'Survive and advance:' Wynford golf moves on to districts, first time since 2013
GALION - Michael Powers was on pins and needles in the clubhouse at Valley View Golf Course Thursday afternoon waiting for scores to come in at the Division III sectional tournament.
His Wynford team had just fired a 356 and briefly had the lead before Mohawk's scores rolled in and the Warriors came in at 355. Old Fort, the defending sectional champion, was still on the course as was contenders Seneca East and Hopewell-Loudon which made the waiting game painstakingly long.
But when everything was totaled and scores were finalized, the Royals held on for third — Old Fort won with a 352 — and advanced to next week's district tournament at Stone Ridge Golf Course, the program's first time since 2013 when Powers was a senior in high school.
"Survive and advance," he said. "It was one of those days. We wanted our scores to be a little better, we had a number at the beginning of the day and didn't get that. But if you look at the other teams … we were only four strokes off first place."
Entering the postseason the Royals boasted a 178.2 nine-hole averaged but had just bested that with a 348 at the Northern 10 tournament last week to win the program's first league title since 2007.
"Coming off the N10 having those nerves, we hadn't made it out as a team for quite some time," Powers said. "Even though we knew we had a great shot, there's still nerves of wanting to get there and putting the scores together to do it. But we hung in there and the last few holes separated us from fourth place, we got it done."
What really helped Wynford separate itself from Seneca East (370) in fourth and Hopewell-Loudon (377) in fifth was how the bottom of the Royals' lineup performed. Weston Prenger at No. 1 fired an 86, Micah Greene at No. 2 an 87 — they came in with a 41 nine-hole average — with sophomores Dawson Pelter and Drew Johnson, the No. 5 and No. 4 respectively, came in with a 91 and 93; senior Dylon Robinson's 93 was the drop.
"We struggled a little bit at the top today with Wes and Micah, but they finished the last few holes strong for us," Powers said. "Really what separated us from fourth place was our three, four and five. Dawson (47.95 avg.) had a great round today, Drew and Dylon coming in — 91, 92, 93 helped us out a bunch.
"We didn't have any spectacular scores, but as a team we still averaged out for a decent score on a day like this. It's the first day we've had to play in cold weather and wet conditions."
A trip to Bowling Green awaits next week where the Royals will join 17 other schools at Stone Ridge Golf Club hoping to finish in the top-four and move on to the state tournament. That's the ultimate goal, but Powers mainly wants his golfers to soak in the experience and just let whatever happens, happen.
"You look at our team and we lose just one senior, just getting to districts and seeing what it's all about for our guys getting that experience is great for this year," he said. "Then going into next year, whole different expectations. This year, we're going to go in and see what we can do, it's golf.
"We'll go out there, have some fun, play relaxed and see what we can post."
Plymouth's Slone fires 86 to advance
Two days removed from his teammate Sarah Hoak carding an 83 in monsoon-like weather to qualify for the D-II girls district tournament — she was in attendance rooting the boys on Thursday — Plymouth junior Canaan Slone turned in an 86 to place fourth overall as an individual and lock up the first qualifying spot for districts.
"I knew I could if I came out and shot decent golf I could make it," Slone said. "Some of our competition got bumped to D-II this year so I knew if I shot in the low to mid-80's I could make it."
Just a year prior he shot a 94 to miss out on districts by five strokes. Now with an extra year under his belt, Slone shaving eight strokes off was all he needed to qualify for Stone Ridge. But he wasn't exactly thrilled with his score.
"Yeah, I made it," Slone said. "But I definitely could've shot better. I had a few rough holes, but other than that it wasn't too bad.
"It was pretty wet out there, I had a few divots."
He becomes the first Plymouth golfer to qualify for the district tournament since Brody Brown won a playoff in 2019 to lock up the third and final individual spot after shooting an 82.
Shelby Whippets win D-II sectional at Woussickett, Galion runner-up
The Shelby-Galion rivalry runs deep and in boys golf, it might be fiercer than in any other sport.
All the Whippets have wanted to do is beat the Tigers on the course for the past five years. Last week in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference tournament, they did just that to share the league title with their rivals. And again on Thursday, Shelby's 305 bested Galion by 11 strokes to give the Whippets a sectional championship — both teams advance to the district tournament at Eagle's Landing in Oregon, Ohio along with Huron (327).
Ashton Hoffbauer led Shelby with an even par 70 for medalist honors, No. 4 Will Magers fired a 77, Carson Brubaker 78, Brody Miller 80 and Blake Muntis' 86 was the drop.
Galion was paced by Nick McMullen's 77, Logan Keller shot a 78, Nate Barre 79 and Nate McMullen 82; Braylen Hart's 88 the drop.
Clear Fork finished fourth as a team with a 344, 17 strokes off qualifying as a team. But junior Nate Lind (81) advanced as the third individual after birdying the first playoff hole against Bellevue's Daniel Ochenduski.
Upper Sandusky's Brock Montgomery (76), Clyde's Josh Swartz (77) and Willard's Max Dawson (79) the other qualifying individuals.
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Wynford boys golf, Plymouth's Canaan Slone advance to district tourney
