A brilliant season for the West Liberty boys’ golf team has come to a close at Monday’s district meet hosted at Pleasant Valley Golf Course.
At this stage of the season, margins were razor thin. A shot here and a shot there could have changed the entire leaderboard.
West Liberty finished in fifth as a team with a 328 team score — 13 strokes behind the co-leaders at 315 from Grundy Center and Beckman Catholic.
On the individual side, the Daufeldt’s did it again with a pair of top 12 finishers.
Junior Cael Daufeldt shot a four-over 76 and finished in solo seventh place while junior Cole Daufeldt shot a nine-over 81 and tied for 12th.
To qualify for the state tournament as individuals, they needed to be one of the top-two individuals from non-qualifying teams.
Those spots went to East Marshall’s Cody Weaver (-4, 68) and West Marshall’s Hunter Polley (-2, 70).
The four other Comet golfers to tee it up one last time were sophomore Perry Lehman (83), freshman Landon Wainwright (88 — T35), freshman Kaden Wiele (93 — 39th) and sophomore John Daufeldt (100 — T41).
On the entire roster of 22 golfers, there are only two seniors — Morgan Lehman and Coven Morgan. The rest of the team has the opportunity to return next year and break through into the state tournament.
The girls golf on
The Comet girls will get one last opportunity on their home course — only for the biggest tournament of the season.
This team will play in the regional final on Wednesday at West Liberty Country Club after placing third in the regional qualification meet last Friday at Kalona Golf Club.
West Liberty was assisted by the fact that three of the eight teams — Wilton, Burlington Notre Dame and Central Lee, did not field four golfers to be eligible for a team score.
Thus, they were five total schools fighting for three advancement spots. Tipton (377), grabbed the first, Mid-Prairie (379) easily held onto the second while West Liberty (441) outlasted Mediapolis (472) and Van Buren County (483) for the final spot.
Freshman Kamryn Gilmore led the charge with a 103 and took solo 12th place. Junior Addison Beaver was right behind, shooting a 105 and placing solo 13th.
The other four Comets were all within 10 shots of each other. They were junior Kaylee Pelzer (115 — T17), junior Sophie Buysse (118 — T20), junior Grace Ortiz (123 — 22nd) and freshman Kenley Harned (125 — T23).
They will all roll back home and gear up for Wednesday. There, they will greet golfers from Anamosa, Mediapolis, Mid-Prairie, Oelwein, Tipton and Union Community for the coveted state tournament spots.
The Comets will need to be one of the top two scoring teams overall, or find the top two spots on the individual leaderboard not occupied by team qualifiers, to secure their spot at the Class 2A state tournament.
This year’s 2A state tournament will be held at Cedar Pointe Golf Course in Ames, Iowa.