Roth brings home SEC title

FAIRFIELD — In just his second year in high school golf, Washington’s Roman Roth is a Southeast Conference champion.

Roth stood tall in a tough SEC field on Wednesday, winning the conference championship by three strokes. He shot an anemically low 71, shooting 36 on his front nine and 35 on the back.

“It was really cool,” Roth said. “It was one of my goals coming into the season and I really played like I wanted to.”

Roth beat out second-place Rascon Tomas of Burlington, who finished the day at 74. Roth led the Demons to a third-place finish.

“Last year I struggled a little bit,” Roth said. “This year I’ve really been working on my game. I was hitting the ball straighter today, which helped.”

Luke Beenblossom shot 87 for the second Demon score. Isaac Vetter shot an 88. Teague Mayer shot an 89. John Prochaska finished at 93, and Grant Sobaski shot 94.

Washington’s final stroke total was 335. That was nine behind Fairfield’s second-place mark of 326.

Sam Weaton was the top Trojan on the day, and the only Fairfield golfer to make the All-Tournament team. He shot a 40 on the front and a 37 on the back to wind up in fourth place with a 77.

“I was hoping I could do this on my home course,” Weaton said. “I play here every day, so it was nice to see that score up on the board.”

As a team, the Trojans beat all normal spring golf SEC foes. Burlington, which made the state tournament in fall golf, won the team title in what was their only spring meet of the year.

“Burlington is a great 4A team,” Weaton said. “They ended up making state this year, which was very impressive. Coming out and just losing to them, but beating everybody in 3A is really nice.”

Max Weaton shot 81 for the Trojans’ second-best score. Evan Haines and Dev Eisner shot 84 apiece. Nate Smithburg finished at 91, and Nile Christensen shot 96.

Mt. Pleasant was co-led by Nick Matheney and Reece Coffman, who each shot an 88. Nate Dismang put up a 97. Izaac Zihlman ended at 110. Grant Willham scored 118, and Ben Meador finished at 128.

The Panthers were without regular season conference champion Reece Kempker, who had to miss the meet for a wedding.

All three area big schools will be in Fort Madison on Wednesday, May 11, for the boys’ sectional tournament.

TEAM RESULTS

1. Burlington 307

2. Fairfield 226

3. Washington 335

4. Keokuk 379

5. Mt. Pleasant 383

6. Fort Madison 387

Meet Medalists

1. Roman Roth (Washington) 71

2. Tomas Rascon (Burlington) 74

3. Nate Spear (Burlington) 75

4. Sam Weaton (Fairfield) 77

5. Tyce Bertlshofer (Burlington) 78

6. Mateo Rascon (Burlington) 80