By Tiffany L. Rehbein
The victory must have been sweet like sugar.
The Chinook Sugarbeeters' boys' golf team captured its first-ever tournament title. It came at the Malta Invitational on Tuesday.
And with the title came a first-ever gold medalist. It also placed six of seven 'Beeters in the top spots.
"I am incredibly proud of the kids," Chinook head coach Mike Seymour said. "It was outstanding."
Junior Jim Steyee, in his first year in the program, placed first overall, firing an 81 at the Malta Invitational on Tuesday.
He set the pace for the next three finishers, all of whom were Sugarbeeters.
Junior T.J. Murray fired an 85 and finished second, Troy Omsberg and Lucas Paugh both shot an 86, and Omsberg won the chip-off, landing himself a third-place finish.
Tyler Oehmcke, a senior en route to being a four-year letterman in the program, placed sixth with an 87 and Kent Hansen was seventh with an 89. Only Wolf Point's Matt Sansaver broke up the Chinook rout.
"We have never finished this high before and it's pretty exciting," Seymour said.
Chinook won the meet with 340 points.
"This is probably the lowest team score we have ever had," Seymour said. Chinook has had a golf program for five years. "This was a big shot in the arm for us."
The Sugarbeeters will be in Havre Thursday for an invitational, where they will get the chance to see their divisional competition to the west.
Cut Bank, Fort Benton, Conrad and Shelby present divisional and state competition for Chinook.
"It will be a good test for us," Seymour said. "It was nice to get a meet like this (Malta) in."
The Sugarbeeters will be looking to improve their short game, heading through the midway point of the season.
"As a whole, we're hitting the ball pretty well, but we need to work on our accuracy," Seymour said.
Golf action will kick off at Beaver Creek Golf Course at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Results
Malta Invitational
Boys
Team Scores
1, Chinook Black, 340; 2, Malta Blue; 3, Chinook Orange; 4, Wolf Point; 5, Nashua; 6, Malta White; 7, Scobey.
Top 10
1, Jim Steyee, Chi, 81; 2, T.J. Murray, Chi, 85; 3, Troy Omsberg, Chi, 86; 4, Lucas Paugh, Chi, 86; 5, Matt Sansaver, WP, 87; 6, Tyler Oehmcke, Chi, 87; 7, Kent Hansen, Chi, 89; 8, Jared Anderson, Mal, 90; 9, Vance Kielb, Mal, 92; 10, Seth Taylor, Mal, 93.
Other Chinook finishers
Kyle Doney, 94; George Metzger, 108; Thomas Maddox, 113; Mason Roseberry, 119.
Girls
Team Scores
1, Glasgow Red, 443; 2, Scobey, 459; 3, Glasgow White, 470; 4, Malta Blue, 483; 5, Wolf Point, 529
Chinook finisher
Jessica Kauffman, 111, unoff. score, DQ
