It was home meet time for the Mid-Prairie boys golf team and with ten schools, including Highland, and 60 golfers arriving at the Kalona Golf Course for the annual Golden Hawk Invitational, there was no shortage of competition on April 11. 

Besides Highland and Mid-Prairie the other eight schools who took part in the GH Invitational were: Durant, West Liberty, Washington, West Branch, Mount Vernon, Louisa-Muscatine, Regina Catholic, and Wilton. 

After 18 holes played, the first 18-hole meet for many schools this season, the school who came out on top was Washington. Washington took the top spot with 324, led by meet champion Roman Roth and runner up Rajan Roth with scores of 73 and 79 respectively.

Mount Verson was the runner up school with a score of 354 and not too far behind was West Branch, who finished in third with a score of 355.

Mid-Prairie Results 

Last year’s GH Invitational had the Golden Hawks finish in seventh place with a score of 392. At this year’s GH Invitational Mid-Prairie improved in the standings by placing in fifth place with a score of 358. 

“It was a beautiful day for a golf invitational. We knew we would have to play well to compete with the quality teams playing today,” Mid-Prairie coach Kelby Bender said.” I was very pleased with our 358 score.  I thought we played really well on the front 9 with a 176.  The back 9 played a little tougher as the wind picked up.  I thought we handled it well and played ok as we finished 5th out of 10 teams only four strokes behind second.”

Placing seventh overall among 60 golfers was the top performer for Mid-Prairie, senior Aiden Bush. Bush led all Golden Hawk golfers with a score of 86, shooting a 44 on the first nine holes and shooting a 42 on the last nine holes. 

The Golden Hawk senior made six pars in total with a trio of pars coming back-to-back-to-back on holes 12, 13, and 14. 

“Goal is to keep getting better every day,” Aiden Bush told KCII after the invitational.” All of my teammates played pretty good. This is a tough course, we’re all getting better. I had a lot of good birdie looks today, that makes it a lot easier to get up and down for par.”

Shooting 89 to place 12th was Mid-Prairie junior Drew Schlabaugh. Schlabaugh shot 40 on the front nine and shot 49 on the back nine. 

“Drew Schlabaugh had a great front 9 with a 40 as he birdied both of the par 3’s.  His first swing of the day was 9 iron on the 135 yard par 3 2nd hole and put it 2 inches from the cup for a tap-in birdie,” Bender said. “He also birdied the 135 yard par 3 8th hole as he chippind in his 2nd shot from in front of the green.”

Tying for 18th place was Mid-Prairie senior Warren Scarff. Scarff shot a 91, shooting 43 on the front nine and shooting 48 on the back nine. He made six pars to reach his final score. His pars came on holes one, five, eight, 13, 15, and 16. 

For Mid-Prairie freshman Bryce Henry, this was the first time he played an 18-hole event. Rebounding from shooting 49 on the front 9, Henry was able to reach a final score of 92 by shooting 43 on the back 9. 

The Golden Hawk freshman made eight pars during the invitational and he ended the day in 21st place. 

In the near future the Golden Hawks will travel to the Wahkonsa Country Club in Durant to battle Wilton in a RVC dual on April 24. Then the next day Mid-Prairie will compete in the West Liberty Invitational Golf Tournament in West Liberty against 11 other schools on April 25. 

Highland Results 

Highland arrived at Kalona hoping to improve from last year’s 10th place GH Invitational finish. Unfortunately the results for the Huskies were the same, they finished this year’s GH Invitational with a team score of 468 and placed 10th. 

The top performance for the Huskies came from senior Peyton Yeggy, a captain for the Highland golf team this season, with his final score of 94. 

“I started off the round really well with a par,” Peyton Yeggy told KCII after the GH Invitational. “I feel like that set the tone for the day and I played bogey golf the rest of the day. My putting went really well today.”

Yeggy was also Highland’s top performer in a Highland Triangular against Hillcrest and Wapello on April 3, scoring a 51 in the triangular to earn a ninth place finish. 

Highland’s next top performer was a tie between sophomore Isaac Kleese and freshman Sawyer Shalla, they both shot 124. Sophomore William Dunbar finished his day with a score of 126 and sophomore Colton Sypherd rounds out Highland’s scoring with a 140.

Coming up for the Huskies, they will be traveling to and battling Wapello in a dual at the Heritage Oaks Golf and Country Club on April 29.