Warrior golfers head to state after regional victory
Sports reporter
For the second year in a row the Marion High School golf team will be playing into late May.
All six MHS golfers finished in the top 20 Monday at the Osage City Regional, with three of them tying for second, earning the Warriors another team spot in the 3A state golf tournament.
As a team Marion shot 348 and finished 53 strokes ahead of second place Council Grove.
Jake Bredemeier, Keith Jones, and Luke Gordon each shot 85 at the Osage City Country Club, leading the Warriors to the title.
Bredemeier finished second after a three-way playoff, Jones third, and Gordon fourth.
The trio was three strokes behind individual champion Tyler Keplar of Council Grove.
Warriors Landon Leiker and Olle Gemfors also won medals.
They both shot 93, while Leiker took seventh place on a playoff, and Gemfors eighth.
Lindsay Hett finished at 109, and took 20th place out of 50 golfers.
Once again the golfers had to deal with some type of bad weather, this time it was the wind which reached 30 mph at times.
"348 isn't terrible on a day like [Monday], but we'd still rather be in the 330s," head coach Rex Ostmeyer said.
"I thought each person just had a couple of holes where the wind kind of got them or something.
"But we played pretty consistently."
MHS played in a field on an unfamiliar course with nine teams where the closest in proximity were Remington and Council Grove.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association did not place them at the Hillsboro regional as it has in the past.
"I don't really think that came into play," Ostmeyer said. "We knew we had a pretty good shot going in."
That's because golfers are paired by their yearly averages, and all six golfers Monday were in the first six groups.
Council Grove, which took second place, will head to Salina Monday along with Marion to compete at the state meet.
When a team qualifies for state, all six golfers compete regardless of their regional round.
The victory this year was especially impressive because they did so after losing former state champion Travis Hett to graduation.
"It's always a good feeling simply because you get to keep playing for a week," Ostmeyer said.
The dinner afterward and hour and a half ride home gave the team some time to celebrate its victory.
"We got to enjoy it a little bit," Ostmeyer said. "It was fun."
