Sports
Fast Start, Strong Finish for Hornets Golf
Even with a disappointing finish in conference play, getting to the State meet makes for a good season.
The Saline Hornets boy’s golf team started an impressive 5-0 in conference play, but could only win one of the final six to finish 6-5. Still, they had a chance to win the SEC conference with a good performance at the conference meet; after a rough day on the course, they finished fourth in the conference.
“We were disappointed. We went into the conference tournament in third place, and if we could have won the tournament, we could have won the conference. We didn’t play well there, so we finished fourth,” said head coach Debbie Hoak.
The team had a solid group of twelve different golfers on varsity, and Hoak kept most of the spots open all season for tournament play. The team used a variety of those twelve golfers in the available slots during meets.
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“If you were the hot guy (in practice), you would get into a few tournaments. Even going into Districts, the top three were set, but four and five were still wide open,” said Hoak.
One of the only spots that was permanent all season long was one of the co-captains, Keith Long. He had a good season; Long was the low scorer in eleven of the sixteen tournaments that the Hornets participated in. He also averaged the lowest score throughout the season for nine- and eighteen-hole scoring. Long and co-captain Collin Stauder would do team bonding excursions to keep the team together.
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“[Keith] was definitely our most consistent guy. He was one of our captains, and his experience on the courses was invaluable. He helped out with relaying to the younger players the different things about the courses and talking to them about playing hard and staying positive,” said Hoak.
The State meet was a learning experience for the whole team. Long shot an impressive 74 on the first day, which was good for tenth overall, but fell apart on the second day. He was the only Hornet to have a worse day on the second day. Jackson Lambert led the team in scoring with a 157 (79 and 78), Stauder shot a 161 (81 and 80). Caleb Wittig improved by three strokes on day two to come in at 167 (85 and 82). The team ended up in 12th place in the State.
“I was real happy, overall. Playing at States is a great experience for the younger players, and, besides Keith, everyone improved on the second day. I wish we could have placed higher, but it was still a good experience,” said Hoak.