West Liberty High School’s boys’ golf team finished fifth in the 10 team West Liberty Invitational Tuesday at West Liberty Golf & Country Club.
Having four golfers score 97 or better for the 18 holes, coach Nick Frenz’ team finished with a 364 total score, tieing North Cedar, although they were 58 strokes behind West Branch, which stole the show with a 306 effort – 37 shots ahead of the remainder of the field.
West Branch had all five of their golfers finish among the top seven in medalist play, led by Kaleb Sexton’s 72, shooting parr for the course while teammates Gage Gingerich finished with a 78 in third place before Brady Knoop, Logan Highly and Will Bridges had cards of 79, 80 and 81.
Bob Ryan of Tipton was the second place golfer on the day with a 78 while Zach McCarty of Clear Creek Amana finished in a tie for fourth at 79. Rounding out the top 10 was Dominic McCain of Mid-Prairie with an 81 as well as a pair of North Cedar golfers, Costner Pruess and Jaydon Nabb, both scoring 82.
While West Liberty had a standout performance from freshman Ty Jones, who shot an 85, the team finished with a 91 from Colin Cassidy, a 95 from Preston Daufeldt as well as a 97 from Morgan Lehman. Jack Mahoney and Haideyn McHugh both scored 106 rounds to finish out the Comet team scorecard.
Jones shot a 40 on the back nine after scoring a 45 on the first nine holes, where he was outplayed by Cassidy, who scored a 42 on the front nine but faltered with a 49 on the back nine, having a 10 on the 13th hole.
Frenz said he was “very pleased” with his team’s performance in the tourney. “We finally had great weather and the guys shot very well,” he said, complimenting the play of Jones while also noting, “really everyone played very well. It has been fun to see the guys improve in such a short amount of time.”
Clear Creek Amana finished second in the tourney with a score of 343 while Tipton was third at 351, followed by Durant, with a 358 score. Following West Liberty and North Cedar at 364 were Mid-Prairie at 366, Winfiled-Mt. Union at 376, Iowa City Regina at 391 and Wilton at 395.
The team travels to Wahkonsa Country Club, Wilton’s home course, at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 10 for a dual match.