The Van Buren County girls and boys golf teams opened their seasons Tuesday, March 31st at the Burlington Notre Dame Nikes Invitational at Flint Hills Golf Course in Burlington, competing through some light rain that couldn’t keep the seven southeast Iowa schools off the course.
The Van Buren County girls finished fourth in the team standings with a score of 435 on the par-71 Flint Hills Golf Course, behind Highland’s winning total of 370, Fort Madison with 391, and Winfield-Mt. Union with 408. Mount Pleasant finished fifth with 438 and Burlington Notre Dame sixth with 441. Highland, coming off a state qualification last spring, was led by Emersyn Schultz, who shot a 78 and finished second overall individually behind Burlington Notre Dame’s Ali Rose Booten, who carded the low round of the day with a 73.
On the boys side, Van Buren County placed fifth with a team score of 337 on the par-71 course, finishing just six strokes behind fourth-place Burlington Notre Dame and one stroke ahead of sixth-place Danville. Central Lee captured the team title for the third consecutive year with 311, pulling away from Mount Pleasant at 322 and Winfield-Mt. Union at 323 — both of whom made a late run at the Hawks before Central Lee ultimately won by 11 strokes. Burlington Notre Dame finished fourth at 331 and Highland seventh at 395.
Girls Results
Sophia Jirak led Van Buren County’s girls with a score of 95. Macolie McEntee and Teagan Sickels each shot 114, Hadley Noe finished with 117, Maddie Cocherell shot 118, and Adelaide Kaemmerer rounded out the scorecard with 119. Individual standings for all teams were not yet available at the time of publication.
Boys Results
Leo Jirak led Van Buren County’s boys with a 76, finishing second overall individually behind Caleb Larson of Central Lee, who shot a 74 to take medalist honors. Will Cocherell finished 18th with an 83, Jerrod Griffin 24th with an 86, Aden Debner 31st with a 92, Cooper Richardson 35th with a 99, and Ethan Pforts 37th with a 103.
Boys head coach Brian Johnson was encouraged by the team’s opening performance, noting significant improvement from a year ago at the same tournament.
“I was pleased with how we shot at Flint Hills,” Johnson said. “It was our first chance to compete this season, so it was good to see where we are at. We started two seniors, one junior, one sophomore and two freshmen so a good mix of talent there. These guys took 18 strokes off of last year’s team at the same tournament so it was a good start especially being the first competition of the year.”
Photography courtesy of the Van Buren County Community School District.
