The chilly and wet week gave the Hastings golfers some extra challenges to overcome. The boys traveled to Dacotah Ridge for the Lakeville South Invite and the Girls played a round of 18 at the Mid-Conference Tournament that ended up being used for their scheduled meet against North St. Paul.
BOYS
The boys finished 12th out of 16 teams at the Lakeville South Invite. As a team, they scored 660, which put them plus 45 for the course. Edina won the tournament with a score of 587, 73 strokes ahead of the Raiders.
Junior Luke Kendall led Hastings with a 79, junior Jon Harris shot 81, senior Jack Sieben shot 83, senior Matt Schwieger shot 84, and freshman David Bauer and Will Rieder both shot 85 in round one. The round two scores were Kendall 80, Harris and Bauer 84, Rieder 85, Schwieger 90, and Sieben 95. For the team score, the top 4 golfers are used, Hastings scored 327 in round one and 333 in round two.
GIRLS
The ladies had a much shorter trip to Oakdale where they participated in the Mid-Conference Tournament at Oak Marsh. This tournament took place on May 1 which was a very windy and somewhat chilly day, and the course was extremely wet with a lot of standing water. The coaches also knew that May 2 was supposed to be a rainout, so they opted to use scores from the front nine as the scores for the dual meet scheduled for the next day.
For the tournament, Hill-Murray earned first place with a team score of 332. Hastings finished fifth of seven schools with a 392. Individual scores were junior Claire Stoffel 94, freshman Harmon Brown 97, senior Gabi McDowell 100, junior Madison Haines 101, senior Brooke Jelley 108, and senior Emily Thuet 110.
For the dual meet against North St. Paul, the decision was made to use the front nine of the tournament scores because they knew they would not get the meet in when scheduled. Stoffel led that with a 43, then McDowell and Haines with a 46. Brown shot 49, Jelley 52 and Thuet 58. They took the top four which gave Hastings the 184 to 224 win over North St. Paul.
We had a chance to speak to new Raiders Head Coach Josh Colvin and ask him a few questions.
How did the course conditions with the strong winds and wet, soggy grass affect the Raiders?
“We have a couple of girls that really struggle when the ground is wet just because of the nature of their swing. We have talked a lot about playing ‘Old Man Golf’, you know, how can we play bogey golf and put ourselves in a position where instead of blowing up and taking an eight or nine on a hole, how can we just get that down to a bogey or double and then you're right in contention,” he explained. “This course is long; this course is wet. But as of right now, you know when you and I are talking, we are about halfway through and we are sitting here right at fourth or fifth place, which is where I'd hoped we would be at this point in the season.”
Right as that answer finished up, a big gust of wind hit us so the question had to be asked of, how is he coaching the girls to deal with the wind? Is he suggesting they go for the lower ball trajectory or what is he teaching?
Colvin laughed as he answered, “Boy, I wish we're at the point that we can tweak swings that much. The reality is we're at the point a lot of times… here's a great one from yesterday. I had a girl who sent me a message via band about what to do on hole eight at Hidden Greens. My advice was, just take the club that you trust the most. So, we're not really about do we have the skill to put it up and, you know, let the wind carry it or are we going to knock it down and run it through? We're more ‘what club do you trust to get you as far out or as close to the pin as you get?’”
What has been going well this season for the team?
“The best thing as always is just working with the kids,” he said. “We have a lot of experienced girls, three seniors, that are returners, a couple of juniors that have put in a lot of time and then a whole lot of youth and it's just a really great time to come out to the course. Every single day they are getting better. We have gone from girls shooting in the 60s to yesterday, we had three scores in the 40s. And so dramatic improvement, and their attitudes are great when they're having a rough round, they can laugh it off and then still stay positive for the next shot.”
As a side note, thank you to the team at Oak Marsh for helping us with a cart to chase the girls around the course for pictures and to catch up to Coach Colvin.
The girls have the Metro East 9-Hole Wednesday at 1:50 p.m. at Oak Glen Golf Course then May 10 the Irish Invitational at 10 a.m. at Emerald Greens. The boys take a trip to Bunker Hills to face Farmington on May 9 at 9:10 a.m. then May 14 is the Metro East Conference Tournament at River Oaks Municipal Golf Course starting at noon. Both teams will then have the MSHSL Section 3AAA tournament on May 30th at Loggers Trail Golf Course starting at 9:00 a.m.