we did. We had a solid second round today, but unfortunately we didn’t play the way we needed to yesterday.”

Polley eighth in 2A

WATERLOO — Defending Class 2A state champion Hunter Polley of West Marshall couldn’t make a dent on his deficit, and the end result was an eighth-place finish.

Polley shot a 4-over-par 76 on Wednesday at South Hills Golf Course during the final day of the 2A state tournament, finishing eighth overall with his 74-76–150 total.

That marks the third top-eight state finish of Polley’s golf career, which will continue in the fall at the University of Dubuque.

There might have been no catching Grundy Center senior Judd Jirovsky anyway as the Stanford commit charted a 6-under-66 on Wednesday to rally up his second 2A state title with a 73-66–139. Jirovsky, who was the state meet medalist as a freshman, finished with six birdies and the rest pars to lead the Spartans to a fourth-place finish (625) behind Waterloo Columbus (610), Rock Valley (614) and Aplington-Parkersburg (625; fifth-score tiebreaker).

Rock Valley’s Trey Swanson shot 70-72–142 for runner-up medalist.

Polley posted no birdies on Wednesday and slid from fifth to eighth on the final day. He had four bogeys and the rest pars in representing West Marshall at state for the third year in a row.