Hiland golf earns third place at Division III state tournament

All one needs to know about the Hiland Hawks golf team could be found, not during the Division III state tournament at NorthStar Country Club near Sunbury on Monday, Oct. 13, but immediately after play was done.

Long after every other team had cleared out and gone home following day one play, the Hawks could be found on the practice green working on their respective short games, with a planned trip to a driving range on tap after that.

It is that type of work ethic that has led this program to grand success, and that propelled them to another state berth.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Hiland head coach Austin Kaufman said. “That’s the type of dedication they’ve been committed to all season and during the offseason.”

The Hawks have been a staple at the state golf tournament over the past decade-plus, becoming one of those programs that others aren’t surprised to see knocking heads with the state’s top teams for the right to be called champion.

After getting knocked out of the district meet last season in a tiebreaker by Garaway, the Hawks had to wait an excruciating year to return to state, but with a strong district effort against some quality teams, the Hawks made their way back to the Div. III state tournament Oct. 13-14 at NorthStar Country Club near Sunbury.

Waiting there for them was a formidable foe in two-time defending Div. III state champion John F. Kennedy High School.

After day one the Hawks had put themselves in position to track down senior-laden JFK, their team score of 319 trailing the defending state champions by 10 strokes. Hiland sat in second, one shot ahead of Pettisville, with a host of challengers lurking within 12 shots of the Hawks.

As the final putt rolled in on day two, JFK had defended its title with a strong team score of 618. The Hawks battled for second with Pettisville all day and in the end fell two shots shy of the runner-up spot, shooting a 643 to Pettisville’s 641.

“It feels good to be here battling with them for the title,” Kaufman said of JFK and Pettisville. “Just getting the chance to get here to compete is always exciting.”

For the tournament Hiland saw two of its players become the newest additions to the school’s All-Ohio Hall of Fame Wall. Senior Jack Mast finished tied for third by going 70-78 for a 148 while junior teammate Andrew Beun took flight on day two, firing off a 79-74 for a 153 total to grab a top 10 spot.

Jesse Conn (87-82-169), Grant Bille (83-96-179) and Samson Miller (95-90-185) rounded out Hiland’s scoring.

Kaufman said perhaps the most difficult part of the season was the wait from last season’s disappointing district loss, one that only spurred his team on.

“The way last year finished made these guys push themselves and work even harder to avoid going through something like that again,” Kaufman said. “They have worked so hard to get back here, and putting ourselves in position to try to track JFK down was big for us.”

The Hawks started day two with JFK and Pettisville, and being right there in the hunt was an exciting situation, knowing they could apply pressure by playing well on day two.

That position was greatly enhanced by Mast, who fired a day one medalist score of 70 (two under), and Beun added a 79, needing to overcome a triple bogey on the opening hole. Bille came through in a big way, fashioning pars on the final four holes to card an 83.

Day two saw the high hopes dashed as JFK systematically pulled away, its four tourney-tested seniors getting the job done for the third straight season.

The return to state and the third-place finish add more fuel to the fire that has built this golf program into one of the state’s most consistent small-school teams.

“These results are what spurs our younger kids to work even harder,” Kaufman said. “There’s this deep desire to keep improving, to keep this program rolling. It’s an awesome experience to be here to compete at this level, and it’s something we don’t ever want to take for granted.”

While the Hawks will lose Mast, it will return four seasoned starters, and there is plenty of talent waiting in the wings. Kaufman said he knows this group will use this experience to grow, and they see this as a steppingstone to what they hope will be a return trip to the big show next season.