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Boys

Chisago Lakes had three of the top four individual finishers in the Boys Mississippi 8 Conference golf meet at Monticello Country Club on Monday, April 22, but that still wasn’t enough to win the meet outright.

The host Monticello Magic had all four golfers score under 80 and the two teams had to settle for a tie at 310-310. North Branch finished in third in the meet with a score of 324.

CL’s Andrew Swanson was the meet medalist, shooting a superb one-over 73 at the tough course to clear the field by three strokes. The senior opened his season with a 36 on the front nine and finished the course with a 37 on the back.

Junior Brett Hanson tied for second in the meet by shooting a 76, which was equaled by Monticello’s Brady McGriff. Hanson had a meet-best 35 on the front nine, shooting one under par, but a 41 on the back allowed some of those behind him to catch up.

Max Koch was right there with the leaders as well. The CL sophomore shot a 38-39 for a total round of 77, which left him in a tie for fourth place with Quinten Haas of Monticello.

Where the difference in team score came into play was that last, fourth spot. Monticello’s Carter Lemke shot a 78, and their fourth score was Tommy Disch’s 79. Chisago Lakes’ fourth golfer was Joe Froberg. The junior shot an 84 for the Wildcats which was enough to secure the tie, but not enough to grab the win. Freshman Henry Phelps had a strong round as well for Chisago Lakes, scoring an 85 in his varsity debut.

For North Branch, Both Nick Melvin and Tyler Minke struggled a bit on the front nine. Minke carded a 43 and Melvin a 42. But they both tied for the second best score of the day on the back nine with matching 38s. Melvin’s 80 put the eighth grader in 11th place and Minke’s 81 put him in 14th place.

But, the real revelation for the Vikings was freshman Carter Magnison. He scored a 39-39 to lead the team with a 78. As an eighth grader last year, he played very well at times, but if he can consistently shoot in the 70s and Minke and Melvin get down to their typical 70s score, that young trio could be scary this season and in the future.

In fact North Branch’s whole lineup is impressive in their youth and talent. Minke is the elder statesman in 11th grade, and then there are four freshmen and an eighth grader, and they still finished third. Drake Dimich and Ian Smith each shot 85s for NB.

Girls

The Mississippi 8 Conference may be a one team race this year as Becker won the first meet of the year by over 50 strokes at Pebble Creek Golf Course on Monday, April 22.

Although that is the Bulldogs’ home course, it’s hard to believe a team will make up that amount of strokes this season, as Becker shot a 359. On the bright side, North Branch finished in second place with 410 points and should be near that spot for the duration of the year.

Ashley Bistodeau led the Vikings with a 48-41-89. That was good enough to put her in third place in the meet behind Becker’s Layla Mathews (81) and Alexa Voller (87).

Jenna Minke, who is pulling double duty this spring playing golf and track and field, had a splendid opening nine holes, carding a 40, which put her in second place at the turn. But, she found a lot of trouble on the back nine and stumbled to a 58, giving her a 98, still good enough for eight place.

Other North Branch golfers who contributed to the score were Annabelle Lattimore’s 111 and Gabby Derosier’s 112. Lauren Thiel was right there with them, shooting a 113.

For Chisago Lakes, junior Kali Hanson had a nice opening round of the year, shooting a 93 after going 47 on the front and 46 on the back. 

Fellow junior Joee Westland shot a 103 for the ‘Cats, breaking 50 on the front with a 49, but then shooting a 54 on the back.

Other ‘Cats that contributed to Chisago Lakes’ seventh place finish with 457 points were Audra Behnke and Neve Colucci.

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