ASHLAND – Five tournaments in five days in five different counties. Almost 450 miles of roundtrip travel and eight hours in the team van.
It’s been a long week.
“It sure has,” Madison coach John Neron said. “But the guys have been playing some great golf.”
He might be underselling it by only saying great. The Rams opened the week winning the Ralph Hohenstein Classic at Green Hills Golf Course with a 310, followed it up with a runner-up (317) finish in the Allen East Invite at Colonial Golfers Club, and fourth (326) at Valley View in the Galion Invite.
“Then we went over Riceland (Golf Course) and ran into the buzzsaw (Jackson Durchik) from Lexington who comes through and shoots 8-under … that was amazing, it really was a spectacle to watch,” Neron said of the first OCC Shootout, where his Rams were third with a 304. “Then coming here and playing phenomenal golf, I can’t ask for anything more out of these guys.”
Friday was the shortest trip, a quick jaunt over to Brookside Golf Course for the Hillsdale Invitational, and Madison ended the week how it started firing a 302 for a 14-stroke win, led by senior medalist Josh Maglott, who carded a 1-under 70. Sophomore Brandon Maglott added a 73, senior Lincoln Shepherd a 78, freshman Vinny Studer 81; senior Branson Porter’s 88 and junior Carson Isaac’s 91 the drops.
“The Maglott boys throw out good numbers every day … and we have a couple younger guys (like) Vinny Studer as a freshman,” Neron said. “He’s really getting into his game, some of the greens have been a big change from course to course, but he’s getting it together.”
Things slow down a bit for the Rams with a match against West Holmes on Monday and the Weiss Invitational at the Ashland Golf Club on Thursday.
“We’re looking forward to next week and a couple other tournaments coming up, but I’m giving them Tuesday off to rest,” Neron said. “A full week of 18-hole golf courses is tough on them, they need time to rest.”
Back-to-back days at Brookside
Two tournaments in as many days at the same course can tell a coach a lot about their team.
Hillsdale, coming off the program’s first district tournament appearance in a decade, saw four spots open on the varsity squad this season and coach Kyle Wissel was waiting to see who would step up.
“We lost a good amount of seniors, so we’ve seen a lot of great leadership from our underclassmen this year,” Wissel said. “Today was huge for Easton McCrory. It’s his first year golfing for high school, he came in and just absolutely crushed it.”
The sophomore was Hillsdale’s six-man Friday and came in with a career-low 77 for eighth overall. Juniors Lowen Ferguson and Hunter Christian — the lone returners from last year’s varsity squad — each carded 79 while sophomores Kolton Kochheiser and Carsten McFadden shot matching 81s; sophomore Coy Collins’ 83 the drop.
The pair of 81s proved decisive as one was the final counting score and the other the tiebreak over Crestview — champions of the Simonson Invitational on Thursday — as the teams tied for second at 316. Wayne County Athletic League rival Waynedale was fourth at 319 followed by Division II programs Cloverleaf (324), Clear Fork (332), Norwayne (336), and Ontario (344).
“It’s great to see strong competition out here,” Wissel said. “It starts to go through and put that drive in our players for how the rest of the season can be. We (see how we) stack up against some of the larger schools we might not see again, but also kind of know where we’ll fall in line as we start to look at the postseason.”
The improvement his Falcons made from Thursday to Friday, in a field featuring six of the same schools and adding tougher competition, was exactly what Wissel wanted to see.
“So to just see us come down 18 strokes as a team in one day — these guys want it — and that’s a great drive to be able to coach,” he said.
Area results
Crestview was led by three-man Zander Washburn’s 75 followed by Carter Bowman’s 78, Cole Bowman’s 79, and Vincent Peterman’s 84; Kayn Patton’s 85 and Nathan Cox’s 96 the drops.
Clear Fork’s Beckett Slaughter carded a 78 to lead the Colts, Kade Beachy’s 83, Jacob Schmidt’s 84, and Aaron Swendal’s 87 the scorers; drops from Julian Joyce (97) and Finn McAuley (104). Ontario scorers were Kolbe Ramion’s 82, Liam Holden (86), Miles Doehla (87), and Mike McClenathan (89); Owen Drexel and Michael Brown the drops with 91.
New London was 10th paced by Kade Detterman’s 81. Logan Sword shot an 84, Easton Ball 91, and Tate Mitchell 93 for a team score of 349; Luke Fawcett’s 104 and Nathan Willis’ 105 the drops.
Mapleton was 11th led by fifth-place individual Grayden Kerr’s 76. Jack Sheppard carded an 88, Landin Sanders 93, Evan Shouse 104; Jayce Simonson’s 118 the drop.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Madison boys golf caps flurry of opening tournaments with Hillsdale win
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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By Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal | USA TODAY Network
