REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
WIAA DIV. 2 GOLF REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
Raiders aim to seize their 2022 opportunity
With three of the top six golfers and a fourth scoring in the 80s, the Medford Raiders easily cleared their first postseason hurdle Tuesday, winning the WIAA Division 2 Tomahawk regional championship at Inshalla Country Club.
The Raiders earned the program’s first regional title since 2017 by posting a team score of 321, its second-best 18-hole score of the season, one shot behind the 320 it had in its first meet at Inshalla this year on May 3. Hayward was 12 shots behind while Antigo and Northwestern tied for fourth with 337s.
Those four teams qualified for this coming Tuesday’s WIAA Division 2 sectional meet to be played at Bass Lake Golf Course, located just north of Antigo, where team and individual berths for the June 6-7 state tournament will be determined.
Qualifying for state as a team is something that has eluded Medford since 1998, when the Raiders were in Division 1, but head coach Matt Haase said Wednesday there is now truly a belief within this still-relatively young team that it can get there.
“This group of five boys that is playing varsity is so tight-knit and they play golf together so much, not even including practice,” Haase said. “They play on weekends, they stay after practice. They just like playing golf. The biggest thing that we’ve improved on is just consistency. They’re getting comfortable shooting high 70s, mid 70s. We’re starting to get upset with ourselves when we’re making a silly bogey or we shoot an 82. That’s huge as a high school golfer. A lot of golf is run on your mental expectations of what you think you should shoot. If you can start to shift the expectations and believe and expect that you are a high or mid 70s golfer, then you’ve really arrived.”
Sophomore Connor Lingen started his round Tuesday with four pars and finished with a 77 on the par-70 course, good for fourth place out of 45 regional golfers. A birdie on the par-4, 323-yard ninth hole allowed him to close out the front nine at a 3-over-par 38. Five pars and four bogeys on the back nine completed his solid round.
Freshman Zachary Hintz continued his strong second half of the season with a 78. After bogeys on five of his first seven holes, notched birdies on the par-5, 446-yard eighth hole and the ninth to get to 38 at the turn. Six pars on the back nine kept him right behind Lingen.
Senior Caleb Heckel birdied the opening hole, a 367-yard, par-4 and sat at 37 midway through his round. A couple of double bogeys on the back nine took him out of contention for the individual title, but he settled into sixth place with a 79.
The only golfers ahead of those three Raiders were champion Devin Sheehan of Hayward (74), Joey Volpentesta of Antigo (75) and Trent Meyer of Northwestern (76). Sophomore Riley Viergutz was Medford’s fourth scorer for the round. He carded an 87 that included splits of 44-43 and was part of a four-way tie for 16th place. Viergutz notched six pars and eight bogeys in his round. Junior Lucas Liske tied Ashland’s Tony Zikfo for 26th with a score of 91 (45-46).
Haase said the key to success Tuesday in Inshalla was keeping scores low just after the mid-round turn, especially on hole 11, a longer par-4 with a dogleg.
“My biggest thoughts all day were holes 10, 11 and 12,” he said. “I knew we had to play 10, 11 and 12 better than we played them in conference meet. In the conference meet we had a lot of big numbers on hole 11. It was kind of haunting me since then. Coach (Toby) Anderson was a big help. We kind of leapfrogged through the course and hung out in certain spots where I knew the guys might need some help making some decisions. We hung out on 10, 11 and 12. Hole 11 which is probably one of the hardest holes on the golf course, I think as a team we played it to 1-over, which was huge.”
Ashland was a distant fifth in the team standings at 356, one shot ahead of Spooner and three ahead of Northland Pines and Rice Lake, who tied for seventh place. The host Hatchets were ninth at 382.
The top four individuals from nonqualifying teams who advanced to Tuesday’s sectional are Davin Hauck of Rice Lake, who was seventh with an 80; Oscar Mullikin of Ashland, who tied for eighth at 81; Logan Kramsvogel of Northland Pines, tied for 11th at 83, and Ty Zeller of Spooner, who tied for 13th at 84.
