SAINT CLOUD – The high school golf season ended this month, with the St. Cloud Cathedral boys team advancing to compete in the Class 2A state meet along with several individuals from central Minnesota.
The St. Cloud-area had athletes in every competition except girls Class 1A. The Cathedral boys ended up finishing in eighth place in the Class 2A team meet at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan. The area’s top individual finisher was Albany senior Zac Kreuzer, who tied for fifth in Class 2A.
Becker, Kimball, Sartell-St. Stephen and St. Cloud Christian also had athletes advance to compete at state by placing in the top six individuals at sections. The Class 1A state meet was at Pebble Creek in Becker and Class 3A was at Bunker Hills in Minneapolis. Class 3A was the only meet not shortened by rain – the second round was cut off after nine holes for golfers in the two smaller classes.
Cathedral’s boys team shot a 490 in its eighth-place effort. The winning squad, Holy Family, had a score of 438. Sophomore Nathan Schuver was Cathedral’s top individual finisher: he tied for 20th place with an overall score of 116. A senior from Hawley, Jack Justesen, won the tournament with a final score of 105. Albany’s Kreuzer was three strokes off the lead in the first round with a 73 and his second-round score of 37 was two more strokes back from Justesen.
Cathedral’s other two other seniors, Vince Gebhardt and Ben Petroske tied for 33rd and 75th in the state meet, respectively, with scores of 119 and 128. Eighth grader Bo Schmidt was 78th with a 128, sophomore Brady Andvik was 80th with a 130 and freshman Luke Herker was 84th with a 132. Foley senior Tyler Smith shot a 122 and tied with nine other golfers in 46th place.
On the girls side, Albany senior Sophia Anderson shot a 121 and was the area’s top female finisher, tying for 13th. Lake City senior Jordana Windhorst Knudsen won the Class 2A competition with a score of 114. She shot a 78 in the first round and a 36 in the second. Anderson also shot a 78 in the first round, but fell off pace in the second. Senior classmate Madi Ramler shot a 135 and tied for 47th. Kimball senior Avery Maus shot four strokes better and tied for 38th.
Sartell’s Shayla Nordlund tied for 16th in Class 3A in her last meet as a Sabre. She was off her game in the first round with an 81, but dialed in for the second day and shot a 76. The winner Carmen Jirele – a sophomore from Owatonna – shot a 142 meet total including 69 strokes on day one. Becker junior Layla Mathews shot a 176 and placed 63rd.
St. Cloud Christian’s Dylan Sauer-Sundly finished 28th in the Class 1A meet. He shot an 82 in his first round and improved by three strokes in his second, scoring a 161.
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley junior Parker Brock won the meet individually, his 140 clearing second place by two strokes. Brock shot a 71 and 69 in his two rounds.
The boys Section 4-1A meet was May 28 at Pebble Creek, the girls Section 8-3A meet was May 30 at Greystone Golf Club, the boys Section 8-3A meet was May 31 at Headwaters and the boys and girls Section 6-2A meet was June 4 at Blackberry Ridge.
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Boys Section 4-1A
St. Cloud Christian had two senior golfers compete in the section meet which Legacy Christian freshman Braylon Ylkanen won after going even through the first 18. He shot a 147 while Sauer-Sundly finished tying for sixth place. Sauer-Sundly dropped his first-round score of 83 by four strokes in the second round.
St. Cloud Christian’s Brayden Holstrom shot a 114 in his first round and did not make the cut.
Boys Section 6-2A
Placing three golfers in the top 10 of the section, St. Cloud Cathedral won as a team with a score of 618. The Crusaders bested Albany by four strokes, though Kreuzer won the individual title with back-to-back sub-par rounds.
Kreuzer was five-under and no other golfer finished below par. Gebhardt won second place at 146. Herker shot a 156 for seventh place and Schuver was one place behind at 157. Andvick placed 20th individually with a 163, Petroske was 24th with a 166 and Schmidt was 29th with a 174.
Smith also qualified for the state meet with a sixth-place finish. He had a –1 first round thanks to three birdies on the back nine, but came back to reality with a +12 in his second round. Two of those three birdies flipped to double bogies, though on the two holes he bogeyed in the first round, Smith birdied each in the second 18.
Kruezer was Albany’s only golfer in the top ten. Sophomore Josh Hoff and Freshman Blake Silbernick tied with Foley senior Dylan Dancer in 15th place shooting a 160. Hoff had three birdies in each round, going 2-under in two rounds on hole 12. Silbernick only had one birdie on his second-to-last hole. Dancer started even through 14, but fell off going 12-over in the second round and 16-over total.
Albany junior Drew Lehner was 20th with a 163, senior Joe Hoff was 28th with a 170 and sophomore Bryce Soenneker was 30th with a 183.
Foley sophomore Treydan Smith rounded out the top 25 individuals with a 166, shooting a 90 in his second round thanks to five bogeys. The rest of his teammates, senior Riley Luberda, freshman Noah Ludwig and junior Will Albers were 31-33. Albers was the last golfer to make the cut, shooting a 189. Ludwig scored a 187 and Luberda a 185.
Royalton had one golfer make the cut: sophomore Zach Schraut tied with Smith in 25th place. He shot an 80 in the first round and finished with 167. Royal senior Ben Boyd shot a 90, sophomore Mathew Hollenbeck shot a 92, sophomore Wyatt Plumski shot a 95, senior Nathan Spencer shot a 109 and senior Nick Block shot a 101.
Girls Section 6-2A
Albany missed the state tournament by 34 points, scoring 717 and placing second behind Pequot Lakes. Anderson shot a 158 to tie for third place and Ramler had a 174 for sixth place. Seventh grader Katelyn Hoff was just two stokes from Ramler, tying for seventh place.
