COVINGTON -— North Montgomery boys golf has plenty of talent in 2023. Saturday at the Covington Invite at Rivercrest Golf Club, that talent was once again on full display. The Chargers cruised to the overall team title by shooting a season low 333 finishing 28 strokes ahead of second place Covington who ended with a 361. Crawfordsville finished in third place with a 393.
The 1st place finish for the Chargers is the first 18-hole title that they’ve won for second-year coach Bob Ryker. Neal Jeffery was the overall medalist for the Chargers shooting a 79. Haze Kashon took third overall on the day with an 82. Hayden Turner shot an 83 while both Drew Norman and Alex Chapman rounded out the scoring for the champion Chargers with 89’s.
“I just couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” Ryker said. “This title is 100% their doing because they bust their tails off day in and day out. Neal coming out here and earning medalist was huge and then Haze shot his personal best today. 333 is a pretty darn good score no matter what course you’re playing. We talked about how we wanted to come into today and win so tip of the cap to the guys for coming in here and doing just that.”
Crawfordsville’s Tanner Gilland rebounded well from a slow start shooting a 44 on his first nine holes. The ladder proved to be much better for the standout Athenian sophomore as he shot a 37 over the final nine to end the day with an 81 which was good enough for second place individually. Braxton Smith carded a 95, Hayden Jeffries notched a 106 while Carter Truax rounded out the scoring for the Athenians with a 110.
Crawfordsville coach Tom Perkins despite taking third place, was still pretty disappointed overall with how his team performed.
“It was just an overall disappointing showing today,” he said. “Tanner played his usual solid round for us with his 81, but his supporting cast struggled. These weren’t tough conditions that we were playing in so we should have shot better. Now we’re gearing up for Conference next Saturday and this isn’t how we need to be playing. We’ll be better from today I do know that.”
Both North and Crawfordsville will have a couple matches this week but none bigger as Perkins noted than the Sagamore Conference meet next Saturday at Rocky Ridge. That begins a trio of important matches on the docket for both the Chargers and Athenians. After the SAC meet will be county meet on May 25 followed by the sectional on June 2.
“Starting next Saturday it gets real and that’s what I told the guys,” Perkins said. “UP until now it’s just been trying to get better, now we have to focus in on the task at hand. We have some team goals to still to achieve that all revolve around the conference, county, and sectional. It’s all about translating their game from the range to the course.”
Ryker and his team like the Athenians have their goals set high entering next Saturday. The Chargers do get the luxury of playing the SAC meet on their home course.
“Today gives them a big confidence boost heading into conference,” Ryker said. “They know they can perform this way an even still a little better. We’re going to enjoy this for sure before getting back to work next week.”