Regional qualifiers from Tomahawk will join qualifiers from Tuesday’s Barron and Black River Falls regionals at the Antigo sectional. At Barron, St. Croix Central was the champion with a score of 307, while Ellsworth (320), Amery (326) and Osceola (339) advanced. McDonell-Regis won the Black River Falls regional with a score of 333, followed by Black River Falls (355), Bloomer (367) and Gale- Ettrick-Trempealeau (369).
The top two teams and top three individuals from non-qualifying teams at the sectional will advance to state. With GNC nemesis and last year’s Division 2 state runner-up Lakeland playing in Division 1 this year, the Raiders said from day one they saw an opening and, so far, they’ve shown they intend to take advantage.
“We played Lakeland in darn near every meet, and I think that’s huge too,” Haase said. “Having to compete against that, we were always looking for better and better and getting closer to Lakeland. That has definitely driven us to shoot better scores.”
The other big break, Haase said, is playing the regional and sectional tournaments on very familiar courses that are nearby. The guys played Inshalla last weekend and they intend to play Bass Lake on Monday.
“I really believe that if we can get Riley or Lucas to shoot in the mid 80s on Tuesday, I think we have a really good chance of going,” Haase said. “We’re just going to have to play our game, play well, stay smart and not let the mistakes add up to big numbers. If we can do that, I’m confi- dent that we can qualify, if not win it.”
1st at Rhinelander
Medford finished the regular season on a high note Friday, winning the storm-shortened Rhinelander Northwood Invitational.
The event was downsized to a ninehole meet with the varsity teams playing the front nine holes and the JV squads playing the back nine.
In varsity play, Medford carded a team score of 164 to beat Shawano (173), Rhinelander (175), Tomahawk (199), Marathon (208) and Northland Pines (222).
Lingen, Heckel and Hintz all topped the individual leaderboard with 3-overpar 39s. The teammates then went to a playoff to break the tie.
They started on hole one, a 400-yard, par-4 that doglegs to the left. Lingen clinched first place by bogeying that hole. From there, Heckel and Hintz played hole 10, a shorter, 350-yard par-4 that bends to the left at the back end. Both players earned the same score and moved on to the par-4 18th, also about 350 yards with a wider fairway but also bunkers to work around before and at the green. Heckel won it with a bogey to claim the second-place plaque.
“That was very fun and very beneficial for them feeling the pressure going into the postseason,” head coach Matt Haase said of the playoff.
Lingen and Hintz recorded six pars and three bogeys in their round, while Heckel birdied the par-5 seventh hole to help offset four bogeys.
Viergutz shot a 47 that included a par on the nearly 550-yard, par-5 second hole. Liske shot a 49 that included a pair of pars on the par-4 sixth hole and par-3 eighth hole.
In JV play, Medford’s score of 186 beat Shawano (188), Marathon II (222), Rhinelander II (+98) and Marathon III (254). Marathon’s Noah Davids easily won the individual title with a 39, but Medford’s Nick Cipar took second with a 44 that included four pars and Brayden Stelzel was one shot back in third place. He parred three holes. Connor Gowey was fourth with a 47, Aidan Ball tied for sixth with a round of 50.
Medford’s golf teams had a big day at Friday’s Rhinelander Invitational, winning the varsity and JV competitions. Pictured (l. to r.) are head coach Matt Haase, Lucas Liske, Caleb Heckel (tie-1st, 39, 2nd in playoff), Connor Lingen (tie-1st, 39, 1st in playoff), Zach Hintz (tie-1st, 39, 3rd in playoff), Riley Viergutz, Aidan Ball, Noah Cipar (2nd JV, 44), Brayden Stelzel (3rd JV, 45) and Connor Gowey (4th JV, 47).SUBMITTED PHOTO
