Golf secures best finish of season in St. Joseph

After back-to-back weekends of consistent improvement for Northwest golf — grabbing third place in the Holiday Inn Classic March 27-28 at the St. Joseph Country Club — the Bearcats prepare for a two-week long break until their next competition at the Virginia Laas Invitational April 10-11 in Joplin, Missouri.

Coach Andy Peterson said the mindset is plain and simple with a two-week long break coming up for the Bearcats — continue to get better.

“Find a couple of areas in each one of our games where we can shave some strokes off,” Peterson said. “Obviously, we did that pretty well this week, but that’s something we’ve gotta continue to build on. Just finding ways as individuals to shave one, two or three strokes off your score.”

The Bearcats have consistently moved up the leaderboards the last three meets, finishing 11th and sixth in the last two contests, and collecting third place in the competition March 27-28.

Northwest took third place with a score of 626, shooting 307 in the first round and ending the meet with a score of 319 in the second. The score of 307 in the first round March 27 in St. Joseph, marked the second-best round in program history.

“Overall, a really good week on a tough course that traditionally we have not played well at, so I am very proud of the girls and their effort the last couple days,” Peterson said after the meet.

Sophomore Paige Hoffman led the way for the ’Cats for the second consecutive week, finishing tied for fourth individually out of 50 golfers at the Holiday Inn Classic. Hoffman had a score of 152, shooting a 75 in the first round and a 77 in the second.

Sophomore Kylie Carey tied for ninth with a score of 154, scoring a 74 in the first round and an 80 in the second to finish it out. With a score of 157, junior Elly Speece claimed 12thplace, shooting a 76 in the first round and an 81 in the second.

After Northwest finished the competition with three golfers inside the top-12 at the St. Joseph Country Club, Carey said it is all about staying crisp and sharp heading into this two-week long break before its next contest.

“For me and the rest of the teammates, putting together strong wedge play, working on short game, that is really where you cut the strokes,” Carey said. “This is time to clean up our mistakes and head into the next tournament with a strong mindset.”

Junior Taylor Sedivec swung with consistency in the two rounds in St. Joseph. She shot 82 in the first round and 83 in the second en route to a 24th-place finish.

Senior Lauren Wood and freshman Kayla Moline each finished the meet tied for 27th. They both improved, as they scored 85 in the first round and 81 in the second for a total of 166 points.

Northwest was tied for first out of the nine teams in birdies (16) in the two days at the Holiday Inn Classic. Hoffman led the way with five birdies, four ’Cats finished with three — Speece, Sedivec, Carey and Moline — Wood finished with two and freshman Lauren Kohl ended with one.

“Getting birdies is really just a case of getting it on the green and in the spot where you can make a putt,” Carey said. “Off the tee box, you need to just put yourself in a position where you have a good angle at the green.”

With Northwest’s break from competition until the Virgina Laas Invitational April 10-11 in Joplin, Missouri, Peterson said it is about gaining some momentum and confi- dence heading into this short break.

“As it continues to warm up and we get more comfortable with practice, and taking our swings, taking our hacks and competing, we can just take some of this momentum forward as we get to conference championship play,” Peterson said.

“We brought a mix of (junior varsity) and varsity with us,” Bade said. “We wanted to give more opportunities to our JV kids and new kids before we get too far into the season. We spread the events out so we are not overworking certain athletes.” relay teams won their events March 28.

Leading the way for Maryville on the girls’ side was junior Ella Schulte. She placed third in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17 seconds and 95 milliseconds, and her finish of 53.32 helped her claim fifth in the girls 300-meter hurdles.

The girls team also won the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:53.48 and claimed first in the 4x800 relay, after finishing with a mark of 11:33.18.

On the boys side, freshman Sadler Viau led the Spoofhounds with two second-place finishes in the boys 100-meter hurdles and the boys 300-meter hurdles. He finished with a time of 17.36 in the 100-meter hurdles and with a time of 45.38 in the 300.

Sophomore Titus McKim also finished with two top-10 finishes. He won the discus throw event with a mark of 36 meters and 13 millimeters. His leap of one meter and 60 millimeters in the high jump propelled him to ninth place in the event.

With a time of 46.20 in the 4x100 relay, the boys team also won the event at Lathrop.

Overall, the girls claimed third place at the meet, and the boys earned fifth in the invitational.

With the early season success, Maryville has already secured three combined top-ten finishes overall between boys and girls after the Bearcat Indoor March 18, the Maryville Time Trial March 22 and the Lathrop Invitational.

For the fourth-year coach, it’s just part of preparation for the postseason

“How we sculpt our season and practices is with the month of May in mind,” Bade said. “The Lathrop meet is great to be competitive, but, about six weeks from now, nobody is going to be thinking about what happened at the Lathrop meet. We focus on getting ready and refreshed for May, and every meet leading up to that is a learning experience for everybody on this team.”

Before the Lathrop meet, Maryville hosted its time trial, where it gave the coaches an opportunity to observe their team after the first meet and formulate their roster to who has the better edge in certain events.

Bade said every opportunity the athletes have to compete is a way to improve, and the time trials were a way to experiment with athletes in different events.

“They are good opportunities for the kids to try new things,” Bade said. “We try to get athletes into different events so that we can utilize them in a multitude of ways.”

Top: Sophomore infielder Cole Silbowski attempts to tag out Washburn center fielder Trevor McCollum at second base during the Northwest baseball’s 4-2 loss against the Ichabods March 29. Slibowski scored one run during the bottom of the fifth inning against the Ichabods.

Left: Northwest baseball senior pitcher Max Spitzmiller lifts his leg before striding to pitch in the 4-2 loss against Washburn March 29. Spitzmiller had a season high of 11 strikeouts against Northeastern March 24.

Bottom: Senior outfielder Ryan Koski loads up in the batter’s box before getting walked during the third inning in the 4-2 loss against Washburn. Northwest baseball lost to the Ichabods 9-8 during their last meeting March 14.