BELLVILLE — It may have been Lexington’s season-opener, but the Minutemen looked to be in mid-season form.
Led by medalist Kaleb Smith’s 4-over 76, Lex cruised to the team title at the Colt Classic at Deer Ridge Golf Club on Thursday.
The Minutemen had a team total of 312, a whopping 19 strokes better than runner-up Wooster (331). Host Clear Fork (341) was third while Ontario (357) was fourth.
Madison (362, sixth), Shelby (390, seventh), Galion (414, eighth) and St. Peter’s (470, 10th) also teed it up Thursday, the second day of the high school season.
Junior Achievement: Lexington’s six-man varsity roster features just one senior (Charles Mikelait) and one sophomore (Remington Dreibelbis). The other four spots belong to juniors Smith, Spencer Stierhoff, Joey Zahn and Tommy Barkett.
“We have four juniors and all of them are experienced players,” veteran Lex coach Ryan Zahn said. “They have all played since they were freshmen and our one senior has been playing since he was a freshman.”
Lexington’s experience showed Thursday. The Minutemen stayed out of trouble for much of the day, much to Zahn’s delight.
“What I like is that we avoided big numbers for the most part,” he said. “When we got into trouble, we made bogeys instead of doubles or triples.”
Stierhoff carded a 5-over 77 to finish runner-up to Smith on Deer Ridge’s challenging 6,661-yard layout. Mikelait, who won the recently-completed Richland County Junior Tournament, fired a 78 while Zahn carded an 81.
“We had three scores in the 70s and that is pretty solid on a challenging golf course,” Zahn said. “There is a lot of slope to the greens and the approach shots are difficult because there are not a lot of places where you can hit and hold the greens.
“There is a lot of trouble out there.”
Strong Start: Clear Fork’s third-place finish came on the heels of Wednesday’s victory at the season-opening Galion Invitational. The Colts got matching 84s from Devon Shortridge and Dakotah McClain and an 85 from Nick Schoonyan. Luke Watson shot an 88.
“It has been a good start to the season, especially when you consider how condensed everything is,” Clear Fork coach Jeff Gottfried said. “Practice started (Aug. 1), so we had tryouts on the first, fourth and fifth and our first tournament was on the sixth. That doesn’t give you a lot of time.
“It was nice to get a win Wednesday. Galion Country Club is a tough course.”
There is still plenty of room for improvement, Gottfried said.
“I can tell our guys have been riding around on golf carts all summer,” he said. “They were tired toward the end of the round and it showed. They wanted to take it easy (today) but I told them they need to get out and walk at least nine holes so they can finish rounds strong.”
Growing Pains: Madison lost its top two golfers from last season to graduation. Coach Eric Wellman is looking for some of his younger players to fill the void.
“We need some other kids to step up,” Wellman said. “We’ve got a couple of kids who play quite a bit in the summer, but we need to get everyone playing. When you look at Lexington and Clear Fork, those kids are playing golf all summer long.
“We opened the season at Celina on Wednesday and finished fourth, but we still haven’t put four scores together.”
Austin Hallabrin led the Rads with an 88. Hunter Claxton shot an 89, followed by Jacob Seamans (90) and Kyle Matern (95).
Measuring Stick: For Shelby and coach Tim Swigart, Thursday’s Colt Classic was an opportunity to face the best Richland County has to offer on a golf course most of his kids had never seen.
“We only have one senior and the rest are young guys,” Swigart said. “Four of our six guys had never played Deer Ridge before. When they got into trouble, they didn’t know how to get out.
“There’s not doubt in my mind that Lexington is the best team in the county. This is a great learning experience for my kids.”
Brock Kehres topped the Whippets with an 88. Ben Murray had a 96, while Kane Wagner had a 100 and Davey Hipp shot a 106.
Best of the Rest: Ontario was led by Tyler Weber’s 86. Dom Castelvetre had an 87, while Marc Wilkins shot a 90 and Andrew McGee had a 94.
Evan Huggins led Galion with a 93. Other scorers for the Tigers were Brevin Owens (106), Bryce Lybarger (107) and Mitchell Dyer (108).
Brady Rice led St. Peter’s with a 104. David Courts shot a 109, followed by Keaton Sanjur (127) and Nick Bishop (130).
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
