Back-to-back regional titles for Medford golf

WIAA DIV. 2 GOLF

Zach Hintz won the individual championship and the Medford golfers won their second straight WIAA Division 2 regional team championship Tuesday with their team score of 333 at Rice Lake’s Turtleback Golf Course.

Medford entered the meet as the topseeded team and didn’t disappoint, beating the host Warriors by eight strokes to claim the team title. Medford’s Great Northern Conference rivals Antigo and Northland Pines also advanced to the sectional round with scores of 347 and 353. Tomahawk was just three shots behind Pines in fifth place.

Hintz, a sophomore, shot a 5-over-par 76 to top the field of 50 golfers. He was two shots ahead of Ashland junior Cooper De-Briyn and four shots ahead of Rice Lake’s Davin Hauck and Antigo’s Cody Parsons, who tied for third. Raider junior Connor Lingen and Spooner senior Ty Zeller tied for fifth with 84s and senior Lucas Liske had a strong day, tying for seventh with Northwestern’s Bryce Priem and Tomahawk’s Sawyer Hanna with his 85.

DeBriyn, Zeller, Priem and Hanna all earned individual spots in this coming Tuesday’s sectional meet to be hosted by McDonell-Regis at Lake Wissota Golf Course of Chippewa Falls.

Hintz was 2-over-par on the course’s first nine holes, including a birdie on the par-3 152-yard eighth hole, and shot 3-over on the par-36 back nine. No one shot better on either half of the course as Hintz did not have a single double bogey and won his second tournament in five days.

Lingen had just one double bogey on the par-4 12th hole and had splits of 41 and 43 to finish 13-over. Liske had two double bogeys during his 42 on the front nine, but those were the only ones he had in a consistent round that included six pars.

Raider Riley Viergutz shot an 88, where two tough holes late in the round pushed him from the low 80s to high 80s. He birdied the par-5, 551-yard second hole and wasn’t far out of the lead through nine holes with a 40 and finished tied for 15th.

Aidan Ball continued his strong play of recent weeks in the fifth spot in the lineup, shooting a 93 that included three pars and splits of 46 and 47. He finished tied for 30th.

Hayward was sixth in the team standings with a score of 362 and was followed by Ashland (364), Northwestern (372), Spooner (376) and Cumberland (396).

The McDonell-Regis sectional is set to start at 9 a.m. though Medford will be in the last wave of teams to tee off being a regional champion. The tournament will feature 12 teams and 12 individuals from non-qualifying teams from Tuesday’s Rice Lake, Osceola and Arcadia regionals.

The qualifying teams from Osceola are Amery (298), St. Croix Central (323), Ellsworth (329) and Somerset (334). Mc-Donell-Regis (295), Bloomer (300), Arcadia (338) and Durand-Arkansaw (341) qualified out of the Arcadia meet.

The top two teams and top three individuals from non-qualifying teams advance to the WIAA Division 2 state championships set for June 5-6 at Blackwolf Run in Kohler.

One stroke short

On Friday, Medford’s varsity closed the regular season by shooting a 320 at the McDonell-Regis Invitational and taking second place in the team standings, just one stroke behind Lakeland’s score of 319. The meet was held at Lake Wissota Golf Course, site of next week’s WIAA Division 2 sectional. Hintz won the meet’s individual championship by shooting a 3-over-par 74. This was Medford’s first individual win this spring. Viergutz tied Durand- Arkansaw’s Logan Weissinger for fourth with a 76, one shot behind St. Croix Central’s Nick Mueller and Lakeland’s Gray Wagner. Lingen tied Bloomer’s Karsten Bergh and Ellsworth’s Ethan Oricchio for 10th with his round of 80.

Liske added a score of 90 and Ball came win with a 93 for the Raiders, who beat St. Croix Central by three shots and Bloomer by four to take second place. Alex Wanke also was able to participate for Medford and shot a 101.

While McDonell-Regis hosted the meet, Division 2’s fourth-ranked team did not put its best lineup on the course Friday. Medford was ranked seventh in the Golf Coaches Association of Wisconsin poll last week. Bloomer was ranked 10th and St. Croix Central was 11th. Ellsworth, who was ranked 13th, was fifth in Friday’s team standings at 339, followed by Durand-Arkansaw (348), Arcadia (357), Somerset (373), Prescott (380), Mc-Donell-Regis (421), Cadott (429), Stanley-Boyd (452) and Osceola (incomplete).