Iola High’s Shane Walden and Kaden Macha have racked up plenty of medals in their two-plus years on the links.
That they were alone on the leader board during Monday’s Buck Quincy Invitational was no surprise.
Each came in with an 18-hole score of 77 in brutal conditions, courtesy of a west-southwest wind that occasionally topped 40 mph.
Walden, who is just rounding into form following offseason surgery on both shoulders, earned the first-place medal thanks to the scorecard tiebreaker over his IHS classmate.
Walden’s back nine score of 36 allowed him to make up a two-stroke deficit over Macha to earn the tie.
“I thought the guys acquitted themselves very well out there, especially considering the wind,” Iola golf coach Doug Kerr said.
In taking second, Macha — defending Class 4A state champion — lost via scorecard tiebreaker for the second straight competition, even though he has yet to see a fellow competitor record a lower score in five tournaments this season.
Also of note: The Mustangs’ team score of 327 was 45 strokes better than Anderson County’s 382, giving the Mustangs a commanding 85-shot lead in the Pioneer League race.
For the first time, Pioneer League schools are using cumulative scores from three tournaments — one last Wednesday at Osawatomie, Monday’s and the final one at Anderson County May 13 — to determine the league champion.
“We’re in very good shape in that regard,” Kerr said.
Also for the first time, the Buck Quincy — named after the retired Iola Middle School instructor and current USD 257 Board of Education member — was played on both local courses, Cedarbrook and the Allen County Country Club.
Iola was among the schools that started their day at Cedarbrook, generally considered the more difficult of the two courses.
“But to be honest, the wind had more of an effect at the Country Club, where you’re playing at the top of a hill,” Kerr said.
As could be expected, Iola’s golfers dealt with the conditions better than most everybody else.
The Mustangs’ Weston HInes carded an 85, giving Iola three of the top four individual scores of the day. Anderson County’s Spencer Walter took third with a score of 80.
Others for Iola were Drake Dieker, sixth at 88, Adam Peterson, ninth at 90, and Matt Jacobs, 16th at 97.
Humboldt’s Robbie Sellman, another state qualifier in Class 3A, took home eighth with an 89. His score was tied with Matt Percy of Central Heights, whose father, Mark, coaches Iola’s baseball team. Percy earned seventh via scorecard tiebreaker.
Humboldt’s Conner Roseberry finished 26th with a 116, Colton Riebel was 31st with a 142, and Logan Wood and Ryan Huse tied for 33rd with a 151.
Humboldt finished eighth as a team with a 498, one stroke behind Prairie View’s 497.
Mustangs roll to Buck Quincy win
