EHS Takes 12th, St. A 13th at Mattoon Golf Invite

MATTOON -- Effingham High School finished 12th and Effingham St. Anthony 13th at the Mattoon Boys Golf Invitational Friday and Saturday.

Barrington was the team champion with 282-301 -- 583 followed by Normal Community 295-317 -- 612, Edwardsville 300-322 -- 622, Mattoon 308-317 -- 625, Massac County 299-328 -- 627, Pekin 307-323 -- 630, East Peoria 304-331 -- 635, Normal U. High 311-324 -- 635, Champaign Centennial 306-333 -- 639, Centralia 307-337 -- 644,  Springfield 322-323 -- 645, Effingham 320-326 -- 646, St. Anthony 324-327 -- 651, Normal West 314-338 -- 652, Lincoln 325-330 -- 655, Bloomington 323-335 -- 658, Mount Carmel 330-326 -- 656, Chatham Glenwood 325-337 -- 662, Alton 332-331 -- 663, Mount Zion 329-341 -- 670, Sacred Heart Griffin 333-344 -- 677, Champaign Central 338-339 -- 677, Champaign St. Thomas More 330-355 -- 658, Quincy 333-353 -- 686 and Rantoul 355-332 -- 687.

Barrington took the top two spots individually as Tom Calbi was the medalist with a 145 followed by teammate Cole Kempenski with a 146.

"This is one of the best tournaments in the state," said St. Anthony Coach Phil Zaccari. "Coach Lockhart and his staff as well as the Mattoon C.C. and Meadowview staff put on a wonderful event. The weather was great and the courses were very fair. We had some good but inconsistent performances as a team.

Sam Wortman seems to have found his swing and has been playing really good golf. He had a slow start at Meadowview but finished strong which then carried over to the MCC on Saturday. Connor seemed to do the same thing, they both are playing with renewed confidence. Garrett played great Friday but did not finish strong and that seemed to carry over to Saturday as well.

"Jared played a very solid round on Saturday and was doing a good job grinding out a round on Saturday but had a bad last hole. When we figure out how to get rid of those couple large numbers then we will be where we need to be. We seem to be headed in the right direction as we near the end of the season. Once again we are able to compete with these really great programs a couple putts drop here or there and we are in the top 10. It was a positive experience and one we will build on."

Scoring for St. Anthony were Connor Greene 77, Sam Wortman 80, Garrett Hixenbaugh 81 and Nate Schmidt 89. Non-counting were Jared Hutchison 89 and Jeff Niebrugge 92.

Scoring for Effingham were Callaway Smith 37-40 -- 77, Jackson Wendling 40-38 -- 78, Jake Linders 39-39 -- 78 and Reed Schafer 46-41 -- 87. Non-counting were Ryan Sandifer 43-45 -- 88 and Sean Sandifer 45-44 -- 89