Saint Joseph, Penn and Marian finish third through fifth at Uebele Invitational

John Fineran

LAPORTE — With state powers Valparaiso and Chesterton galloping away from the 23-team field at Friday’s 88th Uebele Invitational, Northern Indiana Conference powers South Bend Saint Joseph, Penn and Mishawaka Marian were left jockeying for position coming down the home stretch to next Saturday’s conference tournament at Pretty Lake in Plymouth.

The Huskies, Kingsmen and Knights, who are 1-1 in their dual matches against each other this season, could not keep up with No. 15 Valparaiso, which shot a one-over 289 at the par-72 Beechwood Golf Course to run away with the team title. That was six strokes ahead of its Duneland Conference foe, Chesterton, ranked No. 14 in this week’s Indiana High School Golf Coaches Association poll.

Boys track: 'He's just a stud.' With Watson out, Coker takes the spotlight for Penn boys track in NIC

Girls track: NIC girls track: Glenn's Goodsell, Washington's Swanson win three events: Penn takes team title.

Coach Bret Bajdek’s Huskies continued their recent solid play by totaling 311 for third place, one stroke ahead of coach Tony Polizzotto’s Kingsmen with coach Alex Stopcyznski’s Knights finishing fifth at 317. Whichever team wins the NIC Tournament next Saturday will be crowned conference champion.

“We’re going in the right direction,” Bajdek said after the Huskies got a three-over 75 from sophomore No. 2 Tate Guyton, six-over 78s from junior No. 1 Thomas Raster and junior No. 3 Beau Basney and an 80 from junior No. 4 Jake Hirschler. “We’re looking forward to the conference tournament, and it sets up nicely with our sectional tournament in a couple of weeks.”

Saint Joseph, Penn and Marian will play in the South Bend Sectional at Erskine Park on Monday, June 3 in a field that includes Trinity School at Greenlawn, which earned honorable mention honors in last week’s state poll but fell out this week. Only three of those four schools will move on to play in the June 6 regional at rugged Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte.

Stopczynski likes the way his team has been playing this week, starting with Wednesday’s 161-166 victory over Penn on Eberhart-Petro’s front nine. Sophomore John Hahn, who opened Friday with a triple-bogey 7 on Beechwood’s first hole, came back to shoot a three-over 75 thanks to four birdies and four bogeys over his final 17 holes.

“That (the victory over Penn) was the big one; the kids have put it together,” said Stopczynski, who liked the efforts he got Friday in senior No. 4 Ben Padros’ 79, an 81 from senior No. 3 Jackson Horvath and the 82 recorded by junior No. 5 Scottie Chakan in his first 18-hole round of the season. “John (Hahn) has been in a low spot for a week and a half. Now he’s back to hitting the ball. We told him to just hit the ball.”

Despite his team’s loss Wednesday to the Knights, Polizzotto was pleased with the way his team played Friday. “It seems that the last three years we’ve started out a little slow,” Polizzotto said. “We keep working at it and we’re getting better. Their attitudes are good.”

Jack Yewchuk
Jack Yewchuk

The Tribune-area teams were individually led by the one-over 73 shot by Penn senior No. 2 Jack Yewchuk, who announced earlier this month he would be attending Eastern Illinois this autumn.

“I hit the ball well today, gave myself a bunch of chances to make birdies,” said Yewchuk, who eagled his third hole of the day — Beechwood’s 463-yard sixth hole with a chip-in from the fringe. He then went to three-under with a birdie at No. 7 but then played his final 14 holes in four-over while making five bogeys. “My putting and short game have been pretty good.”

Penn senior No. 1 Dylan Mounts followed Yewchuk’s effort with a four-over 76. Penn’s Nos. 3-5 players all played solidly — junior Colten Donze shot 81, sophomore Corbin O’Hara 82 and junior Michael Basney 83.

Warsaw, led by No. 2 Breckin Christner’s 76, finished seventh at 319, one stroke ahead of LaLumiere, which got a 76 from Scottie Upp. New Prairie finished 11th at 339 with senior No. 1 Hunter Zdyb’s 78 leading the way.

Valparaiso senior Aiden Gutierrez, who won the 2022 state individual title in a three-hole playoff and was fifth a year ago, won medalist honors Friday at Beechwood with his four-under 68 which was three strokes better than classmate Liam Utesch. The Vikings had four golfers shoot 77 or better. The Trojans, meanwhile, got an even-par 72 from No. 2 player Paul Scott and had all five golfers shoot 77 or better.

