Warsaw Golfers Finish 2nd In NLCPLYMOUTH – Warsaw and Wawasee both hoped to improve their places in the Northern Lakes Conference standings with a good showing in the boys golf tournament at Pretty Lake Golf Club Monday.
After a three-way tie for first with host Plymouth and Northridge in the regular season, Warsaw finished second to the Raiders, posting a team score of 166. Wawasee maintained its sixth-place standing in the conference after shooting a 189.
Warsaw placed three players on the all-conference team; Luke Delp was an automatic selection by virtue of his tie for second place. Tim Rata and Sam Yeager were voted in as All-Conference players, giving the Tigers three of the eight All-NLC spots.
Luke Johnson had a 44 and Tommy Meier’s 47 was enough to win the fifth-player tiebreaker with NorthWood in the tourney.
Still, Tiger coach Rich Haddad said his team is disappointed it didn’t reach one of its preseason goals. In fact, Warsaw’s scores have gone up in the last week or so.
“Two of our higher scores have been the last two rounds; the last regular-season match at Northridge (171) and the tournament,” he said. “In comparison, we played the same nine holes against Plymouth (on May 11) and shot a 149, which is our best this season.
“So I think we’re all a little disappointed. The tournament certainly adds a level of stress and pressure, and the scores for all the teams were a little higher, but I know our boys are disappointed in how they performed.”
The tournament was started Saturday morning before the course became unplayable. So Monday’s event gave all the players a fresh start, but it was shortened to nine holes.
Playing half the number of holes can make mistakes stand out, Haddad said, adding to the pressure of tournament play.
“If you’re playing 18 holes you can get into more of a rhythm, and if a bad hole or a bad shot that costs you a couple of strokes, there’s a lot more golf left to make up for it,” Haddad said. “But in a nine-holer, if you have one bad hole it’s really hard to recoup from that. We had a few today that we couldn’t quite turn around fast enough to post a low score.
Wawasee was paced by Zach Leedy’s 42. Dillon Drake and Evan Dippon each shot 48, Cameron Brill a 51 and Luke Weisser a 53.
Warrior coach Steve Coverstone said “our goal was to hold or improve our sixth-place standing, and we held it. Zach started out badly but played well the rest of the way for his 42.
”Our guys played pretty well considering the course seemed to play tough for everyone.”
Both teams play their final regular season events this week, with the Tigers playing in the Lafayette Jeff Classic on Saturday and the Warriors hosting Columbia City on Thursday at South Shore Golf Club.
