Hearts Miss Advancing To State Golf Tourney

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Published on October 14 2015 9:24 am
Last Updated on October 14 2015 9:24 am
Written by Millie Lange

WEST FRANKFORT -- Effingham High School finshed eighth in the 12-team field and failed to advance to the Class 2A State Boys Golf Tournament Tuesday at the Franklin Country Club.

"It was a tough day with the wind and the greens for as nice as the temperature was," said EHS Coach Jeff Schafer. "Everyone kind of started slow except for Callaway and no one really got it going until Ryan's back nine. Callaway had a tough break on the last hole. If his approach shot a foot shorter it spins back to the hole and he has a great shot to get to state."

Belleville Althoff Catholic won the team championship with a 313 followed by Centralia 318, Alton Marquette 322, Columbia 326, Mattoon 333, Metropolis Massac County 333, Mascoutah 338, Efifngham 341, Lawrenceville 342, Salem 345, Greenville 345 and Highland 350.

Jace Swartzlander of Centralia was medalist with a 69 on the par 71 course. Scoring for the Hearts were Callaway Smith 78, Reed Schafer 87, Ryan Sandifer 88 and Matt Linders 88. Non-counters were Michael Woltman 93 and Jacob Sigg 95.

"Callaway had such an incredible year, finishing first or second in every tournament but today," said Schafer. "His level of play is at such a high level, it is hard to describe, he is very good.

"This group was a lot of fun. We lost three players from last year that played all four years and one, Jackson went on to Nebraska. This team really stepped up and did a nice job. We didn't know if we could get back to the sectional again, but we did for the fifth time in a row and it is a credit to these guys and the players that helped the other four times. This end was tough, especially because we will graduate Reed who has been an absolute pleasure to coach these past four years."

Belleville Althoff Catholic, Centralia and Alton Marquette advance as teams while individuals advancing were Jacob Eklund (Carterville) 69, Zach Williams (Mount Vernon) 70, Alec Hilliard (Bethalto Civic Memorial) 75, Gage Brauns (Greenville) 76, Brode Portell (Highland) 76, Brendan Lewis (Marion) 76, Benjamin Cleveland (Mount Zion) 76, Ben Lanman (Charleston) 76, Zach Breault (Lawrenceville) 77 and Keegan Easley (West Frankfort) 77.