Swinging into a new season, the Manhattan High Varsity boys golf team took home a first-place win at home on Monday. This year, the MHS boys golf team has six seniors, including Jonathan Wefald, Trey Sauder, Grant Snowden, Kyler Hahn, Derek He and Alex Boyle also representing Manhattan High.

“It’s a good and a bad thing that you have upperclassmen who are missing opportunities to play because I won’t let seniors play [Junior Varsity] meets,” head coach Brad Ficke said. “You can’t ride the bench in golf. There’s no bench to sit on and so if you don’t make the meet qualification, you don’t go. So that’s what makes it tough.”

On Monday, 62 golfers competed at the Manhattan Country Club. Six MHS boys placed in the top 20, with Wefald and sophomore Owen Kandt tying for second place with 73s. Not far behind, sophomore Miles Braxmeyer placed 11th with a 78, Snowden took 17th with an 80 and junior Kaiden Siebert and freshman Tate Reid tied for 18th with 81s.

“We had the home course advantage,” Wefald said. “[Placing second] really gave me a lot of confidence in my game and also in my team after seeing their scores. But I’m really excited for … our future tournaments.”

Before their home meet, the boys competed in the Great Plains Classic tournament hosted by Washburn Rural on Thursday, where they battled unfavorable weather conditions, which affected their scores.

“I think the wind was more significant than the cold because the wind brought the cold,” Ficke said. “It was a northwest wind and gusted I think over 40 miles an hour at some points and it was just relentless. So I would best describe that day as unrelenting and brutal.”

A total of 98 golfers and 16 schools participated in the GPC tournament. Wefald led the team in 20th with an 81, just seven strokes from first place. The rest of the team came in the following order: Sauder in 35th with an 86, Reid in 45th with an 88, Snowden in 55th with a 90 and Kandt in 61st with a 92.

“I think the classic mistake in golf is, especially with high school guys, is always thinking they’re better than they are, which then puts a lot of pressure on them,” Ficke said. “If we could all score an 80, that’d be a really good team score … so I think just playing within ourselves and limiting mistakes overall [will help].”

The team will next play at the Shawnee Mission Northwest tournament on Monday.