After outright dominating the competition for much of the 2025 season, Humboldt freshman Connor Newman finally found a rival in Iola High’s Brennen Coffield.
Coffield, a junior, bested Newman by four strokes to take first place at the Wellsville Invitational title Monday. Coffield carded a 74 on the par 71 course.
Iola High School junior Brennen Coffield follows through on a shot while taking first at the Wellsville Invitational in Osawatomie Monday.
Coffield shaved seven strokes off his third-place performance at last week’s Pittsburg Invitational.
In Wellsville, he opened the front nine with a 39, then improved to a 34 on the back nine to card a 73.
“He’s been battling some control issues with his driver putting him in some tough positions,” Iola coach Jeremy Sellman said. “This being our third tournament of the year, he’s where he needs to be. He’s only going to improve. He had a good finish in Pittsburg, where he got third and he was fifth at our first tournament in Independence. It was a really good match between him and Connor.”
Wellsville took the team title with four consecutive competitors following Coffield and Newman.
Iola finished second as a team at 375 strokes, which was 41 strokes behind the Eagles.
After a tough go in Pittsburg, junior Baron Folk improved by 17 strokes and barely missed the top 10 after finishing the day carding a 95. Folk was just one stroke off his opening round pace on the back nine after shooting 47 and 48 respectively for 11th place.
“That was a big jump for Baron,” Sellman said. “I was really proud of him. I was working with him the past couple of weeks on his swing, and he’s finally starting to improve his control. He’s just a kid who plugs along and does not get too worked up.”
Just five strokes behind Folk was freshman Isaiah Grisler, who finished tied for 14th. Grisler shot under 100 for the first time this season after shaving 18 strokes from his total in Pittsburg. He opened the day with a 51 on the front nine and shaved a few strokes off his round on the back.
“This was really his first real dose of golf,” Sellman said. “We took him to Pittsburg, which is not the most forgiving place for your first time playing high school golf, but he and [Ean De La Torre] showed me some things in practice, so I figured let’s see what I can get from them.”
De La Torre finished a few strokes behind 19th-place senior Ethan Harris for 23rd, rounding up the pack of Iola varsity golfers. Sellman said Harris also continues to improve and anticipates Harris will be a sub-100 golfer by the end of the season.
“We’re going to get [Harris] down to that mid-80s number, and that’s really going to help us at regionals,” Sellman said. “It’s the same thing with Isaiah. There are a few things we’re going to work on in the next couple of weeks to get their numbers down.”
FOR HUMBOLDT, the Cubs finished fourth overall with 429 strokes. Newman was Humboldt’s top competitor after shooting a 77 with 37 on the front nine and 40 on the back, good for 6 over par.
“The wind was playing havoc with some shots, but I was still pleased with how they performed,” Humboldt coach Bret Hauser said. “Connor played better on the front nine than on the back. He wasn’t able to get any birdie putts to fall, going two over on the front and four over on the back.”
Though Newman was Humboldt’s only top 25 finisher, the Cubs benefited from solid performances from Layne Ellison, who took 26th place with a 113, senior Curt Shannon with a 118 for 35th place and sophomore Thatcher Mueller’s 120 for 36th.
