Tigers finish fifth at Class 4A golf meet

WAMEGO -- Fort Scott High School's golf team finished in fifth place at the Class 4A State Golf Tournament at the Wamego Country Club here Monday.

The Tigers, third in 4A last year, shot 345 as a team. Andover was the runaway winner in the team competition as the Trojans shot 309 to finish 15 strokes ahead of runner-up Topeka Hayden. Andover Central was third at 325 and Wamego was fourth on its home course with a 336.

Junior Chris Brown shot 41-40--81 to finish in a tie for 11th place and earn the Tigers' only medal. The top 20 golfers, including ties, earn medals at State.

"Chris Brown battled hard and can be proud of his eleventh-place finish," Fort Scott head coach Ken Klassen said. "He has been a quality young man as well as excellent golfer all year. I know he'll want to come back and win it all next year, and for him that's a reasonable goal though a challenging one."

Paul Norris was next for the Tigers with a season-best score of 44-42--86. Cole Murrin, who won the individual title in the Paola Regional last week, finished at 42-46--88.

"Paul struck the ball well and putted well," Klassen said. "He hits a low ball, and that enabled him to some extent to neutralize the wind. I'm looking forward to him stepping up next year to be a major contributor to the team.

"Cole, who had played so well all season, was disappointed in not playing better. He fought hard, even though he was frustrated. Parts of his round were solid, but the winds and hazards took their toll. Sometimes I forget that he's just a sophomore, a very talented one. He's had a great year, culminating in a regional championship. Next year should be even better. "

Rounding out Fort Scott's scores were Dylan Renfro at 43-47--90, Luke Geneva's 48-51--99 and Tanner Beckham's 53-58--111.

"Dylan has emerged this year as a much more complete player," Klassen said. "Yesterday he was our fourth score with a round that disappointed him a little, but still placed him in the top half of the competitors. He's learned a great deal this year and will help lead the team next year.

"Luke struck the ball well yesterday, but the wind and heavy rough hurt his performance. Luke is our only varsity senior. It's been great having him on the team the past four years. Participating at the State level is a great way to finish his high school career.

"Lastly, Tanner Beckham had a genuine learning experience. Being thrown into varsity competition as a freshman is a challenge, but Tanner has devoted himself into improving and has done so all year. Next year he'll step up and hopefully compete at State again."

Although Andover coasted, its winning score was still 11 strokes higher than cross-town rival Central's winning score of 298 last year. Overall, the scores were higher than last year -- 70 won the individual title in 2006 -- because of a tough course layout.

" This course was the most challenging I've seen for state competition," Klassen noted. "Narrow fairways, many lateral hazards, large, fast, sloping, undulating greens, combined with sustained 30 MPH winds The course required more than one pre-tournament look to play it well, and we had only one opportunity the day before to play it. But we competed as best we could, and a finish in the top half of the field speaks well of our squad."

Noah Smithson of Andover won the individual championship with a three-over-par final score of 36-36--73. Jacob Hoover of El Dorado was second at 38-37--75 followed by Riley Piles of Hayden, winning a playoff with Jordan Lytton of Augusta after finishing with identical scores of 36-40--76.

Jeremy Gant of Chanute had the best score among the Southeast Kansas League's contingent of golfers, finishing 10th with a 38-41--79. Chanute followed Fort Scott in the team standings with a sixth-place 353.

Team scores

1. Andover (AN) 309 (Smithson 73, Hutton 77, Morgan 78, Meisch 81), 2. Topeka Hayden (TH) 324 (Piles 76, Koehn 81, Falley 83, Walker 84), 3. Andover Central (AC) 325 (Sherman 77, Carney 79, Stoner 83, Belt 86),

4. Wamego (W) 336 (Bulk 81, Clark 81, McCart 85, Abel 89), 5. Fort Scott (FS) 345 (Brown 81, Norris 86, Murrin 88, Renfro 90), 6. Chanute (CH) 353 (Gant 79, Brazil 91, Crabtree 90, Gard 93),

7. Paola 357 (Liebnitz 85, Pfaltzgraf 86, Crawford 93, Plummer 93), 8. Abilene 357 (Hertz 85, Anderson 86, Sare 90, Bronson 96), 9. El Dorado (ED) 358 (Hoover 75, Demel 91, Briscoe 91, Craft 101, Clites 103)

10. Goodland (GO) 358 (Linn 82, Doll 89, Ihrig 93, Gausman 94, Douglas 106), 11. Pratt 361 (Mason 86, Eastes 88, Gatz 91, Ford 96), 12. Marysville 365 (Allen 88, Heideman 88, Kirkland 90, Kramer 99).

Medalists

Ties from 11th through 20th were not broken.

1. Noah Smithson, AN, 37-36--73; 2. Jacob Hoover, ED, 38-37--75; 3. Riley Piles, TH, 36-40--76; 4. Jordan Lytton, Augusta, 36-40--76; 5. Drew Hutton, AN, 37-40--77;

6. Andy Sherman, AC, 40-37--77; 7. Zach Dunlap, Hugoton, 38-39--77; 8. John Morgan, AN, 40-38--79; 9. Alex Carney, AC, 40-39--79'; 10. Jeremy Gant, CH, 38-41--79;

11 (tie). Chris Brown, FS, 41-40--81, Luke Meisch, AN, 38-43--81, Brett Koehn, TH, 44-37--81, Alex Bulk, W, 41-40--81, Will Clark, W, 41-40--81, Ty Kissinger, Clay Center, 39-42--81, and Jake Storey, Louisburg, 37-44--81;

18. Nathan Linn, GO, 44-38--82; 19 (tie). Bill Stoner, AC, 43-40--83, Brandon Falley, TH, 41-42--83, Sam Schulte, Buhler, 42-41--83, Riley Haas, Colby, 41-42--83 and Adam Taylor, Independence, 43-40--83.