Golfers fail to make nationals
By Tony Nelson
The Apache golf team was unable to advance to nationals when they missed a first place finish in the Region IV Tournament by four strokes.
In the Oct. 9 and 10 tourney at Roscoe, the Apaches shot 625 and finished second behind Rock Valley with a 621.
"We had a three stroke lead after the first day, but we were unable to hold it the second day," said Coach Jim Moskalewicz.
Erik Main had a 154, Brett Carlson a 155, Brian Stamberger a 158 and Casey Hamel and Pat Becker each shot a 160. None of the players were able to move on, but Erik Main was selected to the All Region Team.
In their first season of play, the Apaches finished third in the conference rankings and in the upper half of most of the tournaments they played in.
"For our first year we competed very well," Moskalewicz said. "We didn’t win anything, but we always played better than average. We played against Division II junior college teams all year long and we played well against them."
Four Apaches were chosen to play in the Skyway Challenge at Harper on Oct. 6, but it was rained out. The Skyway pits the top twelve players in the conference against each other.
A weakness of the team was its putting. "We were getting great green shots, but we just couldn’t put the putts down when we were on," the coach said.
Moskalewicz said he wants to strengthen the putting for next season. And he thinks next season looks good.
"We have a strong returning class as the top five players will all be back," he said, and then he added, "I am still working on recruiting another player who can shoot under 80.
"We can only get better."
10/29/98 the Apache