A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Sam Baker eyes up his putting line on the fourth during a varsity meet in Cloquet.
The Lumberjacks boys golf team dominated play at their home meet last week, with the team coming in 34 points ahead of the next-closest team and Sam Baker winning the individual play.
The Cloquet-Esko boys actually won two meets this past week: the Lake Superior Conference meet May 8 in Cloquet and the Northern Invite at Giants Ridge Friday and Saturday, May 10-11.
In the two-day Northern Invite event, the Lumberjacks posted a team score of 630 — 29 shots ahead of Woodbury, who finished in second place. Superior and Duluth East tied for third with scores of 663 in the 21-team tournament.
“Sam is an outstanding young golfer who works hard every day to improve,” said boys head coach Jonathan Horbacz. “The whole team has been playing well and we just need to continue to lower our team scores.”
Baker continued his outstanding play at Giants Ridge; he was the medalist in the Northern Invite after shooting rounds of 71 on Friday and 74 Saturday for a two-day total of 145. The sophomore’s 145 was five shots better than that of runner-up Braden Thomas of Duluth East, who posted a 150. Brady Rapf of Pine River was third with a score of 152.
Senior Keegan Poppenberg finished fourth in the Northern Invite with scores of 79 and 75 for a total of 154. Anthony Mckay finished with a 164 for the ‘Jacks, while Trevor Steinart carded a 169.
“Keegan has also been playing some great golf this spring, finishing fourth at the Northern Invite and playing well in the first LSC meet,” Horbacz said.
Steinart tied Baker in the first round of the home meet last week as both sophomores shot 36 in the first nine at the Cloquet Country Club. Baker shot a 35 in the second nine to take first and an event total of 28 points for the Lumberjacks. Poppenberg was third overall in the first LSC meet, while Steinart finished fourth.
Cloquet-Esko won the LSC meet with a team total of 301. Duluth Denfeld was second with a 335, and Duluth Marshall was third with a 339.
The team is looking at a busy time over the upcoming week, weather permitting. Besides the Lake Superior Conference meet this week in Superior, the Lumberjacks will be competing in Bemidji, Park Rapids, Virginia, and Duluth before returning home for the Cloquet Invitational May 22.
“We have our second conference meet this week in Superior so we are hoping to play as well as we did here in Cloquet,” Horbacz said “We have sectionals in two weeks and we need to continue on the course we have been on this season.”
