GRUNDY CENTER – The weather conditions were a factor of play as they usually are at the Town and Country Golf Course for the Spartan Invite held last Friday, April 21, in Grundy Center.

The meet was moved from the usual Saturday 18 hole format to a 9 hole on Friday in hopes the weather conditions would be better. Players were greeted with a mixture of rain, sleet, and small hail pellets early in the round.

Grundy Center – behind the strong play of Medalist Judd Jirovsky and Runner-Up Medalist Preston Martens – was able to battle the elements the best to shoot a very impressive team score of 160. They were followed by Hudson with a 166, and rounding out the top-3 was Union with a 174.

These three teams will once again compete at the Comet Invite on Monday, May 1, ahead of the Conference Meet on May 4. All three have strong aspirations to make the State Tournament at the end of the season, so the competition in the next few weeks will likely be at a high level.

Union scores

-Mack Schmitz 40 (5th overall)

-Joe Bistline 44

-Ryan Reifenstahl 45

-Sam Fehl 45

Dual meet vs. Dike-New Hartford

We have four seniors that fill the top four spots of our lineup whose performance will go a long way in determining how far our team can advance this season in pursuit of another state tournament appearance.

Mack Schmitz has led us the last couple of seasons and has been turning in quality rounds of late earning the Medalist Honor two weeks ago when we participated at a triangular at Pine Lake that included South Hardin and Waterloo Columbus. He backed it up on Thursday (April 20) versus Dike-New Hartford with a 38 at home.

Ty Lorenzen was Runner-Up Medalist at Pine Lake and shot 38 as well versus D-NH to earn another Runner-Up Medalist.

Joe Bistline bounced back from a tough outing previously with a solid 39. If those three are able to keep trending toward par we will be in good shape going into a very competitive conference meet and post season schedule.

The girls team had high expectations going into the meet with D-NH even though two of the varsity players were not participating. The dry conditions though made chipping and putting difficult on the challenging greens. Tee to green we are seeing improvement, but we must see the short game make some strides in the next couple of weeks if we expect to make some noise in the post season.

Union boys scores

-Mack Schmitz 38

-Ty Lorenzen 38

-Joe Bistline 39

-Tyler Gates

(Team total 161; DNH total 183)

Union girls scores

-Amelia Schmitz 54

-Clara Carlson 55

-Ava Mehlert 56

-Hannah Williams/Gracie Klima 70

(Team total 235; DNH total 226)