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Cubs dominant in county win
CLOVERDALE — Greencastle golfers recorded the five top scores at Thursday’s Putnam County championship tournament at Clover Meadows, easily winning the team title by a 32-stroke margin over Cloverdale.
Junior Jake Bennett and sophomore Jaxon Parmley tied for top score of the day with 39s, with Bennett winning a one-hole playoff to earn medalist honors.
Freshman Kyle Tesmer shot a 41 for the Tiger Cubs, while junior Blaise Hasty had a 42 and freshman Conner Taylor added a 44.
The five Tiger Cubs were joined by South Putnam’s Tyler Hicks (44) and Cloverdale’s Zarek Wellington (45) on the all-county team.
Greencastle coach Steve Paquin was pleased with the play of his young team, particularly with the Western Indiana Conference meet coming up on Saturday.
“They all hit the ball pretty solidly with good consistency in scoring,” Paquin said. “Their putting was pretty good, and all phases of ball striking were pretty good.”
Paquin noted that while the Tiger Cubs are not advanced in chronological age, their experience level has helped produce positive results this season.
“Jake and Blaise are in their third year as regular players, and Jaxon played every match last year,” he said. “Our young guys keep continuing to improve and get better.”
The Tiger Cubs have played most of the WIC schools this season (with the exception of Indian Creek) and have not lost to any of them, Paquin said.
“We should be right at the top as far as the conference meet goes,” he said. “We went to Idle Creek and played a practice round, and it’s going to be a tough course. What happens on tough courses is that the weaker players play worse, and the better players hold their ground.”
Paquin has high expectations for this group of players, both for the remainder of this year and next year when they all return.
“It’s a building process,” he said. “These guys have played a lot of golf, and the more you play the better you’re going to get. This is going to be a good team.”
Paquin noted his team has five matches left before the sectional tourney, and still has improving to do.
“We shot 150 the other night [against Northview], and we had 161 in the county,” he said. “We should always be in the middle 150s team-wise.”
Cloverdale coach Doug Wokoun thought the weather conditions affected play on Thursday.
“Everyone struggled a little with the extreme temperature change from the previous couple of days,” he said. “Conditions were pretty good, considering the amount of rain we had overnight.
“Zarek had two bad holes to start, but settled down and played a very good round after that,” he added. “Zach [Nichols] had an uncharacteristic round, and we were really disappointed that he missed being All-County, an honor he has earned the last two years.”
Wokoun added his two other scorers had up-and-down rounds.
“Tyler [Harrison] played pretty well at times, and will be a real factor for us when he becomes a little more consistent,” he said. “Drew [Boyette] has had a tough week, and even though he played well at times, he has not gotten back to the play he had a couple of weeks ago.”
Team scores — Greencastle 161, Cloverdale 193, South Putnam 212, North Putnam 263
(All-county players in bold)
Greencastle — Jake Bennett 39*, Jaxon Parmley 39, Kyle Tesmer 41, Blaise Hasty 42, Conner Taylor 44
Cloverdale — Zarek Wellington 45, Zach Nichols 48, Tyler Harrison 49, Drew Boyette 51, Jason Miller 56
South Putnam — Tyler Hicks 44, Ryan Neumann 52, Jared Seidler 58, Levi Girton 58, Justin Pitts 65
North Putnam — Peyton Myers 60, R.J. Batchelor 60, Zane Mason 65, Marcus Burdine 78
* — won playoff hole for medalist
Next match — All four Putnam County schools will compete in the Western Indiana Conference tournament at Idle Creek in Terre Haute on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.