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DEMOTTE — Thursday was a historic day for not one, but two South Bend Tribune coverage area boys golf teams.
At Sandy Pines Golf Club, Trinity Academy won its first-ever IHSAA regional championship in any sport with a 299. They were one of just eight teams to shoot a sub-300 regional score across the state.
Meanwhile, at Stonehenge Golf Club, Plymouth won its first-ever regional championship as well with a 302. Neither squad won its sectional last week, but both head into next week’s state finals playing their best golf at the right time.
More: Guyton guides South Bend Saint Joseph to IHSAA boys golf sectional title
More: Trinity at Greenlawn showing to be IHSAA boys golf force once again
Trinity junior Nathan Palmer emerged from the Lake Central regional as the individual medalist, tied for the third-best finish in the state with a 68. Rounding out the Titans' top four was Palmer’s freshman brother, Gabe, with a 74, junior Dane Sweikar with a 78 and sophomore John Paul Bernardy with a 79.
Nathan Palmer said he knew he was in store for a special day when he finished his 11th hole of the day with an eagle, clinching it with an approximate 30-foot putt.
“There were a lot of opportunities to be aggressive, but I just decided to step back and kind of be a bit more conservative,” Palmer said. “By doing that, I had a lot of full wedges in, and my full wedges were just exceptional today — the best they’ve ever been.”
Formerly Trinity School at Greenlawn, the school with 118 students and only 10 IHSAA-sanctioned sports can finally add a regional championship to its trophy case after 45 years.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Palmer said. “We work so hard. Every single guy on this team … It just feels like this is a step along the way in the process of the greater goal, which is to win state.
"This is something we expected to happen. This was the goal, we knew it was going to happen and we made it happen.”
The Titans’ victory was made all the sweeter after finishing just one stroke shy of advancing to the state finals last season. This time, Trinity not only won, but they did so by a wide margin.
The second-place team was 11 strokes behind as Elkhart finished runners-up with a 310. The Lions were led by sophomore Ben Divido, who walked away from Sandy Pines with the second-best individual performance at a 72. He was joined by junior Cameron Miller’s 75, his freshman brother, Brendon’s, 76 and sophomore Ryan Molyneaux’s 87.
“It was a very scorable day,” Divido said. “The putter was working really well. It just felt like the greens were so receptive. I could land it close to the pin, but it would spin back so much that it would leave me 30 or 40 footers.”
The older Divido was the individual medalist at the Lake Central regional last season at 70. He said although he’s thrilled to help his squad advance to the state finals with his performance this season, finishing runner-up individually gives him even more motivation heading into Prairie View Golf Club.
It was an all-South Bend Tribune coverage area top three, with South Bend Saint Joseph also punching its ticket to the state finals with a 316. Senior Tate Guyton, who brought home medalist honors in sectional play last week, once again led the Huskies with a 74.
Fellow seniors Zach Matthys and Joe Kloska finished with a 79 and an 81, respectively, while junior Trevor Bowles rounded out the group with an 82. However, it came down to Saint Joseph’s No. 5, senior Max Germann’s 84, to send the Huskies to state.
The Huskies’ top four tied with Valparaiso’s top four at 316, so the tiebreaker as to which team would finish in third place came down to which squad’s No. 5 finished with a lower score. Germann beat the Vikings’ fifth man by 21 strokes.
“We’ve really wanted to do it for each other more than for ourselves,” Guyton said in a phone call interview. “Every shot in golf matters, especially competitive golf. You never know the shot you’re going to need. If one guy has a bad round, then it’s your turn to step in, and it doesn’t matter what number you are; you can still perform well and contribute.”
Plymouth’s first-ever IHSAA boys golf regional championship wasn’t so dominant, but it counts just the same. The Pilgrims emerged from their Warsaw-hosted regional just one stroke ahead of the runners-up and two ahead of the third-place squad.
That may have made their historic victory even sweeter, which was celebrated by a trip to Ritter’s for ice cream afterward. Head coach Keith Berndt was thrilled in a phone call interview afterward, thanking everyone he could think of as quickly as possible.
His players and their parents.
The head golf pro at Plymouth’s home grounds, Pretty Lake Golf Course, Ryan Steele.
The list goes on.
More: Adriana Swanson cements legacy as one of South Bend Washington's best
It was Berndt’s players who got it done at Stonehenge, four of whom finished 77 or under. Senior Caleb Harland and juniors Ben Nguyen and Bryce Busse each finished at 75, while senior Dan Nguyen finished with a 77.
With Plymouth joining the three South Bend Tribune coverage area squads from the Lake Central regional at next week’s state finals, it’ll be the first time four teams from the area have made the trip to state in the same season since 2008.
Special day, indeed.
“We were just wanting to get to state,” Berndt said. “From the very first practice, we wanted to go to state. As for regionals, winning it was on our radar, but it was a distant radar. We started seeing the scores come in, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we could do this. This could happen.’”
The IHSAA state finals will run Tuesday and Wednesday, June 16-17 at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at [email protected] or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Historic IHSAA boys golf regionals for Trinity Academy, Plymouth
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At Sandy Pines Golf Club, Trinity Academy won its first-ever IHSAA regional championship in any sport with a 299. They were one of just eight teams to shoot a sub-300 regional score across the state.
