The Ankeny Centennial boys’ golf team made a lot of progress over the last week.
After shooting a 317 and placing fifth in the Jesse Peck Invitational on Aug. 14 at Briarwood Golf Club, the Jaguars dropped 11 strokes off their score Monday during a CIML Conference triangular meet at Jester Park. The 306 total allowed Centennial to edge Dowling Catholic (308) by two strokes, although coach Andrew Reedy’s squad lost to Waukee Northwest (301) at the same time.
“We have talked a lot about getting better each day and focusing on the process rather than the result,” said Reedy. “We certainly saw some progress in this area compared to just seven days ago at our home invite. I’m really proud of the guys. We set some goals last week of all six scores in the 70s and break 300, and we were right there in terms of achieving them the very next time out. Your hope is that that provides them with some belief that they are capable of reaching their goals.”
Blake Cronin of Northwest and Roman Reinhardt of Dowling each shot a 73 to tie for first place on the individual leaderboard. Cronin earned medalist honors on a cardoff.
Zach Hoffman shot a 75 to lead the Jaguars. He placed fourth overall.
“Zach has been exactly what we need him to be as a senior leader,” Reedy said. “Those were very solid performances from him in our first two events. I know he wants more out of his rounds, but he has provided us with some consistency. He had some ups and downs in his round today, but him making birdie on No. 18 is the perfect example of staying in it for all 18 holes. Especially on a hot day like today, that isn’t easy to do.”
Centennial’s Charlie Morrissey fired a 76, while McCoy Miller had a 77. Nathan Boehlert added a 78 for the team’s fourth scoring round.
Reedy said Boehlert’s strong round was due in large part to the new Affinity putter that he put in his bag.
“Nathan played really solid for 14 1/2 holes and then a couple mistakes mixed with a couple bad breaks turned into a couple double bogeys in his last few holes,” Reedy said. “Again, we’re going to try to learn from the mistakes here and grow as a result. He’s a bit focused on the bad breaks, which we can’t control. So we’ll try to shift the focus to what we can learn from.”
Kaden Schulz shot a 79 for the Jaguars. Tiernan Logan added an 85.
“Kaden has really found something with his game and has played himself into a varsity spot,” Reedy said. “He had a bit of an up and down round with a tough start, but made some birdies and battled his way to a respectable score. I love seeing guys make a decision mid-round that they are going to fight for a good score rather than decide it just isn’t their day and give up. Kaden decided to fight today.”
Centennial will travel to Copper Creek on Thursday for another conference triangular meet against Ankeny and Southeast Polk.