Highland High School girls, boys golf teams off to strong starts this fall

In just their second home match of the season, the Highland Lady Bulldogs golf team once again turned in a strong performance.

On Monday, Aug. 29, the Lady Bulldogs stroked their way past Breese Central and Civic Memorial for a tri-match victory at Highland Country Club. HHS won the match with a team score of 174, followed by Breese Central (214) in second place and Civic Memorial (228) in third place.

The Lady Bulldogs outing was a pleasing sight to first-year coach Jordan Keeven as HHS improved its overall stroke total by nearly 10 from their first home match victory over Triad on Aug. 15.

“I’m very happy with their performance tonight,” Keeven said. “The varsity team improved their score by nine strokes from the (Triad) match we had just two weeks ago, so they are making quite a bit of improvement there and I’m very proud of that.”

Senior Maci Miles led the scoring for the Lady Bulldogs — shooting a 41 — and was the match medalist, followed by sophomore Sidney Coziar with a 42. Junior Brooke Hunsche rounded out the top scorers, firing a 45. Miles’ 41 was a career-best score for her.

Keeven was especially pleased with the Lady Bulldogs’ showing given the always challenging course conditions at Highland Country Club.

“It’s tough and it’s always tough for especially visitors to come in and play with the hills and the way that the greens are laid out. It’s a tough place for even our girls, but they practice on it all the time,” Keeven said.

Other contributors for the Lady Bulldogs early this fall include sophomore Kalei Gould, senior Lauren Janini, and senior Camryn Burns, who round out the team’s lineup. Janini shot a career-best score Monday, Aug. 29, with a 46.

HHS has also fared well early in some tournaments thanks to winning the Madison County Tournament small-school championship on Aug. 16 with a first-place score of 371 and then finishing a solid sixth place in the Belleville West Invitational on Aug. 19.

Keeven believes the club is off to a good start and improving steadily with each match.

“They are really learning and really gathering how much skill and potential that they have,” Keeven said. “We haven’t placed as well (recently in tournaments) as Madison County, but we keep beating our scores and we keep learning new things. And I think they’re starting to realize how great of a team they are.”

HHS boys golfers fare well in Waterloo

Monday, Aug. 29, was also a very good day for the Highland boys golf team as they traveled to Waterloo and faced Mascoutah and host Waterloo at Acorns Golf Links.

The Bulldogs tied for first place with Mascoutah with each club shooting a course-low 159 while Mascoutah shot 160 to finish second overall.

“It was actually a really good match. Everybody was within a shot (of each other),” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said.

Senior Mason Imig led HHS with a score of 38 while fellow senior Dominick Emig shot a 39, and junior Easton Belford shot a 40 to lead the Bulldogs’ effort.

Additional contributions, solid early start

Hamilton liked the close grouping of his players’ scores and noted every player on this year’s club is capable of being the top scorer.

“One through five or six anybody can kind of shoot anything (score-wise) any given day, so it’s kind of hard to put a one through five which is a good thing because you just never know who’s gonna come out and play well,” Hamilton said. “The kids are getting pushed by each other which is nice, so, hopefully, that kind of continues as we keep going here.”

Seniors Logan Powers and Gabe Korte, along with sophomores Braden Schropf, Alex Reinarman and Blake Reinarman, round out the Bulldogs lineup and gives them depth and competition for the top six spots.

“We’re all right there with each other and it just kind of depends on what day a kid’s gonna be one or two shots better, so it’s nice having that depth and we’re still pretty young, too,” Hamilton said.

Solid start to season

Hamilton said he feels the team has started strong this fall. Highland placed third in the Madison County Tournament large school division with a 323 score Aug. 18 and has fared well in regular match play.

“The first tournament of the year at Spencer T. (Olin) we kind of struggled as a team and then we played at Belk Park two days later and we ended up getting third in the big school division. So the kids got their feet wet that match and kind of settled in a little bit,” Hamilton said. “We’ve won our last three either two-person match or three-person match we’ve played, so they’re really settling in (well).”

This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 6:24 PM.