W-MU boys? golf team prepares for state golf weekend

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? The Winfield-Mt. Union boys? golf team is one day away from the start of their state tournament experience in Marshalltown. The Wolves will leave for the tournament today and play on Friday and Saturday for a shot at the 1A title.

The Wolves advanced to the state meet with a 343 in their second-place state qualifying performance on Friday.

The Wolves are led by a couple of golfers who consistently find themselves at the top of the leaderboard. Sophomore Kaleb Hagge is the defending state champion in Class 1A, and senior Kolt Rossiter is no stranger to the state tournament either.

?(Hagge) is just a great, humble kid on your team,? says head coach Mitch Wachs. ?It?s nice to have that heavy hitter at the top that you know you?re going to get 70s out of. Kolt has been to the state tournament three years as a golfer and that?s gonna bring a lot of experience early in the season. That?s what has really propelled us to have those two seniors.?

Hagge says it?s been a little different this year after his performance at state in 2015, but says at the end of the day, it?s just the same game.

?It?s just the game of golf,? says Hagge. ?It?s always been the same and always will be. I just try to do my hardest and go out and play my own game, and just have fun.?

Hagge, who shot a 77 in the qualifying tournament, will be at a slight advantage having played at Marshalltown last season. The Class 1A tournament will take place at the same site this season.

?Knowing what the holes do and where to put the ball on the green and where to hit it off the tee should help us a lot,? he says. ?I can relay that to my teammates.?

Rossiter shot an 80 in the qualifying tournament and said he was pretty confident the team could make it when he made it to the clubhouse.

?I knew if we all just played our own game and if we shot good, we could move on.? Rossiter said. ?(Individually) I wanted to stay in the 70s for sure, but I was four over going into the last four holes and then I went four over on the last four holes.?

Rossiter says he?d like to do well individually but that his main hope is that the team can finish towards the top.

?I want to get top three,? said Rossiter. ?That?s what I want to do for our team, and then shoot good to finish high individually too.?

The qualifying meet was a little shaky at first for the Wolves, as Darren Hunter was shooting 28 after his first four holes, but the senior, who just started playing golf for the school this year, was able to pull it together and help the team clinch their state berth.

?I started out pretty rough on my first four holes,? Hunter said. ?Moving on to the back nine, I shot a 44, so I was pretty pumped bout that. I knew if I could just keep it mid to high 90s, that Kaleb and those guys would pick me up.?

Hunter, who finished at 96, says the layout of the course in Oskaloosa helped him clear his head before his back nine, where he improved his score by eight strokes.

?It?s a long walk from hole nine to hole 10,? said Hunter, ?so I just re-gathered my thoughts on the walk over there. I knew I had to keep grinding.?

The Wolves will need four low scores to compete with the stacked 1A field. Each of the six golfers shot below 110 in Oskaloosa, with sophomore Kash Rossiter finishing at 90, and the duo of sophomore Dalton Spencer and freshman Graham Hagge finishing at 108 apiece.

The Class 1A state tournament will tee off on Friday, May 27, at 10:30 a.m. The players will be re-grouped on Saturday, May 28, and tee off at 8 a.m.