Cedar One Shot Back At State Golf After Day One
KEARNEY - The first day of State Golf has wrapped up in Kearney, and the Cedar Catholic boys are sitting in second just one stroke back. The Trojans shot a combined 319 as a team, and trail Elmwood-Murdock.
Matthew Schaefer led the way for Cedar and sits tied for third with a two over 73. He sits three strokes behind Chase Largen from Creighton, who beat Schaefer in Districts by one stroke. Schaefer had a rough start to his day, going three over on his first four holes, including a double bogey. He rebounded well, with 12 straight pars before finishing his round with a birdie and a par.
Cedar head coach Mike Johnson says Schaefer played well today because he was able to stay focused despite his early hiccup.
“He feels pretty good coming back,” said Johnson. “He is pretty confident. Talking to him out on the course, his confidence never dropped. He could have been three strokes lower but his putts weren’t dropping today.”
Schaefer was followed on the Trojans scorecard by Riley Kuehn shooting a 78 and Ted Bengston shooting an 81. Kuehn, a freshman, is tied for 11th, and Bengston, a sophomore, is tied for 20th.
“All of them played well,” said Johnson. “I’m really pleased with Ted and Riley. Ted has seen it watching his brother play and I think that helped but Riley is great at staying in the moment and that helped him stay confident.”
Cedar’s four man scorecard was completed by Quinn Paulsen’s 87. The senior hit a rough patch early, with two triple bogeys and a double bogey on holes four through six. Despite that start, Johnson said Paulsen finished well and is confident that he can improve his score tomorrow.
“Quinn played pretty well today, he just had three rough holes,” said Johnson. “I think he could easily be around 80 tomorrow with how he played today.”
This Cedar team broke it’s school record for lowest score earlier this year with a 307, so there is room for improvement from the 319 the team shot on Tuesday. Johnson is a veteran coach down at state, and says the team will go out for dinner and will stay loose tonight with some go-karting. He says his advice for Wednesday won’t change much from today.
“Pretty much the same thing I told them last night, that they are playing the golf course not the players,” said Johnson. “They can just play their game and thats all.”
Day 1 of 2 Team Results
Elmwood-Murdock, 318; Cedar Catholic, 319; Grand Island Central Catholic, 320; Creighton 327; Lincoln Christian, 330; Kimball, 334; Battle Creek, 335; Broken Bow, 339; Perkins County, 342; Bishop Neumann, 343; Milford, 358; Oakland-Craig, 362; Kearney Catholic, 364; Bridgeport, 372; Logan View, 376.
Top 20 Individual Results
Chase Largen, Creighton, 70; Eric Stevens, Bridgeport, 71; Matthew Schaefer, Cedar Catholic, 73; Ryan Van Ostrand, Lincoln Christian, 73; Joel Zach, Lincoln Christian, 75; Preston Carbaugh, Cambridge, 76; Nolan Langfeldt, Elmwood-Murdock, 76; Brady Brockhaus, Creighton, 77; Jack Goering, Grand Island Central Catholic, 77; Patrick Kenney, Bishop Neumann, 77; Andrew McCloud, Kimball, 78; Eli Fox, Grand Island Central Catholic, 78; Gavin Fox, Grand Island Central Catholic, 78; Riley Kuehn, Cedar Catholic, 78; Ian Lundquist, Oakland-Craig, 79; Maxwell Madsen, Thayer Central, 79; Nicholas Langfeldt, Elmwood-Murdock, 79; Jarret Cerny, Norfolk Catholic, 80; Dylan Hathorn, Valentine, 81; Ted Bengston, Cedar Catholic, 81; Ty Heimes, Battle Creek, 81; Jake Hagerbaumer, Logan View, 81.