Bloomington South boys golf sees sectional streak come to an end
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BLOOMINGTON — One streak is over.
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There's another Bloomington South's boys golf team must focus on now to make their season complete.
The Bloomington North Sectional that started in forecasted rain on Monday, June 8 at Cascades Golf Course, finished with a more surprising reign as unranked Brownstown Central earned it's first postseason title in school history.
The Braves overcame top competitors No. 19 South, Bloomington North, Bedford North Lawrence and Edgewood with four scores of 77 or better for a meet best 301. Just 19 shots separated the top five as South moved on with a 308 as did North with a 309. but BNL (315) and Edgewood (320) were left to rue a handful of shots that could have made all the difference.
"You've got to bring it," South coach Dustin Carver said. "I kind of defined our round today as playing fearful. Not playing fearless from what I saw. Just some swings were very hesitant.
"You can't play that way. That's my mindset as a person and as a coach and I try to instill that in our players. I'm proud of Colton coming in first and doing his thing. But you can't play fearful and expect to win."
South did claim the medalist as senior Colton Watson repeated as champ with a 1-under 70. He won by three strokes, but the tough part was knowing the Panthers' 11-year run of team titles was over.
"It's a little up and down," said Watson, a four-year varsity player. "We've had our lows, we've had our highs. We've played some really good rounds with four scores and we've played some pretty bad tournaments.
"But it's a little disappointing to not get the win."
It's not been smooth sailing this season for the Panthers as they worked their way through their usually tough schedule and had to shift practices to Eagle Point with the Bloomington Country Club finishing up it's course makeover.
That said, South's streak of six straight appearances at state is on the line next week at the Washington Regional. The Panthers have been to state 10 of the last 11 years.
"I think we just block this out," Watson said. "We're obviously through, so we've got Thursday to focus on regionals. Bigger tournament, so why can't we win that one?"
Karl Bailey had a 77, Easton Bellini an 80 and Owen Wisley and Carson Gady each had 81s for South. Wisley bounced back from a 45 on the Pine to finish with a 36.
"Colton, Carson and Karl have been right there," Carver said. "Colton and Carson have played really well. Your 4s and 5s have to play well to produce a good score and to get to where we need to.
"We played well the second 18 at Delaware (Country Club in Muncie). We shot a 301 there and to me, it's a lot tougher course than Cascades."
It was raining when Watson teed off and the humidity made sure he never dried out. But he did heat up a bit with a 33 after making the turn.
"I'm drenched in sweat today," Watson said. "It's maybe the hottest non-sunny day I've ever been in. But I had a couple mental mistakes on the (Pine). I shot 1-over and then, made a couple mistakes on 1, 2 and 3, but then I saw a birdie go in and I made three in a row.
"All around, I played pretty well."
Owen Valley's Cunningham makes jump
Owen Valley senior Jake Cunningham made a big jump this year, going from an 81 last year to a high school career best 2-over 73 this time to take third place after Brownstown's Eli Downing (73) won a playoff tie-breaker.
Owen Valley was ninth (361), but Cunningham will make his first trip to regional.
"Started off on the front nine a little wonky but I kind of came back on the back nine," Cunningham said. "I started hitting the shots I wanted to and made some putts, some clutch putts. I had a really good save on the par 5 on the Pine, a long putt for bogey because I hit a tree."
Cunningham is the first Patriot to advance since OV was moved to the Bloomington Sectional from Martinsville where Kolton Jackson (2022), Mason Elkins (2021) and Colby Beckwith (2019) most recently got out.
Nerves got the best of him last year but his focus kept him in control this time.
"Driving here, I had the mindset of, 'This is everything I've ever worked for. This is where all my work pays off. So I was coming here with that mindset and on the first tee, it was 'Go' mode. I had the switch and kept it on until my last putt."
North gets the job done
The Cougars were led by freshman Ryan Decker with a 74 to tie for fourth, while seniors took care of the rest: Alec Freund had a 76, Zayan Farzad a 77 and Rex Speer an 82. It was a tight race and a group effort got it done.
"Great group of guys," Farzad said . "We've grown a lot this year to keep our scores relatively low. We've been playing good as of recently, but yeah, there's a lot of shots that we could have taken back.
"I think we really could've won this thing. But we're happy to make it out. We're happy to compete at regionals and play well hopefully."
Decker, Farzad and Freund all had steady rounds.
"I've been playing good recently, I haven't shot above 80 in a month," Farzad said. "So I've just been having really good confidence in my game recently. And I was just telling the team, as a captain, we've just got to hone in, take advantage, this is our home course.
