Lakers Season Ends at Region Championship
The Iowa Lakes men's golf team ended their 2020-21 campaign over the weekend at the Region XI Championship at Blue Top Ridge Golf Club in Riverside, IA. The Lakers ended up placing 7th in the regional tournament out of nine teams with a three-day total of 1000. Day one of the event was a thirty-six hole, two round day in 30mph winders, and the Lakers stumbled out of the blocks and posted a 341 in the morning round and a 338 in the afternoon and sat in 8th. On Sunday the Lakers were able to post the 5th best round of the day and moved up one spot to finish in 7th with a 321. Kirkwood Community College would win their sixth straight region title with a three-day total of 901, two strokes ahead of Iowa Central Community College with a 903. Des Moines Area Community College would take the last national qualifier spot with a thrid place finish at a score of 954.
"We have a young group and we just did not start out with much confidence and could not get anything going to post a respectable score day one." said Iowa Lakes golf coach Jarvis Weber. "Granted, the wind was crazy, but everybody has to play in it. Hopeully the guys will look back on this and learn from it and grow to be ready for next season."
Leading the way for the Lakers with a pair of t-17th finishes were freshman Ben Tibken and Jake Hemann with a three day total of 246, five shots out of the last individual national qualifying spot. Kirkwood sophomore James Morgan would win his second regional title with a two over par 218. Other scores for the Lakers were Sam Miller with a 258 (84-89-85), Blake Johnson with a 261 (93-88-80), and Dawson Weber with a 267 (82-93-92).
"Jake and Ben had a rough first round posting scores of 88 and 87, but fought back and showed a lot of grit and hard work with two solid rounds to end the tournament. They will look back at what could have been, but that is the game. They'll learn from it and be hungry for next season." added coach Weber. "It wasn't the weekend that our sole sophomore (Dawson) wanted, but he was a big piece of this teams culture and providing guidance for this group of freshman. That type of character is invaluable for a program and we will see that trickle down effect when these freshman become leaders next year. Fortunately, he's my brother so he won't be too far away and he'll be around from time to time. Either way, I wish him nothing but the best, it was fun getting to watch him grow up over the last couple of years."
The Lakers finished the season ranked as the #22 team (according to GolfStat) and will look forward to the off-season to improve and combine with a strong recruiting class coming in.
"We have some good recruits signed and ready to come in for the fall. Jake, Ben, Blake, and Sam will all be back next season and have a full season's worth of experience to lead this group next year. With a good off-season and some fresh, good talent coming in, we'll be ready for the 21-22 campaign. We have a lot of work to do to catch some strong programs, but it still takes one step at a time and a strong foundation in order to build up towards our goals and this freshman group will help provide that. We'll get there, just going to take some time."
Photo ID: Jake Hemann