Mitchell's boys golf team had a gut-wrenching end to its last season, and the Mustangs are doing everything they can to avoid a repeat.
Head coach Rick Hyatt has entered his squad in four 18-hole events, a big step up from the past. The move is geared towards building stamina at the end of the year for the district tournament, since teams only play nine holes during most regular-season matches.
"Every year we get to districts and we're just not used to the 18 holes. That's the idea of scheduling these tournaments," Hyatt said.
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To be able to do so, Hyatt had to combine several of Mitchell's regular meetings into one. Thanks to Gulf High's cooperation the Mustangs achieved that Thursday with a four-team meet at Fox Hollow.
Mitchell easily won with a team score of 162, followed by Pasco's 186, then Land O' Lakes with 192 and Gulf at 225.
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"We share Fox Hollow with Gulf as our home course," Hyatt explained. "So we both happened to be at home on the same day. We combined it into a four-team event, which allowed us to knock out three matches on the schedule in one day."
The only trick was avoiding a weather postponement, as rescheduling the rare four-team meet might have been difficult. As it was Mitchell was able to show off its strength - depth.
The team's two freshmen, Anthony Swinford and Donald Gabrelcik, played in the third grouping but Swinford came in tied for the best score. Both Swinford and junior Dylan Strout shot a three-over par 39.
Loren Chateau and Chad Dautzenberg rounded out the Mustangs' card with 42s.
One enormous advantage Mitchell has over most area teams is the ability to have anyone shoot the lowest round.
"I don't even get hung up on who's the No. 1 golfer, No. 2, No. 3. I don't even group them (on the course) based on rank, I group them according to chemistry," Hyatt said.
Seven of Mitchell's 11 golfers return from last year's team, which came just four strokes away from advancing to the regional tournament.
Land O' Lakes was led by a freshman, Jordan Dollbaum, on Thursday. Dollbaum shot 46. Jordan Monds was one shot behind, Richard Valdez carded a 49 and Jeremy Williams shot 50.
Mitchell is slated to participate in the first of its 18-hole events, the East Lake Invitational, at Wentworth Saturday afternoon.
The Mustangs will actually be hosting an 18-hole tourney Sept. 19 at Woodlands.
