Manhattan High Golf kicked off their season with a fourth-place finish at Lawrence Free State on March 30.
Additionally, Senior Cooper Graham placed 10th individually, scoring 79 strokes. Senior Will Carpenter placed 17th, adding 83 strokes to MHS’ total. Sophomore Graham Braxmeyer placed 19th, also scoring 83 strokes. Sophomore Jake Snowden landed in 25th with 86 strokes and sophomore Cameron Siebert placed 58th, finishing with 91 strokes. Lastly, senior Cade Cochran ended in 63rd, adding 92 strokes to the Indians’ total of 331.
For this tournament, they had to fight through adverse conditions and feel that they can reach even higher if things are smoother.
“We’ve had some unforeseen circumstances,” head coach Brad Ficke said. “We have a player who’s injured, but we had a really good team that day. It was extremely windy, so those two factors caused that to be a little bit of a tougher meet.”
Graham has burst onto the scene this season and looks to be a key player for the Indians.
“I think Cooper Graham has progressed,” Ficke said. “He’s a senior this year, and he has put in the work, and it’s shown up. He has been doing very well in qualifying, within practices, and then obviously the 10th place finish at Lawrence Free State. So I’d say he’d be our guy who is performing best right now.”
One element that Manhattan is focusing on this season is course knowledge.
“Golf is unlike most sports, because every tennis court is the same,” Ficke said. “Every basketball court’s the same, right? The crowd may be different, but golf, the course changes every time, and some of those courses are harder than other courses. Wamego is a tough course, but because we’re only 15 miles away, a lot of the guys have been able to play it. We can do practice rounds there. We played it in the past, and so the more familiar you are with the course, the better off you’re going to be.”
Looking forward, MHS will head to Washburn rural on April 9 and will host a home tournament on April 13.
“Golf season is a short season, so lots of tournaments are coming up,” Ficke said. “We have one Thursday [April 9.], and then the Monday [April 13.] right after that, and then we have a little bit of a gap. They all come in in a surge.”
