Golf: St. Bede boys, Seneca girls champions at TCC meet

PONTIAC – The St. Bede boys and Seneca girls golf teams each captured championships at Wednesday’s Tri-County Conference Tournament at Wolf Creek Golf Club.

Bruins’ senior Luke Tunnell shot a field-best 79 to win the boys individual title, while Roanoke-Benson senior Addy Heineke carded a 92 to finish first on the girls side.

“I really didn’t have too many ups and downs today; it was just a steady round,” Tunnell said. “I knew after the first nine holes I was playing pretty well, but sometimes if I know my score in those situations I start think too much and I then struggle. After each hole today I was just writing my score on the scorecard and putting it away and thinking about the next hole. I think that may be my strategy moving forward into the postseason.

“I’m happy to finish first. Some of my teammates didn’t shoot as well as they can, but I know they all will come regionals next week.”

Heineke said the key to her round was a mental rewind at the halfway point.

“To be honest, I really didn’t come into today hoping for any certain placement, I just wanted to play as well as I could, but I’m excited that I won,” she said. “After my first nine, which was a little rough, I decided I was just going to mentally start over. The back nine was so much better for me, and I think just taking that few seconds to regroup my thoughts was the difference.

“I felt like my overall game was pretty good today, but I’m most happy about being able to mentally get things turned around.”

For the boys, Dwight’s Will Trainor and Henry-Senachwine’s Carson Rowe tied for second with 81s, while Marquette Academy senior Carson Zellers finished fourth with an 84.

“I birdied my first hole and played steady the rest of the first nine holes, but then the final nine I just wasn’t swinging as well as I was,” Zellers said. “I was putting myself in some tough second shots with not-so-great shots off the tee. I just couldn’t find the fairway on the back nine, but I finally figured out the adjustment I needed to make and made it on the last hole which was a good way to close out the round.

“A lot of things and bounces didn’t go my way, but that’s golf sometimes. I also had a few putts that I normally make just not find the cup.”

Seneca freshman Piper Stenzel finished just one stroke behind Heineke to place second.

“A parred the very first hole today [the par-4, No. 18] and that really put me in a great mood,” Stenzel said. “I feel like I had just a very consistent round, no really great or super-bad shots. I was really happy with how I hit my long irons which can sometimes be hit-or-miss for me. But I really wish I could have putted better than I did. I just couldn’t read many of the greens right.

“I came into today wanting to under 90, so I didn’t quite reach that goal, but I’m happy to have finished second in my first conference tournament. It’s also very cool that we won as a team, I’m actually more excited about that than my own finish.”

In the team standings for the boys, St. Bede recorded a 352, while Roanoke-Benson and Dwight both finished with 357s. Henry-Senachwine (365) was fourth, Marquette (373) fifth, Seneca (389) sixth, Midland (391) seventh, Putnam County (412) eighth and Woodland (431) ninth.

St. Bede also received counting scores from Zach Husser with an 89, and Logan Potthoff and Ryan Slingsby with 92s. Jack Groves (86), Andrew Gartke (91) and Maddox DeLong (99) also counted for Dwight. Tucker Bond led R-B with an 86, followed by Kaden Harms (91), Leyton Harms (92) and Nolan Hunter (94).

Jacob Miller (90), Nolan Dunshee (91) and Lance Lieswetter (97) also counted for the Mallards, as did Daniel Hoffman (95), Ashton Grady (98) and Kaden Chalus (96) for the Crusaders.

Keegan Murphy paced Seneca with a 92, followed by Cooper Thomas (93) and Grant Siegel (94). Putnam County’s Miles Walder, Logan Keesee and Jake Dove all had 102s, while Woodland’s Tucker Hill had a 96 and Sam Schmitz a 98.

On the girls side, Seneca registered a 411, Roanoke-Benson a 419 and St. Bede a 485.

Julia Hogan had a 95 and Shelby Welsh a 107 for Seneca, Lauren Crumrine a 103 and Maddie Kearfott a 109 for R-B, while Anna Cyrocki’s 107 led St. Bede.