LA PORTE CITY – Old man winter reared its ugly head during the Knights spring golf opener held last Thursday night at our home course vs. Denver and East Marshall. The conditions were a little soft after all the rain we got this week causing chipping to be difficult, and the cold wind did not help matters either.

Our boys ended up winning the meet with some consistent scoring and were led by sophomore Henry Hegdahl who had a couple rough holes in the middle of his round but finished with a couple pars to shoot 43. Another sophomore, Brandon Frush, brought in our next best score with a 44. So it was good to see some steady play from the younger guys to start the season in these conditions.. Senior Sam Fehl had a 45 and junior Harrison Bistline rounded out our scoring with a 46. Sophomore Cody Weaver, who is one of the top-3 or top-4 players per average in the conference, took home Medalist Honors with a fine round of 38. He was followed by Creyton Buhr of Denver with a 41 to earn Runner-Up Medalist.

Senior Lydia Albertsen has been putting in a lot of time to improve some parts of her game this spring. She led the girls team and ended the night with a round of 50 which tied for second place, but she got carded out on the tiebreaker. We hope this is just the start of good things for her this season, and she gets some much deserved hardware in the next few weeks.

Senior Sydney Schmuecker brought in a 52, followed by another senior, Clara Carlson, who had a 54. Junior Amelia Schmitz rounded out the scoring with a 58.

The team shot a 214, and one of our goals is to break 200 at home this season. All the players recognized that there is plenty of room for improvement, and hopefully we can reach that goal. Denver’s Lexie Benham earned Medalist Honors on the night with a solid round of 46 in tough conditions, and Malea Gonnerman was Runner-Up Medalist with a 50. Those two top scores helped them edge Union 210-214. East Marshall ended up third with a team score of 255.

Boys

1) Union 178

2) East Marshall 190

3) Denver 200

Union: Henry Hegdahl 43; Brandon Frush 44; Sam Fehl 45; Harrison Bistline 46

East Marshall: Cody Weaver 38; Jackson Bidwell 43; Wyatt Stalzer 54; Cade Burchland 55

Denver: Creyton Buhr 41; Connor Wurzer 44; Jordan Nuss 56; Ryan Gleason 59

Girls

1) Denver 210

2) Union 214

3) East Marshall 255

Denver: Lexie Benham 46; Malea Gonnerman 50; Madeline Hildebrandt 53; Gretchen Oltrosse 61

Union: Lydia Albertsen 50; Sydney Schmuecker 52; Clara Carlson 54; Amelia Schmitz 58

East Marshall: Delaney Ryan 58; Sara Weitzell 59; Riley Anderson 65; Clara Crouse 73