Season ends at regional

Copyright 2017, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

MUNCIE — Entering the season, the Patriots had three goals.

Two of them were to claim the Allen County Athletic Conference round-robin and tournament championships. They accomplished both.

The third was completed Thursday.

Jay County High School’s boys golf team had its season come to a close Thursday as it finished 15th at the IHSAA regional tournament at The Players Club.

“I wish they were younger because they’ve seen what it takes to get to that next step,” said JCHS coach Butch Gray, whose team shot 352. “That is eight strokes better than what we shot (on the same course) at the Yorktown Invitational at the very beginning of the year.

“I was not unhappy with it. I thought the kids came out and they battled.”

The Noblesville Millers were the team champions with 288. Cathedral was second with 311, and Fishers had 315, breaking a tie with Hamilton Southeastern based on the fifth golfer’s score.

The top three teams and top five individuals not on advancing teams qualify for the state finals, which are Tuesday and Wednesday at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel.

Senior Jay Houck closed out his high school athletic career with the Patriots’ best score of 82. As the team’s No. 1 golfer the previous two seasons, Houck dropped down to No. 3 and had a solid year without the burden of being the team’s top player.

“He’s just been steady,” Gray said of this year’s individual ACAC champion. “(He) just relaxed and played. I think a lot of pressure has been off of him and he’s played the way I thought he could play.”

Kyler Hudson also played in the final round of his high school career, and he finished with 87. He had a difficult time putting, including needing three attempts on the green of the par-4 eighth hole.

Collin Haines, a junior, was visibly frustrated at the tail end of his round despite making birdie on the eighth hole. The team’s No. 1 player had a dozen penalty strokes on his way to a 90, the third-best team score.

“Collin now has an idea,” Gray said of playing past sectional. “Next year I fully expect him to come back to regional as an individual. Hopefully we have a team that can get out.”

Nick Hayden, another senior who helped the Patriots win back-to-back ACAC round-robin titles, was fourth on the team Thursday with 93. Like his teammates, the future IU-East Red Wolf struggled on the back nine and made the turn at 16 over par. But he finished relatively strong, as he was nine strokes better on his final nine holes. Hayden made a par putt from 4 feet away on No. 8 as one of three Patriots to play even or better on the 347-yard hole.

“Some of them had trouble on the first nine,” Gray said. “But they came back … and I thought they were grinding it out and they did a good job.

“Today as the day went on the greens were drying out. They were getting quicker and harder to putt.”

Matt Franks also played for Jay County, and the sophomore finished his year with a 118.

It had been five years since the Patriots last advanced to regional as a team, and Gray said he was pleased that this experienced group was able to get beyond sectional.

“As the year went on I saw those guys grow closer to each other and supportive of each other and that’s what you need,” he said. “It is bittersweet because I’m going to be losing three seniors. They all contributed a great deal to what we do, what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished.

“But that also puts a challenge up to the young kids that were involved and the incoming freshmen to keep going.”