HHS ends regular season a perfect 21-0 in dual matches

The Highland High School boys golf team put the finishing touches on a perfect regular season after winning two head-to-head matches in as many days to finish an undefeated 21-0.

First on Tuesday, Sept. 26, Highland traveled to the par-36 Greenville Country Club and shot an impressive team score 158 to beat host Greenville (199) by 41 strokes and Pana (206) by 48 shots.

Then on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the par-36 Highland Country Club, the Bulldogs played the role of guests as they carded an even more impressive team total of 156 to whip up on Mississippi Valley Conference rivals Waterloo (172) and Triad (183).

The two match wins reaffirmed that Highland is one of the best teams in Southern Illinois after putting the finishing touches on a regular season that resulted in the MVC championship followed by a perfect 21-0 head-to-head.

“It was great to finish out the season at home with the boys playing well,” Highland coach Brent James said. “I hope this is a confidence boost going into the regional. Their head-to-head record was 21-0. We got about midway through the season and realized a perfect record was possible. The boys made it their goal and something positive to focus on as we came down the stretch. I don’t know if has happened before in school history but it is really exciting for us.”

Next up for the Bulldogs is the postseason and it begins Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the IHSA Class 2A Roxana Regional to be held at Belk Park Golf Course, which is where the boys captured the MVC championship on Thursday, Sept. 21.

In the triangular match at Highland Country Club, all four of Highland’s scorers recorded the lowest scores of the mach after shooting a 40 or better.

Senior lefty Connor Pinsker garnered match medalist honors with a sizzling round of 1-over-par 37.

Fellow senior Brandon Munie finished just two shots behind with a 3-over-par 39.

Senior Ben Brauns and freshman Evan Sutton rounded out the team score after matching one another with rounds of 40.

Waterloo received scores from Tommy Carr (42), Tre Wahlig (42), Zane Miller (44), and Kole Kaltenbronn (44).

Triad’s scoring came from Cam Lambert (44), Matt Weis (44), Ryan Larson (47) and Tyler Flescher (48).

In the triangular match at Greenville Country Club the day before,

Pinsker and junior Dylan Bargetzi shared match medalist honors after carding identical rounds of 2-over-par 38.

The Bulldogs also received a 40 from Munie and a 42 from Sutton.

“The greens are always a challenge when we go play GCC and the boys navigated them pretty well,” James said. “The boys that scored for us did a nice job keeping the ball in the fairway of the tree-lined course and hitting a lot of greens.”

Greenville’s low scorer was Sam Knebel with a 44 while Pana received a 44 from Noah Huchinson.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 12:15 AM with the headline "HHS ends regular season a perfect 21-0 in dual matches."