Cardinals come close to top section golfers

The Staples-Motley boys and girls golf teams competed strongly in a very competitive Section 6AA tournament, held June 1-2 at Blackberry Ridge in Sartell.

In this two day tournaments, teams have to finish in the top four to advance to day two, with the top individuals also advancing.

In the boys meet, the Cardinals were just seven shots away from fourth place and 18 shots out of first place in a very tight match among the top seven teams.

In the girls meet, Staples-Motley was just four strokes from the top five and 13 away from advancing to day two as a team.

Both teams had two golfers advance as individuals, Thomas Johnson and Jackson White for the boys and Katelyn Schotzko and Mara Uselman for the girls.

Boys tournament

Johnson and White were tied for sixth place after day one and finished in the top ten on day two. Johnson was one shot away from making a playoff to go to state and White was three strokes away from the playoff.

On the first day, Johnson started three over par after two holes then birdied three of the next four holes, two of them on finish 1 over at the turn. His second nine was steady with five pars and four bogeys. On day two, Johnson scored two birdies in his first nine holes and finished one under par for that front nine, putting him in position to be in the top five. His back nine had four pars but one double bogey hurt his chances to advance.

 On day one, White had eight pars in his front nine, with four bogeys on the back nine. On day two, he shot five pars on the front nine and closed his round with straight pars.

The other Cardinals golfed well at times but also had some trouble holes.

Evan Schultz was dialed in on the par threes on the front nine, with birdies on both. that left him at 39 at the turn. On the back nine he had two trouble holes that bumped his score up a little but he still finished as the third team scorer.

Kaleb Harman was very steady except for two holes on the front nine and one on the back. He ended with 46 and 41 for 87 total.

Oskar Doll started out with a bad hole, then spent the rest of the front nine making up for it, finishing with a 42. The back nine was similar, although he didn’t come bask as strong and had a 48.

Girls tournament

Schotzko and Uselman both shot 95 to make the cut and advance to the second day of play. On the second day, they both moved up and were a few strokes away from getting to state.

With four pars on the front nine and three more on the back on day one, Uselman was in the top 20 but dropped down a few strokes on her last two holes of the day.

Schotzko was steady for most of the round with three pars in 18 holes.

Sarah Kroll came within two strokes of advancing. She had a birdie and two pars on her back nine but she struggled on her last three holes.

Meredith Hoemberg shot four pars to become the team’s fourth scorer.

In the second round, both Schotzko and Uselman moved up on the leaderbord, with Schotzko parring nine of her 18 holes to finish with an 87, the ninth best round that day that put her at 15th overall.

Uselman improved on the back nine with four pars, but slipped a little on the front nine to finish with a 93, placing 17th overall.

Boys results

Section 6AA tournament

Team scores after day 1:

St. Cloud Cathedral 308, Albany 314, Rocori 315, Pequot Lakes 319, Little Falls 321, Pillager 325, Staples-Motley 326, Pierz 337, Foley 341, Milaca 343, Sauk Centre 345, Melrose 352, Royalton 353, Osakis 354, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville 370, Wadena-Deer Creek 409

6. Jackson White 77, 6. Thomas Johnson 77, 36. Evan Schultz 85, 46. Kaleb Harman 87, 61. Oskar Doll 90, 71. Ashton Anderson 92

Day two: 9. Johnson 77, 10. White 79

Girls results

Section 6AA tournament

Team scores after day 1:

Albany 333, Pequot Lakes 355, Melrose 374, Pierz 377, St. Cloud Cathedral 386, Milaca 387, Staples-Motley 390, Foley 410, Pillager 424, Sauk Centre 448, Osakis 504, Little Falls inc., Wadena-Deer Creek inc., Royalton inc.

23. Katelyn Schotzko 95, 23. Mara Uselman 95, 26. Sarah Kroll 97, 37. Meredith Hoemberg 103, 47. Brooklyn Winter 108, 48. Molly Hoemberg 109

Day two: 15. Schotzko 87, 17. Uselman 93