George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
Teams got a challenging learning experience during their first two days of the 2008 high school golf season. The Blue Ponies played the final 18 holes of the season-opening Great Falls Invitational at Eagle Falls Golf Course in windy conditions on Tuesday morning. The HHS boys finished the tournament in 17th place overall after coming in with a team score of 731. Kalispell's Glacier High School captured the team title with a 6-3, while Billings West was second and Bozeman was third. Individually, the Ponies struggled in the brutal Tuesday conditions, but so did much of the field. Junior Brett Normandy paced the Blue Ponies on Tuesday with an 82, while Jeremy Jensen shot an 84. Myles Mazurkiewicz shot a 96 and junior Cody Brunk actually bettered his first-day total by 12 strokes. Brunk shot an opening-round 112, but fired an even 100 on Tuesday. "Our boys didn't really play up to their potential," HHS head coach Jeff Jensen said. "They hit the ball ok, but they wasted some shots here and there. It's just little things that they need to clean up and they will be fine." Glacier's Larry Iverson shot an even-par 72 on Tuesday to take medalist honors for the tournament by finishing 3-under-par. Billings West' Jake Hedge was second. On the girls side, the Ponies only had three varsity players at the tournament, so they were not able to count in the team standings. Individually, HHS senior Tabitha Beck shot a 98 on Tuesday, while junior Courtney Kinholt shot a 113 and Rebecca Martin finished with a 137, which was 15 strokes better than her first-day total. "The conditions were really tough for everybody on Tuesday," Jensen said. "But Rebecca Martin went out and cut 20 strokes off of her first day score, and Courtney Kinholt played really well I thought and so did Tabitha Beck." CMR ran away with the girls team title, while Billings West was second and Bozeman was third. Ashleigh Ogolin of Butte High School captured the girls medalist honors for the tournament. Havre High won't get much rest. The Blue Ponies travel to a tournament hosted by Browning at East Glacier Golf Club on Friday.