Results from Friday’s 88th Uebele Invitational boys high school golf tournament at the par-72, 6,637-yard Beechwood Golf Course in LaPorte:

Teams

1. VALPARAISO (289): Aiden Gutierrez 68, Liam Utesch 71, Colin Kaleth 73, Max Abel 77, Nick Willis 82.

2. CHESTERTON (295): Bo Smith 74, Paul Scott 72, Joe Ennis 77, Phil Scott 75, Noah Bazil 74.

3. SOUTH BEND SAINT JOSEPH (311): Thomas Raster 78, Tate Guyton 75, Beau Basney 78, Jake Hirschler 80, Joey Borsodi 91.

4. PENN (312): Dylan Mounts 76, Jack Yewchuk 73, Colten Donze 81, Corbin O’Hara 82, Michael Basney 83.

5. MISHAWAKA MARIAN (312): John Hahn 75, AJ Bishop 89, Jackson Horvath 81, Ben Padrnos 79, Scottie Chakan 82.

6. CROWN POINT (318): Nick Wool 76, Adam Pierson 85, Ryan Pendergast 77, Nolan Babcock 83, Ryan Head 82.

7. WARSAW (319): Austin Craig 84, Breckin Christner 76, Robbie Finlinson 82, Finn Bailey 83, Quinton Fifer 78.

8. LALUMIERE (320): Cam Tegt 78, Scottie Upp 76, Jack Egan 89, Jack Vanderveen 78, Danny Shuck 88.

9. LAKE CENTRAL (323): Tyler Morton 80, Troy Howell 82, Sebastian Darak 80, Matthew Tuley 83, Evan Swinarski 81.

10. ILLIANA CHRISTIAN (330): Isaac Sherwood 78, Zach Davids 82, Van Corcoran 87, Eli Postma 83, Noah Davids 88.

11. NEW PRAIRIE (339): Hunter Zdyb 78, Cole Shelton 84, Brock Sinka 88, Owen Chalik 89, Rory Zarate 108.

12. ANDREAN (341): PJ Cusick 87, Zach Trtan 83, Andrew Urbanski 88, Ivan Matalski 84, Jax Alvarez 87.

13. LAPORTE (344): Ollie Kring 78, Lukas Albin 88, Aiden Mrozinski 91, Luke Cannon 87, Ethan Blank 98.

14. PORTAGE (351): Xander Servey 89, Tyler Fengya 87, Michael Wellman 85, Sam Wellman 90, Levi Overbey 99.

15. SOUTH BEND ADAMS (352): Tommy Hornback 85, Owen McNally 89, Leo Sweazy 92, Trenton Williams 89, Seamus O’Brien 89.

16. LOWELL (354): JR Sobecki 81, Dean Patrick 93, Roan Vaska 100, Talen Summers 92, Nolan Williams 88.

17. TRITON (373): Tucker Worsham 93, Landon Patrick 89, Connor Olesen 94, Owen Waymouth 97, Gavin Riffle 100.

18. HIGHLAND (377): Aiden Bartos 85, David Castellanos 85, Nate Zart 91, Jackson Regnier 123, Gavin Smith 116.

19. MISHAWAKA (387): Brady Fisher 90, Aiden Szeltner 98, Bren Dickerson 98, Anderson Cannon 106, Kaden Smith 101.

20. MICHIGAN CITY MARQUETTE CATHOLIC (410): Max Olesker 94, Kai Keehn 94, Liam Neary 118, John Haverstock 104, Johnathan Madora 123.

21. JOHN GLENN (411): Brody Chapman 92, Max Roush 99, Atticus Wakeman 118, Bryce Johnson 114, Carter DuPont 106.

22. MICHIGAN CITY (418): Eli Green 90, Nic Williams 97, Wes Schmidt 108, Lucas Nelson 123, Cameron Skeen 126.

23. TRI-TOWNSHIP (419): Noah Doms 99, Kade Koselke 97, Tyler Chambers 115, Kaleb Gorski 108, Lucas Kaiser 133.

Top 10 individuals

1. Aiden Gutierrez, Valparaiso, 68 (-4); 2. Liam Utesch, Valparaiso, 71 (-1); 3. Paul Scott, Chesterton, 72 (E); T4. Jack Yewchuk, Penn, 73 (+1); T4. Colin Kaleth, Valparaiso, 73 (+1); T6. Noah Bazil, Chesterton, 74 (+2); T6. Bo Smith, Chesterton, 74 (+2); T8. John Hahn, Mishawaka Marian, 75 (+3); T8. Tate Guyton, South Bend Saint Joseph, 75 (+3); T8 Phil Scott, Chesterton, 75 (+3)

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: High school golf 88th annual Uebele Invitational in LaPorte, Ind.

Advertisement