Hawks golfers remove the monkey with solid win over Garaway
By Dave Mast
August 23, 2011
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It finally happened. The large ape has vacated the premises.
After four years of having perennial Inter-Valley Conference powerhouse Garaway send them back home with an L tagged to their record, the Hiland Hawks golf team finally said enough.
While Garaways Ryan Troyer may have won the battle on Tuesday, August 23 at Willandale Golf Course, it was the Hawks consistency which won the war, with Hiland checking out with a 164-168 victory, which wiped away all of those bad memories for the teams four seniors.
We were pretty excited, admitted one-man Caleb Schlabach, who led the way for Hiland with a solid 39. We tried not to put too much pressure on ourselves and just go out and play our game, and help each other win as a team. This is the first time in our four seniors careers that we have beaten Garaway. Theyre a great team, and it feels good to get that accomplished.
The balanced Hiland attack included solid play from all four seniors. In addition to Schlabachs three-over par, B.J. Miller carded a 40, Neil Gingerich fired a 41 and Justin Yoder rounded out the scoring with a 44, tying sophomore Tyler Grate. For Garaway, Jon Mason shot a 43, and Cody Mast, Giles Immel, Adam Andreas and Dane Paleic all recorded 44s, in addition to Troyers excellent one-over par score.
With the solid score, Schlabach said that the team firmly believes that they can continue to produce on a similar level all season. He said the goal is to continue to get better, and to lower that score as they go along.
I think we can be there consistently all season, said Schlabach. Its a solid score, but we still feel like we are not where we can be. Were solid and deep, and every match, it seems like we are getting better and we continue to look to improve. Right now, we are just enjoying this win.
The Hiland golf team is ready to step up to the next level and put together some scores that inch down below the 160 mark. The talent is there, and based on the early results of Hiland wins over Orrville and Loudonville at The Pines near Orrville three days earlier, they are putting themselves in position to do so.
B.J. Miller paced the Hawks with a 40, teammates Caleb Schlabach, Tyler Grate and Drew Kline all added 43s and the Hawks nipped the Riders on their home course by one stroke, while Loudonville carded a 182.
I saw a lot of really good things out there today, said Wayne Troyer, assistant coach who was manning the helm in place of head coach Austin Kaufman who was absent. We did a lot of things that we can build on.
One of those things was last years golf MVP B.J. Miller, whom Troyer said was starting to round into shape after taking much of the summer off to play baseball. Miller carded a 40 to pace the Hawks to 169.
The even bigger surprise to date has been Tyler Grate, who has turned in some credible scores early on this season, including a 43 at The Pines.
Whatever he has worked on over the summer has really paid off for him, said Troyer. He is hitting the ball so much better this season.
Another revelation at The Pines was the play of sophomore Drew Kline. In his very first varsity action ever, Kline stepped up and fired a 43, a remarkable feat considering that it was his first attempt at the big level.
Kline earned the right to play the six man, and came through big. Troyer noted, I was like, Where did that come from, but Drew has the ability. He hits the ball well, but we didnt necessarily expect him to step up that quickly.
Troyer said that with a solid core back and the improvement of sophomores Grate and Kline, the Hawks have the makings of a very good team this season. Team depth is what he said will help the Hawks get to where they want to be come tournament time later this fall.
Were capable of putting six guys out there who can shoot 80, and if we can do that, we could do something good this season, said Troyer. I was extremely pleased with our effort tonight. That is the kind of consistency we want top to bottom.
