PHOTO PROVIDED - The East Marshall boys’ golf team secured its second-straight trip to state with Tuesday’s Class 1A district title at Oskaloosa Public Golf. Pictured, from left, are head coach Jordan Augspurger, Jaxson Boswell, Cody Weaver, Wyatt Stalzer, Jackson Bidwell, Rylan Weaver, Austin Crandon and assistant coach Denny Allen.

OSKALOOSA — East Marshall was elated to reach the boys state golf tournament for the first time last spring.

The Mustangs have their minds set on a lot more now.

Senior Cody Weaver shot a 5-under-par 67 to claim medalist honors and lead East Marshall back to state as the Class 1A district champion on Tuesday at Oskaloosa Public Golf.

The Mustangs finished in with a 309 team total — 14 strokes ahead of the nearest competitor to advance comfortably back to state for the second year in a row.

East Marshall outpaced Sigourney (323) and Winfield-Mount Union (326) to claim the top spot and advance out of the 12-team district on a blustery and muddy morning on the south side of Oskaloosa.

The conditions weren’t of concern for the Mustangs. Getting back to state was all that mattered.

“We talked to the boys at the beginning that third place is as good as first place,” said East Marshall head coach Jordan Augspurger. “Today, just getting to the state tournament, that was the overall team goal and the kids performed up to their expectations, so it was good to see and we’re happy for the boys.”

Judging by the performances, just placing in the top three wasn’t good enough.

“Yeah, they wanted to go there and show them their stuff and Cody played really well,” Augspurger added. “He did his thing. It’s fun to watch him play when he’s running on all cylinders.”

Weaver’s winning round of 67 was seven strokes ahead of the runner-up — Rowan Miller from Hillcrest Academy — and it included seven birdies. Weaver shot 2-under 34 on the front nine and 3-under 33 on the back, birdieing all four par-5s and two of the four par-3s.

Nobody in Weaver’s foursome was within 12 strokes of him at the end of the day.

The Mustang senior, who committed to the University of Iowa in the fall, will play in his fourth state tournament next week, May 26-27, at Westwood Golf Course in Newton.

“I think coming into the season he was really excited,” Augspurger said. “I think it took a big weight off of his shoulders when he signed, because I know that was putting a little stress on him last year.

“He wanted to get that scholarship and I think that’s been a blessing for him and his family getting that taken care of early in his senior year, so then he can focus on the next task at hand, which is winning that individual state title.”

Weaver has finished fifth, fourth and sixth in his first three trips to the season-ending state tournament. He’s currently the leader in 1A in combined adjusted scoring average this season, carding a 36.43 per nine holes, and trails only Grinnell’s Levi Jack (36.33) across all three classes.

Last spring’s fifth-place finish in a star-studded Class 2A meet was a strong jumping-off point for East Marshall, too. The Mustangs might have been a year ahead of schedule, but now they’re hitting the mark.

“We tried not to get too far ahead of ourselves because going into last year, we knew the field was loaded and then we played well enough at districts to go to state,” Augspurger said. “I think that was a little bit of a surprise that we got the team through, and a little bit of a relief for Cody also. I think this year is just, we have some high expectations and some lofty goals that we have a chance at making a little noise next week.”

Senior Jackson Bidwell shot an 80 to tie for eighth place, sophomore Rylan Weaver carded an 80 as well, and senior Wyatt Stalzer shot an 82 to tie for 16th. With a 14-stroke margin, respective rounds of 87 from Austin Crandon and 88 for Jaxson Boswell — both juniors — could have come in handy, too.

In fact, Boswell and Crandon both had counting scores during the Mustangs’ sectional meet title along with the Weaver brothers.

“All six shot 88 or below, so that was our best overall score if you were scoring all six,” Augspurger said. “That’s something that we were kind of missing last year is a fifth or a sixth score that could help pick us up. We have more depth this year than we did in the years past and especially last year, so that’s helped a lot too.”

The team’s 309 matched its North Iowa Cedar League runner-up total from Pheasant Ridge Golf Course, and it was just three shots shy of the 306 it put up to place second at the inaugural Mustang Invite at Elmwood Country Club.

“We haven’t had all four scorers put a round together yet,” Augspurger said. “We’ve been a little bit up and down, but we haven’t got all four playing the best golf that they can play yet, so we’re hoping that Tuesday or Wednesday — at least for sure one of the days — we can get off to a good start and get ourselves in a position where we can go low to see what happens.”