Celina Invitational medalist Tyce McClain from Delphos St. John’s.
Justin Dierkes | The Lima News
CELINA — Delphos St John’s took home the first-place trophy for a second consecutive year at Friday’s Celina Invitational boys high school golf tournament held at the par 72 Celina Lynx Golf Club.
The Blue Jays shot a 328 with help from medalist sophomore Tyce McClain. His score of 39 on the front nine and 34 on the back nine gave him a score of 73.
McClain won the medalist honors last year at the Tee Off Classic in Delphos, and grabbed second-team all-state honors.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” McClain said about earning medalist honors again. “I came into the day with a goal score of like 75, 76, trying to be under that. That’s my goal throughout the whole year. I don’t want to put any high expectations on myself that I can’t achieve.”
Going into Celina, it was all about staying focused.
“Starting the day, you could just feel the heat kicking in … and all those nerves plus the heat, it’s just a big battle that you have to fight mentally.” Bringing that mentality to the course helped his team to victory. “Today, I was really happy with my game. I started off the day a little rough with some bogies, but I came back on the backside and started knocking in some putts. I birdied nine … and on the backside, I just knew I had to keep my rhythm and knocked in a few birdie putts and an eagle on 13. I was really happy about it, it was great.”
Winning this invitational is just the start for the Blue Jays according to McClain. “We have a team goal, we are trying to make it to state again … and we want to win our conference … so that would be really great and if we keep playing well, we should have a really great chance to win it.”
McClain’s teammate senior Collin Feathers posted a 78. Coming in third, fourth, fifth for the Blue Jays were sophomore Parker Will, senior Jackson Kill, and senior Ashton Milligan who 80, 97, and 104 respectively.
Blue Jays coach Aaron Dubow is proud of the hard work his guys put in to get this win two years in a row.
“These guys put a lot of time in this year during the summertime … it’s a great way to start off the year.”
“We made it to state last year, we were first in the MAC (Midwest Athletic Conference),” Dubow said, … so we have a lot of high expectations for this year … our four and five guys we need to work on a little bit, so there’s a lot more room to improve, but the top three guys did what they were supposed to do today so we are looking forward to the year.”
Coming in second place for the second day in row were the Bath Wildcats, finishing three strokes back. All five Wildcat golfers shot in the 80s with the top performer being senior Braden Binkley, who shot an 80. In third place were the Liberty Benton Eagles, one stroke behind Bath. The fourth-place finishers were the Ottoville Big Green with a 336 total and led by sophomore Evan Altenburger, who finished with a 79. Rounding out the top five was Marion Local, finishing with a 341 led by senior Marcus Rethman, who finished with a 77 .
Sixth place went to Shawnee with a 347. Seventh place went to Van Wert Cougars with a 350. The St. Marys and Ottawa-Glandorf Titans tied for eighth place at 352. Rounding out the top 10 were the Wapakoneta Redskins at 354, with the top performer being senior Zac Niekamp, who was third individually with a 76.
Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451
