Varsity inexperience shows as Medford golfers learning on the fly

A tough stretch for Medford’s varsity golf team culminated Tuesday in a second straight seventh-place finish in Great Northern Conference competition.

At the Minocqua Country Club, the Raiders were well behind the rest of the pack, finishing with a team score of 378.

Playing without their injured top gun Zach Hintz as well as senior Grant Neubauer for a second straight meet, the Raiders were led in this one by senior Evan Fechhelm, who placed 25th out of 35 golfers with an 18-over-par 90. Fechhelm’s round included three pars and a birdie on the par-3, 128-yard 13th hole.

Senior Alex Wanke was a shot behind Fechhelm with a 91. He parred three par-5 holes in his round as well as two par-3s. Cooper Klingbeil was 27th with his 93, Fischer Thums carded a 104 and head coach Matt Haase inserted sophomore Evie Beidel into the fifth spot in the lineup and she posted a 117 in her round.

The individual standings have been changing constantly through five meets. Mosinee’s Braiden Hoehn took over the lead Tuesday by winning the day’s championship with a 3-over-par 75. He now has 30.5 points. Tomahawk’s Jake Albert was one stroke behind at 76 and Hatchet Sawyer Hanna made the top 10 for the first time this spring, finishing third at 78. Lakeland’s Michael Melka (79) and Jeremy Hensen (80) were fourth and fifth. Hensen sits in second place in the individual standings with 29.833 points.

Lakeland and Mosinee tied for the day’s team championship with scores of 323. Tomahawk was third at 330, followed by Northland Pines (337), Antigo (338) and Rhinelander (349).

Lakeland, in its quest to win a seventh straight league title, still sits comfortably atop the team standings with 33.5 points, seven points ahead of Northland Pines.

Pines will host the sixth conference meet Friday at 3 p.m. at the Eagle River Golf Course. Medford hosts the seventh and final meet Monday at Black River Golf Course, also at 3 p.m.

GNC #4 In a meet moved to Monday at the Rhinelander Country Club, Medford struggled and fell to seventh place in the fourth GNC meet of the season.

The Raiders’ team score of 368 left them well behind sixth-place Antigo (334).

There was an upset at the top with Northland Pines winning the meet. The Eagles edged Lakeland 313-315 to mark only the second time since the T-Birds began their GNC dominance in 2018 that Lakeland hasn’t won a conference meet. Medford was the other team to beat Lakeland back in 2023 at Antigo.

Mosinee snuck past Rhinelander 327328 to place third and Tomahawk was at 331.

Klingbeil led Medford with a 14-overpar 85, good for 19th place. He was 6-over with a 42 on the back nine, including a run of four pars in five holes on 10 through 14. Wanke was 29th with his 93 and Fechhelm shot a 94. Thums shot a 96 that included a birdie on the par-5, 519-yard ninth hole and five pars. Fletcher Frombach had a tough day at 108.

Ryder Will led Northland Pines to its team win by shooting a 2-over-par 73 to win the day’s individual title. He was three strokes ahead of Mosinee’s Alex Steppke. Melka, Hoehn, Anderson Kielty of Northland Pines and Brody Kowieski of Rhinelander all tied for third at 77.

Also on Monday, Medford sent a team to the Stanley-Boyd Invitational held at Whispering Pines Golf Course in Cadott. The Raiders placed 13th out of 15 teams with a score of 408. They beat Colby (417) and Columbus Catholic (436). Bloomer shot a 319 to win the meet by four shots over Durand-Arkansaw and Holmen.

Beidel led Medford with a 95, good for 43rd place. Easton Ackerman shot an even 100, followed by Grady Crass (103), Talan Mitchell (110) and Preston Neitzel (116).

Monday also marked Medford’s turn to host GNC JV competition. At Tee-Hi Golf Course, Medford had two teams in the nine-hole meet and they placed sixth and seventh with scores of 203 and 207. Northland Pines won the meet at 156, 13 shots ahead of Lakeland.

Ashton Behling led Medford I with a 14th-place score of 44. Ian Roiger shot a 48, followed by Adler Steinman (50), Rylee Hartwig (51) and Atticus Winkler (61). Jackson Mayer led Medford II and tied for 10th overall at 43. Ben Byrd (50), Xander Schmidt (51) and Isaac Ulrich (53) also broke 60.

Nekoosa Invite

On May 7, the Raiders took their last non-conference road trip of the regular season and placed 14th out of 21 teams at the Nekoosa Invitational, which was held at Lake Arrowhead’s Lakes Course.

Medford held right at its season average with a score of 370 on the par-72, 6,144yard course. The team was two strokes better than Marathon, four ahead of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau and eight ahead of 17th-place Arcadia. Nekoosa (381) and Antigo (382) were 18th and 19th.

Stoughton won the meet at 329, one shot ahead of Merrill and three ahead of Wausau West and Sauk Prairie. Wisconsin Rapids was fifth at 335.

Frombach led the Raiders with his best score of the year, a 90. He tied for 43rd place out of 105 golfers. He started his round on hole four and parred the first two holes. He got two pars on the back nine and a birdie on the par-5, 499-yard 17th hole.

Neubauer and Klingbeil tied for 54th place with their 93s. Neubauer started on hole 10 and shot a 48 on the back nine. He started the front nine with a run of three pars in four holes and shot a 45 there. Klingbeil also birdied the 17th after parring the previous two holes.

Thums was part of a five-way tie for 59th with his 94. He got off to a great start from hole three. He parred the par-3 third and then notched back-to-back birdies on the par-5, 474-yard fourth and par-4, 339yard fifth holes. He shot a 40 on the front nine. Wanke shot a 44 on the back nine with four pars while tying for 81st with a 99.

Stoughton’s Camdyn Ketelsen shot a 3over par 75 to win the meet by one shot over Wausau West’s Kaden Jeske. West’s Russell Harder and Sauk Prairie’s Graysen Dunn tied for third with 77s.