Indians start boys golf season with win

After a down year in 2004, the Waukon boys golf team is looking to improve in 2005. They’ve already shown improvement in their first outing, topping Postville and MFL-MarMac Tuesday, April 5 in Waukon. The Indians scored 167, their best team tally in two years, while Postville was second with 178 and MFL took third with 187 strokes.

“These guys gave an excellent effort,” said Waukon coach Leon Mindham. He credits plenty of offseason work for the Tribe’s early showing. “This just goes to show what a lot of offseason work can do. This is the lowest score we’ve shot in the last two years. Let’s hope this is an indicator of what’s to come.”

Junior Bren Jacobs scored his first runner-up medalist title ever with a 41-stroke effort. Senior Jon Promnitz and juniors Derek Wicks and Jared Haberichter completed the team score, each with a round of 42. Junior Ben Sweeney and sophomore Ross Christianson completed the varsity roster with respective totals of 44 and 49.

Individually, Mindham quickly pointed out the leaps Jacobs and Wicks have taken. “Derek and Bren did outstanding jobs and each shot about ten or 11 strokes better than their average for last year,” the coach stated. The two were the only Indians to dip under par on a single hole. Jacobs birdied on Hole 5 and Wicks slid one under on Hole 3.

Postville was led by medalist Nick Zieman’s 39. The Pirates also scored rounds of 45, 46, and 48 in their runner-up, 178-stroke effort.

The Bulldogs combined scores of 45, 46, 48, and 48 to finish third with 187.

Junior varsity...

Waukon was also victorious in the junior varsity competition, winning with 184 strokes. MFL-MarMac was second with 202 while Postville took third with a 213.

Mindham was also excited about his JV charges’ play. “The JV also did an excellent job.” The coach added that his job will be harder this spring. “It will be tough to figure out where everyone is going to play. There were two junior varsity players that didn’t play because they came out late. But, we have a lot of kids capable of playing on JV. It will be tough trying to get them all in the meets.”

Individually, the Tribe had the top three rounds of junior varsity competition. Sweeney (44) and junior Andrew Burroughs (45) led the field while sophomore Danny Heffern turned in a round of 47. Sophomores Todd Leikvold, Ben Grangaard, and Kyle Dreckman each posted rounds of 48 with one of those totals counting toward the team score. Sophomore Nick Brink completed the junior varsity effort with a 52.

MFL-MarMac scored rounds of 48, 50, 50, and 54 and Postville ended the night with individual scores of 50, 54, 54, and 55.

The Indians were scheduled to face their first Northeast Iowa Conference opponent, Waverly-Shell Rock, on the Go-Hawks home course earlier this week. Next up is the Thursday, April 14 contest at New Hampton. Friday, April 15, the Tribe will host Charles City. Both matches begin at 4 p.m. Waukon stays in action Saturday, April 16, traveling back to Waverly for tournament action (8:30 a.m. start). The Tribe completes a busy week of play Monday, April 18 with a 4 p.m. contest against Decorah at Silvercrest.