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The Otter Boys Golf team competed in the 2nd day of the CLC championship on Tuesday at the difficult Legacy Golf Course in Brainerd. After shooting a 329 the day before, the Otters found themselves in 5th place out of 9 teams 5 strokes behind St. Cloud Tech and just one shot ahead of Rocori. "The boys were determined to get into the 4th spot but also hold off some teams like Rocori and Bemidji who were right on our heels. And boy did they shine on Tuesday," said Head Coach Matt McGovern.
Tuesday brought a new set of challenges with the Legacy course being difficult with penalty areas all over the course along with a freshening wind that wasn't around on Monday. Playing with Rocori and Tech, the Otters brought their game and fired a 330 to finish in solo 4th, 7 shots ahead of Tech and 12 shots ahead of Rocori. "Fourth was our goal and I'm so proud of these kids for stepping up and competing. We saw some real growth over the last 2 days and other schools in the conference took note," added McGovern.
Alexandria claimed the CLC title with a two-day total of 609 (302-307), good for a 14 shot victory over runner-up Brainerd. Sartell finished in third place, followed by Fergus Fall, St. Cloud Tech, Rocori, Bemidji, Willmar and Sauk Rapids-Rice. All six Alexandria golfers finished in the top 20 individually, capped off by a second place finish by sophomore Braeden Sladek (73-74-147) and a fourth place finish from freshman Bennett Olsen (77-74-151). Logan Hamak of Sartell-St. Stephen was medalist with a 144 (71-73).
Leading the way for the Otters with a brilliant round of 78 was Ryan Nelson (freshman). This was the first score in the 70's in tournament play for the Otters other than in their home invite. Riley McGovern (freshman) added a solid 82 while Gavin Goepferd (freshman) fired an 83. Charlie Fuder (sophomore) rounded out the top 4 scores with an 87. Also competing for Fergus Falls was Chance Fazio (senior) with an 89 and eighth grader, Adam Kennedy, with a 96.
The Otters competed against 56 total golfers and 9 teams in the CLC meet. "What I think is so neat is that we are by far the smallest school in the CLC when it comes to enrollment. Rocori is the only other school that doesn't have at least 2x the enrollment that Fergus has and is also the only other AA team in the conference. We have the youngest team and we are the smallest school and we finished 4th out of 9. I couldn't be more proud of these boys," added McGovern.
The Otters will compete in the Willmar invite on Friday and then enjoy a week off to prepare for subsections and sections.