Union Knights logo

NICL Conference Meet, May 4

Our school was given the assignment of hosting the first ever NICL Conference “Mega Meet” that included all 16 schools playing in a shotgun start tournament at Pheasant Ridge in Cedar Falls on Wednesday, May 4. Thankfully the tournament went on without a hitch and the 95 players got themselves around the course without much delay. A few area schools are shooting some really good golf of late and their players demonstrated that once again on Wednesday. Grundy Center as expected flexed its golf muscle and ended with an impressive score of 303. They were led by the tournament’s Medalist senior Ashton Martens with a round of one over par 73. He was followed by Denver’s Clayton Liddle, one shot back at 74. There were 15 All-Conference Honors given out and individually you had to bring a solid effort to make that list. This shows how strong the game of golf is in our conference right now and everyone likes to see that. Grundy Center and Hudson were Top 5 teams at the state level last season and both look to contend for the title this year. A third school from our conference has an opportunity to join them in that field of 8 at the state tournament, and so it will be exciting to see who emerges from the teams who played today.

Final Results

1 – Grundy Center 303

2 – Hudson 322

3 – Union 334

4 – Aplington Parkersburg 334

5 – Denver 338

6 – Dike New-Hartford 338

7 – Columbus Catholic 340

8 – Jesup 342

9 – AGWSR 348

10 – Oelwein 350

11 – Wapsie Valley 361

12 – BCLUW 362

13 – East Marshall 398

14 – Sumner-Fredericksburg 400

15 – South Hardin 402

16 – Gladbrook-Reinbeck 469

All-Conference

1 – Ashton Martens (Grundy Center) 73

2 – Clayton Liddle (Denver) 74

3 – Caleb Ham (Hudson) 75

4 – Dexter Whitehill (Grundy Center) 75

5 – Ben Wegmann (Grundy Center) 76

6 – Daniel Stahl (AGWSR) 76

7 – Brandon Tournier (Oelwein) 77

8 – Jack Miller (Jesup) 77

9 – Carson Costello (Dike-New Hartford) 78

10 – Preston Martens (Grundy Center) 79

11 – Will Steege (Aplington Parkersburg) 80

12 – Mack Schmitz (Union) 80

13 – Levi Budreau (Hudson) 81

14 – Ethan Anderson (Oelwein) 81

15 – Colin Gordon (Hudson) 82

BCLUW Boys Invite, May 2

It was another good night of golf at the Comet Invite on Monday, May 2. By this time in the season players are starting to get their swings down and the scores seem to get better each of the past few years at this tournament which is the favorite on our schedule. Once again Hudson played a little stronger than we did, but we are proud of our score in this meet which was our best on the season so far. Senior Jackson Slater kept the putter hot and made some key shots to lead us, along with junior Mack Schmitz who also shot a 38. After that we had three players, juniors Joe Bistline and Ty Lorenzen, as well as senior TJ Freeland bring in 40s to round out our scoring. AGWSR’s Daniel Stahl was the Medalist on the night in a steady rain with an excellent two under par round of 33, followed by Hudson’s Caleb Ham who shot an even par 35 to earn Runner-Up Medalist. Most of these teams will be banging heads again in a couple days at the NICL Conference Meet at Pheasant Ridge in Cedar Falls. The conference represented two of the top four teams in the state a year ago and it seems the level of play has even gotten better. It is good to see golf in such a good place in our area.

Final Results

1 – Hudson 150

2 – Union 156

3 – AGWSR 160

4 – BCLUW 169

5 – North Tama 181

6 – South Hardin 187

7 – Roland-Story 187

8 – East Marshall 192

9 – GMG Garwin 198

BCLUW Girls Invite, May 2

The Comet Invite for the girls was played at the South Hardin Recreation Golf Course in Union, Iowa. The conditions were less than ideal with a steady rain, but the girls battled through the elements to earn a 5th place finish. Senior Sarah Michael led us with a 54 that earned her All-Tournament Honors. Sophomore Clara Carlson continued her improved play in the last week with a 56, but was carded out by Hudson’s Blaiklee Schatz for the last All-Tournament spot. Sophomores Lydia Albertsen and Sydney Schmuecker rounded out our scoring with rounds of 59 and 60 respectively. The Medalist for the meet was North Tama’s Molly Vogeler with a nice round of 42, and she was followed by BCLUW’s Brooklyn Backoff who shot a 44 to earn Runner-Up Medalist.

Final Results

1 – BCLUW 208

2 – East Marshall 211

3 – South Hardin 216

4 – North Tama 222

5 – Union 229

6 – GMG Garwin 238

7 – Hudson 248

8 – AGWSR 255