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GHS battles elements, wins conference
CLAYTON -- Local golfers were greeted by a plethora of weather conditions Saturday, but players battled through, with two local teams at the top.
Greencastle placed four golfers on the All-Conference team and came away with the West Central Conference crown. The Tiger Cubs finished with a 335, 29 shots in front of second place Cloverdale.
The day began with overcast skies, but before the first golfers could make the turn, rain set in on the course. A constant, driving rain belted the course, but retreat was the furthest thing from GHS head coach Donovan Wheeler's mind.
"I'm really happy for them and I'm really proud of them because the conditions were difficult today for a lot of reasons," Wheeler explained. "You had a smorgasbord of weather to begin with, but we've been practicing in this all year, so I knew when the rain was coming, I though 'good, bring it on', because I knew it was to our advantage."
The Tiger Cubs thrived in the adverse conditions, with freshman Brad Haussin carding an even-par 36 and Wade Huber firing a 39.
The rains continued into the beginning of the back nine, but quickly were replaced with sunny, windy conditions that frustrated the golfers and led to elevated second nine scores.
Haussin continued his hot play on the back nine and ended the day with a tournament-best 75. Huber led a trio of Tiger Cubs who shot in the 80s. Huber shot an 84, while Luke Crimmins shot an 87 and Jimmy Wheeler shot an 89. Raymond Stinson came in with a 98 for GHS.
"Brad had a phenomenal round," Wheeler commented. "This is the thing about Brad; he had struggled and people were asking questions and I said 'Brad is still by far the best freshman I've ever had and he's probably the best freshman to come though in a number of years and before it's over he'll prove that to people' and today he did.
"In these conditions, the amount of mental focus it took, he played like a big boy today. He play some really strong mental golf and he made a lot of very smart decisions that I think separated him from pretty much the rest of the field. I'm very impressed with what he did today," Wheeler added.
Cloverdale's Chris Arnold used the improved conditions to best his front nine score of 42 by three strokes. With his back nine 39, Arnold shot an 81, good enough from second lowest score of the day. Keith Hathorn added an 87, with Gary Williams firing a 92, Mike Wellington a 104 and Sam Jordan a 110.
South Putnam got a lift from Dylan Gilbert who shot a 93 for the Eagles. Teammate Mike Nichols followed with a 100, while Dean Varvel shot a 110 and Alex Eickhoff and Alex Kelly carded a pair of 114s.
The good news for the youthful North Putnam Cougars was they were the only team in the tournament to have every golfer post better back nine scores than front.
Brandon Volland led the Cougar charge by shooting a 96, followed by Wes Detienne with a 103 and Mitch Warlow with a 109. Colton Smith shot a 111 for NPHS and Quade Snyder rounded out the Cougar golfers with a 116.
With his team capturing county and conference honors, Wheeler knows it's a tough road ahead. He hopes his squad takes lessons away from Saturday's tumultuous round and uses them to make a run in the sectional.
"We're still working on the momentum part," he said. "I don't mean this to be negative, but there's no question that we have a lot to learn from what happened today. The lesson we learned from today is the importance of the mental game over the physical game.
"To compete at the sectional, we're going to have to bring our best games -- that's pretty much it. We'll see what happens," Wheeler concluded.
Cloverdale is back in action today against Cascade and Eminence at 4 p.m., while North Putnam will host Monrovia today at 4:30 p.m. South Putnam will welcome Riverton Parke today at 4:30 and Greencastle will travel to Owen Valley at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
At Deer Creek Golf Course
Greencastle 335, Cloverdale 364, Cascade 370, Monrovia 375, Speedway 410, South Putnam 417, North Putnam 419
Greencastle -- Haussin 75††, Huber 84†, Crimmins 87†, Wheeler 89†, Stinson 98
Cloverdale -- Arnold 81†, Hathorn 87†, Williams 92, Wellington 104, Jordan 110
Cascade -- Arthur 86†, Rosenbalm 90†, Keutzer 95, Jensen 99, Slezinski 104
Monrovia -- Porter 83†, Dillon 84†, Standeford 95, Lundy 113, Stamper 115
Speedway -- Roach 96, Bracken 97, Jobst 101, Mieldazis 116, Fiege 119
South Putnam -- Gilbert 93, Nichols 100, Varvel 110, Eickhoff 114, Kelly 114,
North Putnam -- Volland 96, Detienne 103, Marlow 109, Smith 111, Snyder 116
†† -- Denotes tournament medalist
† -- Denotes All-Conference selection
Next match -- Cloverdale is back in action today against Cascade and Eminence at 4 p.m., while North Putnam will host Monrovia today at 4:30 p.m. South Putnam will welcome Riverton Parke today at 4:30 and Greencastle will travel to Owen Valley at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.