By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Tuesday, May 9, the Merrill golf team started the week playing in Marshfield at River Edge Golf Course for the fourth leg of the Valley Conference series. Russell Dettmering led the Jays to take medalist honors by shooting an even par 72 on the difficult River Edge course. Right behind Russell was Evan Thomas from SPASH with 74.
“This River Edge course was the same track where Russell lost in a play off last year which if he had won would have qualified him for state,” Coach Joe Mertens commented. “Russell was vindicated and motivated to improved his score this year which he did by seven over the previous year.”
The Bluejays shot 364 as a squad, finishing sixth of seven teams. Other Bluejay scorers included Hunter Wallace (90), Mike Casper (98), and 104 for Mitchael Cammack and Nicolas Roman.
On Friday, the Bluejays competed at the Wausau Country Club where Dettmering again mastered the game for the day, shooting a one-over 72, taking medalist honors by seven shots over his nearest competitor Drew Blair of SPASH with 79, and 80 from Josh Yang of Wausau West.
Behind Dettmering, the Bluejays’ varsity squad came in with scores of 91 from Hunter Wallace, 98 from Mitchael Cammack and 99 from Michael Casper. Wausau West regained their number one team spot in the conference by shooting a team total of 335, over second place SPASH (344). After five of seven Valley Conference matches completed, Dettmering has gained a strong eight point lead in the Valley with a total of 70 points, followed by 62 for Josh Yang of Wausau West and 59 for Evan Thomas of SPASH. With the Bluejays’ 360 team total, they moved into fifth place in the Valley standings.
On Saturday, Merrill hosted their annual two-man best ball invitational held at the Merrill Golf Course. One year after Wallace and Dettmering recorded a record setting nine under par 63 to win the 2017 best ball, the team of Josh Yang and Ben Langlois of West, teamed up for a score of 70 to capture the event. Detterming and Wallace finished second with 71 and Bauer and Mosen of Marshfield finished third with 71 as well.
Individually, Yang won the medalist honors for the event shooting a one-under 71 while Dettmering’s 73 placed second. Ben Bauer of Marshfield finished with 74 good enough for third.
The Wausau West Warriors won the team event with a score of 322, second was Lakeland with 331, and third was SPASH with 336. Merrill’s team score of 386 earned them seventh place out of 12 teams. Remaining Bluejay scores include 92 from Hunter Wallace, 99 from Michael Casper, 110 from Nicolas Roman, 111 from Mitchael Cammack, 114 from Isabella Laufenberg and Dan Pepke, and 128 from Keary Hanig.
This week finds the Bluejays competing Monday in the Wausau city meet at the Wausau Country Club, Tuesday at Stevens Point Country Club, and Friday at Greenwood Hills for the final Wisconsin Valley Conference event.