Gray finishes career with 80

YORKTOWN - Through eight holes, Adam Gray was in the hunt. However, a trip to the state finals was not to be.

The Jay County High School senior shot 80 Friday in the regional boys golf tournament hosted by Muncie Central at The Players Club. He finished seven strokes short of a state berth.

Only the top three teams and top three players not on advancing teams move on to the state finals.

Fifth-ranked Carmel took the team title at 298 followed by No. 7 Hamilton Southeastern (300) and No. 14 Yorktown (302). Fourth-ranked Norwell finished with a 307 in fourth place.

Individual qualifiers were Lapel's Brodie Williams (71), Norwell's Drew Imel (71), Liberty Christians's Alex Stinson (73) and Pendleton Heights' Jake Groniger (73). Yorktown's Patrick Kunderich, whose brother Derek was the medalist at the sectional tournament, posted the top score of 2-under-par 70.

Gray opened his round with a bogey on the 380-yard, par-4 first hole, but then racked up four consecutive pars. He followed his run of pars with a birdie on the 342-yard, par-4 sixth hole to pull back to even par.

He stood at 1-over par through eight holes and in the mix for a state berth. But then he suffered a double-bogey on the 409-yard, par-4 ninth hole and struggled to get back on track.

Gray bogeyed four of the first five holes on the back nine - the lone par came on the 419-yard, par-4 11th hole - to fall out of contention at 7-over-par. He recovered to par three of the final four holes to shoot 41 on the back nine.[[In-content Ad]]