by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
A season-long bugaboo caught up with Kansas City Kansas Community College’s young golf team Tuesday.
Second after Monday’s first round of the Blue Devil Invitational, the Blue Devils had to settle for fourth in the tournament played at Dub’s Dread Golf Club.
“Played just like a freshman team; one good round but we can’t put two good rounds together,” KCKCC coach Gary Shrader said.
Led by the team’s lone sophomore, Cameron Riley of Liberal, the Blue Devils trailed Hutchinson by just three strokes after the first round (304-307) but then fell back to fourth with a 327 Tuesday. Hutchinson finished first (608) followed by Washburn B, 618; Rockhurst B, 632; KCKCC, 634; Barton County, 635; and Bethel College, 699.
Riley (72-77-149) finished second after sharing the first round lead with medalist Charlie Crockett (72-72-144) of Hutchinson, both matching par with 72s.
Dylan Freund (75-84-159) of Cheney finished 17th, Jacob Hall (80-82-162) of Tonganoxie tied for 20th, Mark Towey (80-84- 164) of Bishop Carroll tied for 23rd, Kellen Welsh (83-83- 165) of Olathe West was 25th and Keegan Ellington (83-88-171) of Andover Central placed 31st.
“We played one really good round and were just three shots back of Hutchinson so I was pleased with that,” Shrader said. “An 80 playing the blue tees at Dub’s is a pretty good score. We made some mental mistakes and for some reason we never play well at Dub’s. We’ve been up and down all season, one good round out of two. But overall I was pretty happy. Perfect weather and good competitive teams.”
The Blue Devils close out the fall season Monday and Tuesday in the Tabor Invitational at Sandcreek Station in Newton, the site of next spring’s annual Jayhawk Conference championship.