Meanwhile, at Stonehenge Golf Club, Plymouth won its first-ever regional championship as well with a 302. Neither squad won its sectional last week, but both head into next week’s state finals playing their best golf at the right time.
More: Guyton guides South Bend Saint Joseph to IHSAA boys golf sectional title
More: Trinity at Greenlawn showing to be IHSAA boys golf force once again
Trinity win not a surprise to Titans
Trinity junior Nathan Palmer emerged from the Lake Central regional as the individual medalist, tied for the third-best finish in the state with a 68. Rounding out the Titans' top four was Palmer’s freshman brother, Gabe, with a 74, junior Dane Sweikar with a 78 and sophomore John Paul Bernardy with a 79.
Nathan Palmer said he knew he was in store for a special day when he finished his 11th hole of the day with an eagle, clinching it with an approximate 30-foot putt.
“There were a lot of opportunities to be aggressive, but I just decided to step back and kind of be a bit more conservative,” Palmer said. “By doing that, I had a lot of full wedges in, and my full wedges were just exceptional today — the best they’ve ever been.”
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Formerly Trinity School at Greenlawn, the school with 118 students and only 10 IHSAA-sanctioned sports can finally add a regional championship to its trophy case after 45 years.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Palmer said. “We work so hard. Every single guy on this team … It just feels like this is a step along the way in the process of the greater goal, which is to win state.
"This is something we expected to happen. This was the goal, we knew it was going to happen and we made it happen.”
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Elkhart, Saint Joseph also state-bound
The Titans’ victory was made all the sweeter after finishing just one stroke shy of advancing to the state finals last season. This time, Trinity not only won, but they did so by a wide margin.
The second-place team was 11 strokes behind as Elkhart finished runners-up with a 310. The Lions were led by sophomore Ben Divido, who walked away from Sandy Pines with the second-best individual performance at a 72. He was joined by junior Cameron Miller’s 75, his freshman brother, Brendon’s, 76 and sophomore Ryan Molyneaux’s 87.
“It was a very scorable day,” Divido said. “The putter was working really well. It just felt like the greens were so receptive. I could land it close to the pin, but it would spin back so much that it would leave me 30 or 40 footers.”
The older Divido was the individual medalist at the Lake Central regional last season at 70. He said although he’s thrilled to help his squad advance to the state finals with his performance this season, finishing runner-up individually gives him even more motivation heading into Prairie View Golf Club.
It was an all-South Bend Tribune coverage area top three, with South Bend Saint Joseph also punching its ticket to the state finals with a 316. Senior Tate Guyton, who brought home medalist honors in sectional play last week, once again led the Huskies with a 74.
Fellow seniors Zach Matthys and Joe Kloska finished with a 79 and an 81, respectively, while junior Trevor Bowles rounded out the group with an 82. However, it came down to Saint Joseph’s No. 5, senior Max Germann’s 84, to send the Huskies to state.
The Huskies’ top four tied with Valparaiso’s top four at 316, so the tiebreaker as to which team would finish in third place came down to which squad’s No. 5 finished with a lower score. Germann beat the Vikings’ fifth man by 21 strokes.
“We’ve really wanted to do it for each other more than for ourselves,” Guyton said in a phone call interview. “Every shot in golf matters, especially competitive golf. You never know the shot you’re going to need. If one guy has a bad round, then it’s your turn to step in, and it doesn’t matter what number you are; you can still perform well and contribute.”
Fearsome foursome fuels Plymouth
Plymouth’s first-ever IHSAA boys golf regional championship wasn’t so dominant, but it counts just the same. The Pilgrims emerged from their Warsaw-hosted regional just one stroke ahead of the runners-up and two ahead of the third-place squad.
That may have made their historic victory even sweeter, which was celebrated by a trip to Ritter’s for ice cream afterward. Head coach Keith Berndt was thrilled in a phone call interview afterward, thanking everyone he could think of as quickly as possible.
His players and their parents.
The head golf pro at Plymouth’s home grounds, Pretty Lake Golf Course, Ryan Steele.
The list goes on.
More: Adriana Swanson cements legacy as one of South Bend Washington's best
It was Berndt’s players who got it done at Stonehenge, four of whom finished 77 or under. Senior Caleb Harland and juniors Ben Nguyen and Bryce Busse each finished at 75, while senior Dan Nguyen finished with a 77.
With Plymouth joining the three South Bend Tribune coverage area squads from the Lake Central regional at next week’s state finals, it’ll be the first time four teams from the area have made the trip to state in the same season since 2008.
Special day, indeed.
“We were just wanting to get to state,” Berndt said. “From the very first practice, we wanted to go to state. As for regionals, winning it was on our radar, but it was a distant radar. We started seeing the scores come in, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we could do this. This could happen.’”
The IHSAA state finals will run Tuesday and Wednesday, June 16-17 at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at [email protected] or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Historic IHSAA boys golf regionals for Trinity Academy, Plymouth
Continue reading...
