Positive approach pushes Faith Christian golf to sectional repeat

WEST LAFAYETTE — Before every competition, Faith Christian's golf team prepares with a prayer.

In it, they ask to remain humble and as peaceful and positive as possible, even when things aren't going well.

Wednesday's City/County tournament, even though the Eagles won, was one of the team's higher scores over the past two seasons, but the team maintained its positive approach.

Two days later, Faith Christian shot 24 strokes better collectively at Coyote Crossing to repeat as sectional champions Friday afternoon.

"Last year, this was unknown territory. We had never done this before," said Faith senior Grant Valiant. "This year, we're repeat champions. We've been here and have experience and that was the biggest thing in doing it again is having that experience.

"It was the same course, but different course in a sense. We had confidence and belief in ourselves."

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With a 311, highlighted by sophomore Sam Peter winning his first high school tournament with a medalist round 74, Faith Christian advances to Thursday's regional at Sandy Pines, along with West Lafayette and Harrison, which took the final advancing spot thanks to a fifth-score tiebreaker.

Central Catholic freshman Charlie Seaburg, Carroll sophomore Porter Dick and Delphi junior Cade Nelson all qualified for the regional as individuals from non-advancing teams. Nelson, Seaburg and Faith Christian sophomore Joe Peter all finished three strokes back of Sam Peter for second individually with 77s.

"It is a good confidence booster," Sam Peter said. "Wednesday was not our best. (Friday) everyone played much better and more how they've played all year. We feel good heading into regionals."

West Lafayette was led by Grant Bauman, last year's sectional medalist, with a 78, and Cam Greene with an 83.

Harrison No. 5 golfer Joe Loop's 95 was the difference for the Raiders advancing over Central Catholic, with a fifth score of 110. In the event of a tie for team advancement, the individual whose score didn't factor into the team's score becomes the deciding factor.

But the day really belonged to Faith Christian, the first team to complete its 18-hole round, which posted the score no other team could match.

"Anything can happen on a golf course throughout the course of a tournament," Faith Christian coach Dan Peter said. "Yes, we are confident, but to be honest we are so thankful that they are able to execute when it matters.

"I am not sure they could work much harder. There's not enough hours in the day for them to work harder than they've worked. They have put in a tremendous amount of time and effort. Good weather, bad weather. From the moment we can start practice as a team, it didn't matter what the weather was, they were putting in the work, staying after practice individually putting in work. When team practice is over, I am leaving the parking lot and there's three kids still on the range and I know they are there long after the coaches have left putting in time doing everything they can to put themselves in a position to be successful."

Faith Christian's golf team becomes the first in school history to win back-to-back sectional titles. Only boys soccer (2013, '18 and '20) and girls soccer (2015, '21) have won team sectional titles at Faith and the Eagles have had two individual track and field sectional champions: Alex Landess (400 meters, 2018) and Alli Holder (high jump, 2022).

The small Christian-based school on Lafayette's east side became eligible for IHSAA postseason competition in 2012.

"It is pretty special," Sam Peter said. "We go down in history as one of the best teams ever in Faith sports and it is special to be a part of such a great team."

Wednesday was not special.

Valiant said he was battling a bad back that day, but makes no excuses for the rare off day as a team. What was special was that post tournament prayer and how it played out in real life.

The Eagles remained positive after Wednesday's City/County tournament that they'd come out and look like the sectional favorite they were perceived to be.

After two years of playing high school golf in Iowa, Valiant moved to Indiana last school year and helped Faith win the school's first golf sectional a year ago.

He's now a high school graduate and, quite honestly, struggled with school after the coronavirus pandemic kept him out of the classroom for six months, along with a move to a new school in another state.

He's always had golf to balance him out though.

And, for many reasons, he wants his team to advance out of the regional Thursday and qualify for the state meet, the main one being so he can still be affiliated as a Faith Christian student-athlete.

"The last few weeks I've been reminiscing on my high school golf career," Valiant said. "I got to play freshman and sophomore year in Iowa before I moved here. The high school experience hasn't been the greatest, but golf has been the greatest experience of high school I've had and I don't want it to end."

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

Team scores

Faith Christian 311, West Lafayette 344, Harrison 363, Central Catholic 363, Lafayette Jeff 377, McCutcheon 380, Rossville 396, Carroll 398, Benton Central 411, Clinton Central 447, Clinton Prairie 457

Medalist — Sam Peter (Faith) 74

Faith Christian — Joe Peter 77, Sam Peter 74, Eli Patton, 78, Grant Valiant 82, Conlin Gerber 92.

West Lafayette — Grant Bauman 78, Cam Greene 83, Kale Zink 90, Ben Mariner 93, Brayden Wrede 94.

Harrison — Ben Larson 87, Noah McBride 93, Drew Plattner 89, Max Bunger 94, Joe Loop 95.

Central Catholic — Avery Everidge 89, Charlie Seaburg 77, AJ Elsner 88, David Redmann 109, Owen Adler 110.

Lafayette Jeff — Hayden Ritchie 94, Maddox Walker 91, Andy Lipton 98, Justin Corbin 95, Nate Brennan 97.

McCutcheon — Cole Wetli 89, Reece Dunbar 98, Keaton Wright 99, Brayden Ashley 94, AJ Stone 109.

Rossville — Evan Lawson 90, Gavin Elston 92, Colton Yeagley 104, Luke Royer 110, Payne Terry 118.

Carroll — Porter Dick 79, Garrett Miller 104, Kyle Swayze 110, Brant Blecher 105, Jacob Joiner 111.

Benton Central — Ethan Sarault 91, Tristan Waber 108, Kolton Goodman 100, Parker Shelton 120, Sam Crisp 112.

Clinton Central — Kyle Pickard 110, Camden Price 115, Max Adair 111, Cade Crenshaw 119, Gavin Walters 111.

Clinton Prairie — Logan McDonald 109, Noah Townsend 120, Jack Hoyer 110, Logan Townsend 120, Jake McGraw 118.

Frontier — Zachary Wells 134.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Positive approach pushes Faith Christian golf to sectional repeat