"Keep it down the middle, limit your mistakes and score when you can."
That time was the Quarry 9 for Speer, who struggled to a 47 on the Pine before shooting even par (35) after the turn.
"We were happy as a team to get out," Carmichael said. "(Assistant coach Ben) EuDaly probably said it best after the round. I think all of them showed a good amount of fight today. Because if you look at their nine-hole splits, most of them had a three or four-hole stretch that was just real bad.
"The sport is set up where it is easy to quit, just phone it in. Rex shot a 47 on his front and came back with a 35 and I think that's a great example of he could have easily just phoned it and said, 'That's OK, James (Johnson) will play just fine."
North upped the quality and quantity of its schedule this year.
"I know the kids are tired," Carmichael said. "And they showed a good amount of perseverance today. Just stay out there and get it done.
"It was a very competitive sectional. But we didn't really focus on any of the other teams or any of the others players. Just how do we play this course? If you can't play on your home course, you can't play well."
Edgewood, BNL come up short
Edgewood sophomore Teigan Hulbert, who was a somewhat surprising regional qualifier last year, fell short this time with an 81, a tough thing to swallow after the season that he had.
Freshman Caleb Garrett led the Mustangs with a 79 while Hank Ripley and the lone senior, Jaxson Collier, each had 80s. Ike Wilkie also had an 81.
"You take away some three-putts and some bad double bogeys and we're right there," Edgewood coach Garry Lee said. "The only silver lining is Collier is the only one graduating.
"Teigen got off to an awful start and had an awful ninth hole and then played pretty well on the (Pine)."
At the same time, Ike Wilkie was 10 shots better than last year. Hank shot 80 again. He's right there. Caleb's been kind of a nice surprise as a freshman. He's been our medalist a couple times. It's disappointing to think how close we really were."
BNL will still be represented at regional by Evan Tillett, who tied for fourth with a 74, and Hudson Martin, one of four players who tied at 77. Mitchell shot a 414, led by a 99 from Jackson Dralee.
Lighthouse Christian played in the sectional for the second time, shooting a 455, led by a 95 from Nathan Biggs.
Washington Regional preview
In the field at Country Oaks will be favorite No. 5 Castle (which shot 283) when play tees off at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 11, joined by other sectional champions Forest Park (299), Barr-Reeve (304), Terre Haute North (310) and Brownstown. Also there are Evansville Memorial (302) and the host Hatchets.
All of that, however, is immaterial to the Cougars and Panthers.
"We've just got to focus on ourselves," Watson said. "We need to play good golf, one shot at a time and not worry about all the outside noise."
BLOOMINGTON NORTH SECTIONAL
Team scores (top 3 advance to regional): Brownstown Central 301, Bloomington South 308, Bloomington North 309; Bedford North Lawrence 315, Edgewood 320, Seymour 333, Brown County 351, Salem 352, Owen Valley 361, West Washington 367, Trinity Lutheran 374, Mitchell 414, Lighthouse Christian 455.
Top 10 individuals: 1. Colton Watson, BS 70; *2. Eli Downing, BCent 73; 3. Jake Cunningham, OV 73; T4. Ryan Decker, BN 74; Evan Tillett, BNL 74; 6. Trey Isaacs, BCent 75; T7. Alec Freund, BN 76; Max Sommers, BCent 76; T9. Zayan Farzad, BN 77; Karl Bailey, BS 77; Hudson Martin, BNL 77; Collin Downing, BCent 77.
*-Won scorecard playoff
Advancing individuals: Cunningham, OV; Tillett, BNL; Martin, BNL.
Other Bloomington South: Easton Bellini 80, Owen Wisley 81. Other Bloomington North: Rex Speer 82, James Johnson 88. Edgewood: Caleb Garrett 79, Hank Ripley 80, Jaxson Collier 80, Teigen Hulbert 81, Ike Wilkie 81. Other BNL: Brody Simmons 81, Parker Foddrill 83, Traeden Robinson 89. Other Owen Valley: Conner Deckard 92, Hank Moore 94, Kolby Brown 102, Kole Browning 114. Mitchell: Jackson Dralee 99, Brycen Burton 102, Braxton Jones 103, Briley Slaughterback 110. Lighthouse Christian: Nathan Biggs 95, Paul Johnson 116, Anthony Lautenbach 121, Landon Darty 123.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Brownstown ends Bloomington South's sectional streak in boys golf