After sweeping the Regional tournament on their home course, the Bluejay golf team qualified to compete in the State tournament on Monday, May 22, and Tuesday, May 23, hosted by the Mariah Hills Golf Course in Dodge City. There were 12 schools represent in this elite tournament, and the Jays ended the two-day event with two members finishing in the top 10 and brought home a State Runner-up trophy as a team for their efforts.

“We had a great two days at State. The weather was beautiful and we had a great fan base supporting our players,” said Head Coach Scott Burger. “Our score of 321 was our best of the year on Monday [May 22]. That score put us in second place, two shots ahead of third place. Our players responded by shooting a 314 [on Day 2], which was 15 strokes better than any score we had going into state. That gave us a second place finish, seven strokes ahead of Hesston. Cullen [Wikle] and Roman [Scoby] medaled in the top ten and all six golfers played some of their best golf this year.”

The first day of competition offered a mixed bag of weather to contend with, but players took it in stride on this challenging course to rise to the occasion. Sophomore Roman Scoby led his team on Day 1, finishing in fifth place overall in a field of 112 individual competitors, which was four strokes out of the lead shooting five over par for his first 18 holes. Scoby had the same score in the second day of the tournament and tied for seventh place, shooting 10 over par for his 36 holes.

Junior Cullen Wikle was in a seven-way tie for sixth place after the first day of play, just three strokes behind Scoby’s team lead, and was eight over par for the first 18. Wikle shaved six strokes off of his previous day’s performance, which was two over par and just three strokes away from the tournament champion when he scored 73 in his second round. Wikle tied Scoby’s total score and both finished in seventh place overall.

Junior Dalton Rokey finished the tournament in a tie for 31st place, with fellow junior teammate Cole Grimes completing the tournament in a tie for 37th place. Junior Tyler Menold recovered from some early struggles on the course in day one and shaved 13 strokes off of his first round score to finish in a tie for 40th place. Sophomore Caleb Renyer had a better score on Day 1 than in his final round, but played well to finish in 41st place.

These young athletes will probably be seen on the course around the area this summer and have an incredible amount of potential for making another run for State a year from now. So fans might consider saying “Fore!” to opponents, when it comes to seeing these young men making some noise around the league and potentially the State tournament next year.