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BOYS GOLF

Chisago Lakes and North Branch duked it out with Becker for the second through fourth spots in the Mississippi 8 Conference meet at The Ponds Golf Course in St. Francis on Wednesday, April 24.

Monticello ran away with the top spot by scoring 309. The Wildcats claimed second with a score of 319 and North Branch tied with Becker for third place with a 324 score.

Andrew Swanson was CL’s top finisher, putting up a 78 to put him in a tie for fourth place. Ninth grader Henry Phelps was one stroke behind, scoring a 79 after a great back nine 38 put him in contention for a top five spot.

Max Koch, Joe Alexander and Brett Hanson finished all neck-and-neck. Koch and Alexander each shot an 81 and Hanson shot an 82.

For North Branch, eighth grader Nick Melvin took the top team spot, tying with Swanson at 78 to put him in fourth place. The Vikings then had a trio of golfers – Tyler Minke, Carter Magnison and Ian Smith, all tied for 14th place by carding matching 82s. 

Drake Dimich carded an 83 to be right there with them.

GIRLS GOLF

Back-to-back meets for the girls golf teams caused a boost in the scores for both North Branch and Chisago Lakes.

The first round of the week was a Wednesday, April 24 conference tilt at The Refuge Golf Course in St. Francis. The tough, marshy course played difficult for the day, but North Branch’s Ashley Bistodeau finished in fifth place overall with a score of 96. She was backed up by Jenna Minke’s 103, Annabelle Lattimore’s 112 and Gabby Derosier’s 122 for a team score of 433, which was good enough for third place. 

Becker won the meet with 358 strokes and Big Lake came in second with 424.

Chisago Lakes came in seventh in the meet as the girls couldn’t find a score under 100. Junior Kali Hanson was the top performer, hitting 100 on the dot. Joee Westland scored a 108 and then Alivia Claeson and Audra Behnke carded matching 132s to round out CL’s team score of 472.

The girls were back out on the course at the Elk River Golf Club on Thursday, April 25, and Bistodeau snatched the meet’s top individual spot with a magnificent 84. She scored a 43 on the front, which was tied for the lowest score in, and then she held on to her lead with the second best score on the back, a 41. That helped off a hard-charging Layla Mathews of Becker, who scored a 39 on the back after a 47 on the front. She was second with an 86.

Minke tied for third with a 92 after putting up a wonderful 44 on the front, and North Branch’s third place team finish was buoyed by Lattimore, and Lauren Thiel, scoring a 128.

For the ‘Cats, their scores got better on the second of a back-to-back as well. Hanson tied Bistodeau for the top score on the front nine with a 43. Her back nine 49 wasn’t what she hoped, but it was enough to give her a third place tie with Minke and Becker’s Alexa Voller.

Westland scored a 110, Neve Colucci a 120 and Behnke finished up the varsity line with a 124.

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