The Manhattan’s Boys Golf team ended the season with a Regional tournament win at their home course, the Manhattan Country Club, before taking sixth place at the State tournament.

“We have a good, hard-working group of kids this year who all seem motivated and invested and that makes it easy to coach,” Varsity coach Brad Ficke said.

The first five tournaments of the year proved that the golf team was a force to be reckoned with, going third at Wamego, first at the Manhattan Country Club where they beat Washburn Rural by one point, first once again at Smoky Hills, third at Village Greens and third at Firekeeper golf course in Mayetta.

“We as a team are just really strong,” sophomore Tate Reid said. “We all push each other to our best and what we can be, which is a really good thing. If one of us doesn’t do well, then someone else will, and we will pick each other up. 

The Hutchinson invitational was a little rough for the team, placing ninth overall with most of the team shooting in the 80s, but at the League tournament also at Firekeeper, the team finished second, shooting mostly in their 70s. After League, they competed at Rolling Meadows golf course in Junction City placing 1st, and Emporia placing third. 

Heading into Regionals, the team was on a high after their great performance at Junction City and Emporia, as well as knowing that the Regional tournament was at the Manhattan Country Club. The team walked out of Regionals with a strong first place finish and a spot in the state tournament. 

At the State tournament, the Indians put up a strong showing with a 6th place finish and every varsity golfer making it to the second day. The team placed in the following order: Freshman Jackson Powers golfed even par at this tournament, Reid finished day 1 with a 70 and day 2 with 78, junior Miles Braxmeyer golfed a 79 and 76, senior Kaiden Siebert shot a 76 and an 81, freshman Cade Cochran hit an 82 day 1 and 77 day 2, and junior Gage Hull hit 83 and 86. 

“We need to work on consistency and how we compare to other schools,” Reid said. “We have all the elements we need but it is how we put them together that matters.”

The team will say goodbye to one senior this year, Siebert. 

“We had a lot of first place finishes, which was fun,” Siebert said. “My favorite thing was making day 2 of State as a team. It was a fun year.”