EHS, St. A, T-town Advance Teams to Golf Sectionals

MOUNT VERNON -- Effingham High School's boys golf team advanced to sectional play by taking third place at the Class 2A Mount Vernon Regional at Green Hills Country Club Tuesday.

Scoring for the Hearts were Jackson Wendling with a 77, Jake Linders with a 79, Callaway Smith with an 85 and Reed Schafer with an 87. Sean Sandifer shot an 89 and Brandon Dahnke a 90.

"Jackson Wendling made a 25 foot birdie putt and the last hole to give us a tie for third, it went to the fifth score to break the tie and send us to our third sectional in a row," said EHS Coach Jeff Schafer. "Jackson gave us clutch play on the last hole, we knew it was going to be close.

"Jake had a great back nine after a real struggle on the front. Reed had a nice round for us and hit the ball great today. Sean hung in there as well, cutting five shots off his back nine compared to the front. These guys have shown a lot of character these past few weeks, we keep improving and showed some maturity today that was not there earlier in the season. Now on to Salem Saturday."

The Hearts advance to the Class 2A Salem Sectional Saturday at the Salem Country Club along with Centralia who won the regional with a 318 followed by Troy Triad 326, Effingham 328 and Salem 328. The top three teams and top 10 individuals, not members of qualifying teams, advance.

At Effingham Country Club

Effingham St. Anthony played host to the Class A Regional Tuesday and won the team title with a 317 total followed by Robinson 321, Teutopolis 360, Flora 375, Altamont 377, Lawrenceville 386, Red Hill (Bridgeport) 393 and Pana 424. The top three teams advance along with the top 10 individuals, not members of qualifying teams.

Medalists were St. Anthony's Garrett Hixenbaugh and Robinson's Tom Goodman with a 75 each. Also scoring for the Bulldogs were Nick Wortman fourth with 78, Connor Greene sixth with 80 and Jared Hutchison tied for ninth with teammate Jeff Niebrugge with an 84 each.

Also competing was Sam Wortman tied for 20th with an 89.

T-town advanced as a team with scoring from Chad Zerrusen and Christian Deters with an 85 each, Justin Kowalski 22nd with a 90 and Kyle Brumleve 30th with a 98. Non-counting scores were Evan Schlink 32nd with 102 and Ryan Sandschafer 33rd with 103.

Altamont's Griffin Jackman advanced after placing in a tie for ninth with an 84 and Adam Mayhaus finished 19th with an 87.

The qualifiers advance to the Robinson Sectional Monday.

At Effingham Country Club

Team Scores -- St. Anthony (SA) 317, Robinson (R) 321, Teutopolis (TT) 360, Flora (F) 375, Altamont (A) 377, Lawrenceville (L) 386, Red Hill (RH) 393, Pana (P) 424

(Individuals advancing in bold face)

1. (tie) Garrett Hixenbaugh (SA) 75, Tom Goodman (R) 75, 3. John Casolari (F), 76, 4. Nick Wortman 9SA), 78, 5. Alex Brown (R), 79, 6. Connor Greene (SA), 80, 7. James Gibson (R), 81, 8. Zach Breault (RH), 82, 9. (tie) Jared Hutchison (SA) 84, Jeff Niebrugge (SA), 84, Griffin Jackman (A) 84, Logan Hosick (C) 84, 13. (tie) Robert Casolari (F) 85, Chad Zerrusen (TT) 85, Christian Deters (TT) 85, 16. (tie) Tristen Murphy (R) 86, Nate Caudle (WC) 86, Colton Simpson (FF) 86, 19. Adam Mayhaus (A) 87, 20. (tie) Sam Wortman (SA) 89, Jacob Abbell (RH) 89, 22. Justin Kowalski (TT) 90, 23. Hoa Bobe (L) 91, 24. Tanner Gray (RH) 93, 25. Justin McGinnis (A) 96, 26. (tie) Jeff Baxter (L) 97, Jeff Metz (L) 97, 28. (tie) Hunter Givens (R) 98, Kody Bland (P) 98, 30. Kyle Brumleve (TT) 100, 31. Seth Hatfield (L) 101, 33. Ryan Sandschafer (TT) 103, 34. (tie) Nick Trotter (F) 104, Michael Hrabak (P) 104, 36. (tie) Austin Deloreia (L) 107, Gage Kidwell (O) 107, 38. Dylan Moon (P) 108, 39. (tie) Colton Kitley (F) 110, Logan Deadmond (A) 110, 42. Blake Ade (P) 114, 43. Chase Shick (L) 115, 44. Zach Allison (F) 117, 45. (tie) Dylan Woodrow (F) 121, Cameron Jackman (A) 121, 47. Sheldon Grimes (P) 123, 48. Jim LaMarche (P) 124, 50. Jordan Schroeder (O) 154