Area roundup: St. Bede, Hall golfers advance to sectionals

St. Bede senior Jake Delaney has been focusing on his iron play recently.

It paid off Wednesday.

Delaney shot a 76 to finish runner-up at the Class 1A Riverdale Regional at Byron Hills Golf Course in Port Byron.

Delaney’s performance earned him a trip to the Byron Sectional on Monday along with teammate Brandon Pillion (85), Hall cousins Landen Plym (77) and Grant Plym (85) and the Amboy co-op’s Hayden Wittenauer (82) and Wes Wilson (84).

“I was striking the ball pretty good,” Delaney said. “Recently, irons haven’t been my biggest strength, but I’ve been working on it and it was a lot better today. I was launching it a lot higher and holding greens. I got the pace of the greens pretty well, had good speed and just feel real fortunate to pull out a good round in such a big tournament.”

Landen Plym finished third.

“I’m happy with it,” Plym said. “I’m glad I advanced. It’s kind of sad the team didn’t advance, but I’m glad I did.

“I drove it well, my irons were good, but my putting wasn’t good. Basically, everything was working except the short game.”

Plym said “it was cool, for sure,” to advance to then sectional along with his cousin, Grant Plym.

“I figured out my driver, so that was nice,” Grant Plym said. “I had a really good front nine with a 38, my lowest nine of the season. I kind of choked on the back nine, but it ended up fine.”

Hall coach Mason Kimberley said it was bitter sweet day having two individual qualifiers, but falling three strokes shy of qualifying as a team.

Pillion said “basically everything” was going well for him.

“My woods, driver, irons were all working. I was just struggling with the speed of the greens today. But it was definitely my best day for ball-striking.,” he said. “Knowing that I didn’t play my best round and was still able to get in and advance, it definitely puts a lot of confidence back into my brain. I think Jake and I should be able to play well at sectional.”

Pillion and Grant Plym tied Morrison’s Mason Dykstra for the final qualifying spot.

Putnam County’s Chris Uzella carded an 86 to finish one stroke shy of qualifying for the sectional.

Landen Birdsley led Bureau Valley with an 87 with Seth Spratt adding an 88.

Riverdale’s James Moorhusen cruised to the individual title with a 69, leading the Rams to the team title with a 310.

Newman (332) and Fulton (342) finished second and third to also earn team sectional berths, while Hall (346) placed fourth, St. Bede (347) was fifth, the Amboy co-op (348) was sixth, Bureau Valley (362) was ninth, Putnam County (378) was 11th and Earlville (431) was 12th.

CROSS COUNTRY

At Amboy: Ohio senior Brock Loftus saved Senior Night to run a personal record 15:53 for the Amboy co-op Wednesday to win a four-team meet by 1:23 at Shady Oaks Country Club.

Teammate Ian Eller placed second in 17:16 as the Clippers won with 18 points followed by Polo (56) and Eastland (63).

Gage Szymovicz placed 19th in 22:44 to lead Hall, which did not have enough runners for a team score.

In the girls race, which did not have team scores, Amboy’s Lauren Althaus won in 21:09. Hall’s Yovanna Reyes was 12th in 32:02.