Two Jays shoot in the 80s

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Jamestown High School's Brandon Stahlhut shot a round of 82, a season-best, at the Mandan Invite.

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The recent rain and wind gave way on Monday, setting up nice spring-like conditions for the Blue Jay boys’ golf team during the Mandan Invite held at Prairie West Golf Course.

The Jays carded a team score of 347 in their third meet of the season, placing eighth out of the nine teams competing.

Bismarck Century took top team honors carding a 302, which was 11 strokes better than second-place finisher Bismarck St. Mary’s (313). Century’s Troy Ressler and Jake DeForest paced the field as their pair of 73s tied for medalist honors at the 6,372-yard Prairie West.

Jamestown sophomore Brandon Stahlhut and junior Brandon Hart paced the Blue Jays once again. Both turned in their best scores of the season so far, with Stahlhut carding an 82 and Hart carding an 83.

Stahlhut finished tied for 18th overall, while Hart came in tied at 20th.

“The two Brandons continue to play well. Stahlhut bookended some bad holes, starting double-double and finishing bogey-double-par,” JHS golf coach Dean Kraft said. “(Stahlhut) is capable of shooting some low scores. His touch around the green is getting so much better. He didn’t score well with the putter today, so when he puts it all together we can expect some good things.

“Hart is playing really steady. He’s not long but he hits it down the middle and finds a good rhythm,” Kraft added. “He struggled in his range session before his round so he did a great job putting things together.”

Jamestown’s Jakobi Lux finished with the third best Blue Jay score tied at 37th with a 90. Austin Rene, Ty Spitzer and Brady Hoggarth each carded a 92 for the Jays.

“Brady Hoggarth (a sophomore) gave us a good first varsity round,” Kraft said. “It was good to see him break into the lineup and post a decent score.”

The Blue Jays will now compete in the Turtle Mountain Invite at Rolla Country Club on Friday, before heading to Links of North Dakota in Williston on Saturday.

“The team has been working really hard in practice. They can’t seem to get enough golf, so the enthusiasm is certainly there,” Kraft said. “We have a big weekend coming on a couple of challenging courses.

“We cut the gap between us and fifth and sixth by about 10 (strokes) today, so relative to the field and relative to where we were last year it was an encouraging day.”

Team results

1. Century 302. 2. St. Mary’s 313. 3. Bismarck 319. 4. Williston 329. 5. Minot 336. 6. Mandan 337. 7. Dickinson 339. 8. Jamestown 347. 9. Turtle Mountain 356.

Individual Results

Top 10

1. Jake DeForest, SM, 73 (won on second playoff hole). 2. Troy Ressler, Cen, 73. 3. (tie) Jacob Dehne, Cen, and B.J. Mahar, Wil, 75. 5. Tanner Halter, Dic, 76. 6. (tie) Drew Lingle, Cen; Sean Ternes, Cen; Tyler Miller, Cen; and Paul Suess, Wil, 77. 10. Nick Nustad, Bis, 78.

By team

Century (302): Troy Ressler 73, Jacob Dehne 75, Drew Lingle 77, Sean Ternes 77, Tyler Miller 77, Noah Larson 85.

St. Mary’s (313): Jake DeForest 73, Jordan Smith 79, Thomas Gilchrist 80, Josh McCormick 81, Grant Dvorak 83, Joe Kassian 91.

Bismarck (319): Nick Nustad 78, Derek Weninger 79, Trenton Schwehr 79, Sam Wangler 83, Casey Vetter 84, Nick Stavn 91.

Williston (329): B.J. Mahar 75, Paul Suess 77, Keaton Leininger 83, Taylor Wagner 94, Jacob Kvernum 96, Tyler Goodman 102.

Minot (336): Taran Albright 80, Braxton Heupel 82, Jersey Kelly 87, Cody Reynolds 87, Tyler Kast 90, Ty Jones 91.

Mandan (337): Taylor Trenda 81, Zach Vollan 85, Tucker Bruington 85, Colton Murphy 86, Jackson Wenstrom 92, Zach Bruner 93.

Dickinson (339): Tanner Halter 76, Luke Hanel 87, Shay Ridl 87, Carter Donnan 89, Austin Fournier 93, Alex Turcotte 104.

Jamestown (347): Brandon Stahlhut 82, Brandon Hart 83, Jakobi Lux 90, Ty Spitzer 92, Austin Rene 92, Brady Hoggarth 92.

Turtle Mountain (356): Jackson Davis 85, Trey Zaste 87, Tristin Keplin 92, Chris Lafountain 92, Seth Gillis 96, Seth Azure 105.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, golf