The highlight of Anderson’s day was an eagle on hole ten in the first round. She had three other birdies in the round and two more in the second. Hole five wasn’t kind – Anderson double-bogeyed it twice. She scored a 77 in round one and 81 in round two.
Ramler went 89 and 85 with birdies on nine and 11 in the second round. She also shot three pars on 10, 12 and 13 to go 2-under for that five-hole stretch.
Pequot junior Genevieve Birkland won the tournament with six birdies and a score of 151.
Cathedral and Royalton did not field enough golfers to record team scores. Crusader senior Cammy Sand shot a 193 in 15th place.
Not making the first-round cut, Cathedral sophomores Averie Andvik shot a 101, Katie Pfeiffer shot a 106, Ella Gebhardt shot a 109, Natalie Gronowski shot a 115, and junior Abby Silver shot a 124.
For Royalton, senior Lauren Feltman shot a 115 and freshman Myrissa Sobiech shot a 117.
Boys Section 8-3A
Sartell placed third as a team with a 635, 37 strokes back from the winning Alexandria Cardinals. Becker scored 699 and placed eighth.
Sartell junior Carson Andel was two strokes from qualifying individually. He tied for 10th place shooting a 156 with 78 stokes in each round, including an eagle on the last hole of the season. However, he had several bogeys and two doubles across the tournament.
Junior teammate Sam Lunde was 14th with a 159 and his senior teammates Lance Hamak and Joseph Sonaglia finished in 16th and 17th with a 160 and 161. Sophomores Isaac Bergstrom and Jameson Schmitz scored 169 and 170 to tie for 28th place and 31st place, respectively.
Bergstrom, who had a much-improved second round shooting a 79, tied with ROCORI’s best golfer, senior Nolan Kelly. The rest of the Spartans only played one round. Sophomore Reid Spychala shot a 91, freshman Nathaniel Parks shot a 100, sophomore Brandon Schueller shot a 102 and junior Nicholas Weismann shot a 103.
In 31st place, Sauk Rapids-Rice’s top golfer, junior Hunter Behling was one of the four athletes to tie with Sartell’s Schmitz. Behling had an 81 on his first round, but shot an 89 in the second after four bogeys though the list nine holes.
Also playing for the Storm were Austin Kunz in 39th (176), junior Sam Gruber in 42nd (178) and not making the cut senior Brandt Andres (91), senior Will Gunderson (93) and junior Jackson Dhein (95).
Becker had five golfers play two rounds. Senior Brayden Graning and sophomore Tucker Tatge scored 172 and 173 in 36th and 37th place, junior Thomas May (178) placed 42nd, junior Jordan Mateyka (180) placed 44th, and freshman Carson Schwarzkopf (183) placed 46th. Mateyka and Schwarzkopf had scores at least 10 shots higher in their second round than the first.
All of the St. Cloud Crush’s golfers played just one round. Seniors Jack Fitch, Caden Koehn and Landon Austin were within three strokes with scores of 85, 86 and 88 and sophomore Carson Siers shot a 91. Junior Braeden Mockros shot a 94 and sophomore Mason Jacobs shot a 95.
Girls Section 8-3A
As teams, Sartell placed fourth with a score of 705, Becker was third with a 720 and the St. Cloud Crush scored 795. Sauk Rapids and ROCORI did not record team scores.
Though she was eight strokes off the winner, Norlund was seven strokes ahead of third place with an 8-over 152. Mathews tied for sixth with a 170.
Norlund started hot, recording bogeys on just three holes in her first round, on five seven and 12 – the first two being par threes. But, although she was even through nine in her second round, Norlund bogeyed four par fours on the back nine and one par three.
Mathews dropped her round scores from 87 to 83 to qualify for the state meet, cutting a double bogey and two bogeys from the score and adding a birdie on 16. Her senior teammate Alexa Voller rounded out the top 10 individuals with a score of 172. Avery Johnson and Nora Pilarski also played in their last meet as Bulldogs. The seniors placed 22nd and 34th with scores of 182 and 196. Sophomore Emilia Strong (209) placed 45th and eighth grader Sydney Dunderi (218) placed 48th.
For Sartell, junior Gwen Latunski placed 11th with a 173, senior Megan Hess placed 26th with a 185, senior Shayla Scepaniak placed 33rd with a 195, sophomore Aki Rebeck placed 43rd with a 205 and senior Brita Klaverkamp placed 47th with a 213.
Sophomore Jenna Owen and junior Bridget Bohnsack were the top-placing ROCORI Spartans with Owen shooting a 178 and Bohnsack shooting a 179. Owen tied for 17th and Bohnsack placed 20th. Eighth grader Madi Lieggi (186) placed 27th. Senior Mallory Schmitz and freshmen Brooklyn Lommel and Carmen Kiess missed the cut.
Four St. Cloud Crush golfers played both days: seventh grader Reeghan Stevens, junior Teagan Ruprecht, junior Kendall Dvorak and junior Claire Miller. Stevens placed 31st with a 191, Ruprecht placed 37th with a 197, Dvorak tied for 39th with a 201, and Miller was 44th with a 206. Senior Abby Stevens shot a 99 in her first round and junior Molly Burkstrand was one stroke worse.
Sauk Rapids had six golfers compete, all playing one round. Junior Ava Plemel shot a 99, junior Kendra Teff shot a 100, junior Aubrey Klug shot a 102, junior Quinn Arndt shot a 104, sophomore Ally Lucas shot a 106 and sophomore Amelia Michael shot a 112.
Contact reporter Reid Glenn at rglenn@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Central minnesota golfers compete at 2024 state meet
