Edwardsville’s Brian Cooper tees off during the Class 3A Collinsville Regional on Sept. 30, 2026, at Arlington Greens Golf Course in Granite City.
Matt Kamp/The Intelligencer
Edwardsville’s Bennett Briggs tees off during the Class 3A Collinsville Regional on Sept. 30, 2026, at Arlington Greens Golf Course in Granite City.
Matt Kamp/The Intelligencer
A tough finish to the second round of the Class 3A state tournament left the Edwardsville boys golf team with a bittersweet taste.
The Tigers, who were in second place after the first round, finished in sixth place with a 604 on Oct. 10 at The Den at Fox Creek Golf Club in Bloomington.
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Evanston won with 581, while Hersey was second with 591 and New Trier was third with 592.
“Today was disappointing, but it’s interesting — finishing sixth at state and having it feel like a disappointing day shows you the quality and talent of this team,” Edwardsville coach Adam Tyler said.
Edwardsville followed up its first round of 293 with a 311 in the second round. Evanston led after the first round with a 287.
EHS was trying to win a state trophy with a top-three finish for the fourth time in program history and first time since taking third in 2008. The team has also finished second twice in 1985 and 1988.
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The sixth-place finish is the best by the Tigers since they also took sixth in 2016. Their score of 604 was the team’s second lowest at the two-round state tournament in program history. The 2008 team, which finished third, shot 599.
Edwardsville was within single digits of the lead before making the turn in the second round. On the back nine, EHS shot 15-over and fell out of title contention. The Tigers were 8-over on the front nine.
In the first round, Michael Shaw, Bennett Briggs and Henry Willenborg each shot 1-over 73 to lead the Tigers. They also counted a 2-over 74 from Luke Maxim.
Edwardsville’s second-round scoring came from Brian Cooper’s 3-under 69, Briggs’ 7-over 79, Drew Capron’s 9-over 81 and Willenborg’s 10-over 82.
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Cooper’s 3-under performance was tied for third in the second round among the 96 golfers in the field. Moline’s Isaac Rumler and Hersey’s Julian Bugara each shot 4-under.
Cooper and Briggs each finished with two-round scores of 152 to finish tied for 30th overall, while Willenborg was 44th with 155 and Shaw was 51st with 156. Maxim took 59th with a 157 and Capron took 82nd with a 164.
Hinsdale Central’s Michael Jorski won the tournament with an 8-under 136. Evanston’s Lester Low was second with a 7-under 137.
Edwardsville will return all six golfers next season from the state tournament, but Tyler said that doesn’t guarantee a return trip to Bloomington.
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“You always want to take advantage of the opportunity while you’re here because you never know what may happen,” Tyler said. “A lot can happen over the course of a year, so you want to take advantage while you’re here.”
It will be a hungry Edwardsville group next season after the finish didn’t go its way this year.
“The boys played great, and I think that shows where this team is: everybody was a little disappointed with the way they played, but now we’re starting to spend the next few weeks doing a decent job of enjoying what we accomplished over there,” Tyler said.
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It was a season that Tyler said was a possibility long before the state tournament appearance.
“At the beginning of the season, one of the first things I said was that I thought we had the potential to surprise some people,” Tyler said. “If you’d told me then that we’d win the regional, conference and sectional, and finish sixth at state, I probably would have signed on the dotted line.”