Conditions not favorable for HTC to advance

WAPELLO – Holy Trinity Catholic ran up against just about all kinds of weather, just short of snow, at the Class 1A District golf meet Monday at Heritage Oaks south of Wapello.
Head Coach John Goetz said there were tough conditions and very tough pin locations and all that amounted to some great experience for a young Crusaders' team that exceeded expectations in qualifying as a team last week in sectional action.
The Crusaders still finished with less than 400 points, but took 11th place out of twelve scoring teams and 18 teams total. Some teams qualified individuals and not teams, and those scores weren’t calculated in team scoring.
Holy Trinity finished with a 391. North Linn won the meet with 335. The Lynx were 17-0 on the year. Senior Luke Hellige had the top score in the wet and blistery conditions over the first two hours.
Hellige shot a 94, which tied him for 36th place overall out of 81 participants.
The only senior on the team said conditions were unusually difficult.
“I had shorts on. That was a really bad decision,” he laughed.
“My hands were freezing the whole time. I just started to warm up later in the meet and played a little better.”
He said at the outset with the wind and rain, when he would tee off, his fingers would go numb from the contact.
Hellige played multiple other sports including baseball, basketball, and track over his high school career and said it was hard to get onto the golf course to practice.

“It’s tough to get out, but I improved a lot over the past two and half years.”
 But he said he wants to continue to learn the game recreationally. Hellige will be signing his letter of intent Tuesday afternoon to play basketball at Cornell College. He was an all-state selection the past two years.
Goetz said he appreciated Hellige’s efforts over the past two years and wished him the best of luck at Cornell.
Junior Blake Mohrfeld shot a 97, Brock Scheetz and Max Kruse each fired an even 100, while Jameson Denning and Nathan Box each fired a 106.
Kruse is just a sophomore, while the rest of the squad will be back for their senior year along with Goetz.
Goetz said it was rainy and cold in the morning, and the wind picked up about halfway through.
“The greens were very fast and they had some unique pin placements, so the kids had to make some adjustments there. You had to keep the ball below the hole today,” Goetz said.
“I’m totally pleased with the way the kids played today.”
Goetz said he wasn’t surprised that the Crusaders got to the districts.
“We’ve improved so much over the last couple of years with the same bunch. Sometimes these kids don’t even realize how much they’ve improved. I’m just totally pleased with that improvement and we’re looking forward to next year.
“It was a great experience for them today and I thought they performed very well under these conditions. We had great conditions the past two weeks, but then we get this rain and wind. But we’ll build on that for next year."