Watertown denied in bid for fourth straight ESD boys golf title; Roncalli wins Region 1A

One streak ended for Watertown and another started for Aberdeen Roncalli in area high school golf tournaments on Monday.

At the Moccasin Creek Country Club in Aberdeen, Watertown's bid for a fourth-straight Eastern South Dakota Conference championship ended with a fourth-place finish behind Pierre, Harrisburg and Brandon Valley.

At the Whetstone Creek Golf Course in Milbank, Aberdeen Roncalli rolled to the Region 1A championship with a 348 score. The Cavaliers won by seven shots over Groton Area, which ended Roncalli's streak of seven-straight region titles last fall.

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ESD Tournament

Pierre took home the team title with a 22-over 310, followed by Harrisburg at 322, Brandon Valley 325, Watertown 330, Tea Area 338, Yankton 340, Mitchell 342, Aberdeen Central 348, Brookings 350 and Huron 444.

Pierre's Sawyer Sonnenschein won medalist honors with a 2-over, winning by one shot over Tea Area's Derek Andersen. Will Peterson of Brandon Valley was third at 76 and Nick Bothun of Pierre and Riley Chritensen of Harrisburg tied for fourth with 77s.

Kaden Rylance led Watertown with a 78, tying for sixth place with Jack Bartlett of Pierre. Jaden Solheim also earned All-ESD honors for the Arrows (awarded to top 15 golfers) by tying for 13th with an 82. Rounding out the field for the Arrows were Gabe Norberg and Max Stemwedel, tied for 24th with 85s; Ty Lenards, tied for 38th with a 90; and Johnathan Lake, tied for 44th with a 94.

Jackson Ravelette earned All-ESD honors for Aberdeen Central by tying for 13th with an 82. Cole Brust and Ben Phillips each fired 86s and tied for 27th. Other Golden Eagle golfers included Kyler Senger, tied for 44th with a 94; Carter Blanchard, 51st with a 97; and Kalen Larson, 52nd with a 98.

Other All-ESD golfers were Hayden Scott of Harrsiburg (eighth, 80); Charlie Swift of Harrisburg, Tyson Lunn of Brookings, Luke Olson of Pierre and Jackson Burns of Brandon Valley (tied for ninth, 81s); and Lincoln Houska of Pierre, Elijah Larson and Kai Cody of Yankton, Izaac Meyer of Brandon Valley, Sam Titze and Everett Morrison of Mitchell and Landon Baker of Tea Area (tied for 15th with 83s).

Watertown hosts the state Class AA tournament Oct. 7-8 at Cattail Crossing Golf Course.

Region 1A Tournament

Sioux Valley and Milbank each tied for third with 359 and also qualified as teams for the state Class A tourney Oct. 7-8 at the Central Valley Golf Course in Hartford. Madison was fifth at 373, followed by Dell Rapids at 404 and Sisseton 405.

Brevin Fliehs of Groton Area shot a 7-over par79 and won medalist honors by two shots over Jonathan DeBoer of Milbank.

The top 19 golfers qualified for state along with other members of the top four teams.

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The individual qualifiers included Lucas Daggett of Roncalli, third at 83; Finn Anderson of Roncalli and Tate Steffensen of Sioux Valley, tied for fourth with 84s; Charlie Peery and Owen Fischer of Milbank and Braylon Oftedal of Madison, tied for sixth with 86s; Damon Uecker of Sioux Valley, ninth with an 87; Jameson Degen of Sioux Valley, 10th with an 88; Carter Simonand Logan Pearson of Groton Area and Jesse Hernandez of Aberdeen Roncalli, tied for 11th with 90s; Gannon May of Roncalli, 14th with an 91; Casyn Crabtee of Madison, 15th with a 92; Drew Buresh of Dell Rapids and Mathew Gerlach of Roncalli, tied for 16th with 95s; and Mason Beaner of Madison and Jace Johnson of Groton Area, tied for 18th with 96s.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Watertown denied in bid for fourth straight ESD boys golf title; Roncalli wins Region 1A