The Ripon High School Tiger golf team placed fourth out of eight schools Tuesday at the South Central Conference meet at Bullseye Golf Club in Wisconsin Rapids.
Sam Rhoden putts the ball within inches of the hole during a meet earlier this season at The Golf Courses of Lawsonia. He led the Tigers Tuesday at the South Central Conference meet with a 17-over-par 72, which was good for 13th place.
Jonathan Bailey photo
Ripon carded a team score of 365 in the 18-hole conference meet, which counted for double the points of the eight mini-meets held throughout the season.
Wisconsin Dells edged Berlin 341-343 to win the meet title, while Mauston finished third with a 354. The remainder of the field included Nekoosa (368), Wautoma/Wild Rose (371), Westfield (392) and Adams-Friendship (400).
“Obviously, we were a little disappointed with the final conference match,” Ripon head coach Paul Wiegel said. “We would have liked to have been a little more in line with the scores that we had typically posted throughout the season, although Sam [Rhoden[ had a good round to help out the team.”
Rhoden, a sophomore, led the Tigers by finishing 13th with a 17-over-par 89. Fellow sophomore Max Reabe was one stroke back with a 90 to tie for 14th place, while sophomore Henry Pier shot a 91 to tie for 16th. Sophomore Blake Bradley rounded out Ripon’s varsity scorers with a 95 to tie for 23rd place.
Junior Ian Arnetveit also competed on varsity for the Tigers and finished 29th with a 98.
By virtue of winning the conference meet, Wisconsin Dells leapfrogged Ripon for second place in the overall standings as the Chiefs edged the Tigers 64-59.5. Berlin, which was the class of the conference for the majority of the year, won the conference championship with 75 points. Mauston was fourth with 53 points and was followed by Wautoma (39), Westfield (29.5), Nekoosa (25.5) and Adams-Friendship (14.5).
“Right from the beginning we were always chasing Berlin,” Wiegel said. “We knew they would be tough to get out ahead of, and everybody was just chasing them throughout the season.”
Pier earned second-team all-conference honors after shooting a 295 across his five-best mini-meets and the conference meet, tying for eighth overall. Reabe narrowly missed conference honors after finishing one stroke behind the 10th-place golfer with a 299. Arnetveit and Rhoden tied for 17th with 309s, 11 strokes behind 10th place.
“Henry made second-team all-conference, so hopefully that is something that he and the rest of the sophomores can build on for next season,” Wiegel said. “Max missed out on [the] second team by one position, and with Ian coming back as a senior we should have a solid group ready to go next year.”
Ripon now shifts its focus to the Division 2 4A WIAA Division 2 4A Winnebago Lutheran Academy Regional on Wednesday, May 27 at Whispering Springs Golf Course.
The Tigers will compete against Berlin, Columbus/Fall River, Laconia, Mayville, North Fond du Lac, Omro, Waupun, Wautoma/Wild Rose and Winnebago Lutheran Academy.
The top-four teams, along with the top-four individuals not on a qualifying team, will advance to the Kettle Moraine Lutheran Sectional on Tuesday, June 2 at Washington County Golf Course.
“We’ve talked about how a shift to focusing on the regional meet is definitely a priority now,” Wiegel said. “There should be some competition for us there, too. Berlin is in our regional and likely to finish at the top, so we just have to beat out three other teams to move on to sectionals.
“Some of the guys looked at the other team averages and we know that we are essentially right on the bubble, but it is golf, and anything can happen on any given day. If we have a good day, we’ll be fine.”
The regional meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., while sectional play is slated for an 8 a.m. start.