Quentyn Carpenter and Trojans repeat at Marshall County tourney

May 2, 2011

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CULVER — Even with repeat Marshall County Golf Tournament titles and a veteran roster with everyone back from last year’s state finals-qualifying squad, Triton wasn’t taking any chances.
The Trojans got in a practice round at Mystic Hills Friday, then went on to defend their Marshall County title at the Culver course Saturday, easily beating second-place John Glenn by 30 strokes with a tourney-record-setting 304 in spite of gusty winds and a saturated course.
Culver Community placed third, meanwhile, with a 339 just five strokes back from Glenn, while Culver Military’s JV squad turned in a 365 for fourth place, Bremen finished fifth with a 366, and LaVille placed sixth with a 370 team score.
“We don’t take it for granted. We come in knowing that on any day, like any sport we could have off days,” said Triton head golf coach Jack Carpenter. “Another team can have a good day and that’s all it takes, and we’re going to do everything we can to be as prepared as possible, and if that means taking a practice round, then we take it.”
Triton was led at the meet by Quentyn Carpenter’s tourney low 2-over-par 73 in the less than ideal conditions. It was the sophomore’s second individual Marshall County title in two tries.
“I just love Mystic Hills.“ said Quentyn Carpenter. “I just love the course and I think that kind of turns into how well I play here sometimes.
“It’s tough (playing in the wind). Some holes you have to adjust for it. Some holes you play for it to do something and it doesn’t do it, and some holes it does. I hit the ball pretty far, so distance wasn’t really a factor for me. I was still hitting short irons into greens, but I had trouble with the putting because you’re hitting into the wind on some putts and then the wind stops and it’s just hard to get a feel for things.”
“Quentyn works very hard so I’m glad to see it,” said Jack Carpenter. “He’s kind of struggled at the beginning of the year. Today he played very well with the conditions. I’m sure he’ll tell you that he should have been par or better, but he’ll be happy with what he did, and it’s a real good jump-start for him.”
The Trojans’ top four team scores represented the top four overall scores at Mystic Saturday. Taran Kennedy, Chandler Slone and Griffyn Carpenter carded respective scores of 76, 77 and 78 at the meet, as the team came within a single stroke of breaking their school record for an 18-hole outing, set at last year’s state finals in Franklin.
“We return everybody from last year, and we shot 309 here last year… and our goal today was to beat 309,” said Jack Carpenter. “Our goal also was to have all five guys break 80; well, one guy shoots 80 and he bogeyed his last four holes so we should’ve accomplished that goal. I guess it gives us something to shoot for the next time around, but today’s play was much better than we’ve been doing up to this point in the season.”
The Falcons were led by dual 79s from Connor Berkebile and Tyler Prentkowski at Mystic, and Michael Schmeltz carded an 86, but Glenn golfers were unable to break 90 at the four and five spots.
“As a team we were just focusing on trying to keep the ball in play, number one, and not out in the heather and out in the junk,” said Glenn head coach Randy Schmeltz. “We knew there were going to be some bad shots during the day. Don’t let one bad shot kill your hole or kill your round, just keep plugging away.”
“We knew Triton has a great team,” he added. “We thought maybe if a few of their guys hiccuped and we had our best round of the year we might get close to them. I’m still proud of our guys for getting second place. Culver played great today. They’ve got some young kids playing, and they were right on our heels.”
Luke Dunfee turned in a 78 for Culver, good enough for fourth overall on the leaderboard tied with Bremen’s Taylor Fanning, while CMA’s JV was led by Bailey Roubos’ 87.
“I thought they did very well given the conditions,” said CMA JV coach Karen Rudd. “It was incredibly windy, and we had two guys out who hadn’t played yet this year, so I was happy with their scores.”
Fanning’s 78 fell short of the senior’s own expectations, while the rest of the team struggled with mental errors at the meet and only Fanning’s and Jordan Sinclair’s scores broke 90 as Sinclair turned in an 85.
“I expected to do a lot better as a team,” said first-year Bremen head coach Andrew Mishler. “We’re just not mentally prepared right now. Our game’s a lot better than what we’re showing. We’ve got a lot of things we need to work on, but our mental game is where we’re really struggling right now.”

• MARSHALL COUNTY MEET
At Mystic Hills (par 71)
TEAM SCORES: TRITON 304, GLENN 334, CULVER 339, CULVER MILITARY 365, BREMEN 366, LAVILLE 370
TRITON (304): Quentyn Carpenter 73, Taran Kennedy 76, Ryan Rapp 80, Chandler Slone 77, Griffyn Carpenter 78.
GLENN (334): Connor Berkebile 79, Tyler Prentkowski 79, Adam Anspaugh 90, Michael Schmeltz 86, Austen Hayes 98.
CULVER (339): Zach Duplay 85, Trent Elliott 83, Luke Dunfee 78, Joe Krsek 93, Cody Peterson 113.
CULVER MILITARY (365): Bailey Roubos 86, Ben Sharff 96, Zach Allyn 96, Tim Thompson 87, Carl Ardissono 106.
BREMEN (366): Taylor Fanning 78, Jordan Sinclair 85, Thomas Manges 105, Kevin Woodyard 112, J.J. Shaffer 98.
LAVILLE (370): Zach Gurtner 83, Cam Gurtner 92, Zach Hostetler 99, Dominic Lewinski 96, ZachYoung 102