Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER - Finally, after several cool April days, some nice weather showed up Saturday. Warm weather. Golfing weather.
And golf they did. Whitko hosted a 12-team invitational at Sycamore Golf Club that included Tippecanoe Valley and Manchester.
Valley, Manchester and Whitko players have golfed on this course before, but it was a school that drove a distance to get there that placed first. New Prairie came from LaPorte County for the 9 a.m. start and finished first.
Jared Houser, whose 72 was four strokes ahead of the rest of the field, led New Prairie to the win.
New Prairie shot a 316, while Fairfield settled for second with a 324. Central Noble and Wabash tied for third with 333.
Valley finished fifth with a 335, while Whitko was eighth with a 353 and Manchester ninth with a 356.
"Three hundred thirty-five is a nice improvement," Valley coach Roger Moriarty said. "That's a 19-stroke improvement over last week. A couple of miscues and bobbles probably cost us at least third place.
"As long as we continue along those lines, we'll be okay. There were five Three Rivers Conference schools there, and we were the lowest."
Moriarty had a pretty good idea New Prairie would be good. The Vikings competed against them last week at Michigan City. New Prairie placed fifth in that 14-team invitational with a 336. Valley was 10th with a 354.
"We'd seen New Prairie up at Michigan City and knew they were tough," Moriarty said. "This Houser kid comes in and shoots a 72 on a course that he probably saw for the first time. They are solid all around."
Moriarty would know. He golfed a match with New Prairie head coach Craig Kuta, and Kuta fired a 74 to Moriarty's 84.
Darren Parker birdied three holes and shot an 80 for Valley. Jake Rucoi birdied four on the back nine and also shot an 80. Justin Leslie added an 87 and Aaron Martin an 88.
"We had a few strokes in there that were wasted," Moriarty said. "Parker had a little penalty for touching his ball with the putter.
"Coming in, I was hoping for 330. Anything below that would have been a real good day for us. We weren't real happy with our 354 at Michigan City last week, but 335 isn't a bad number. I've checked all the South Bend scores in the paper. We would have beaten an awful lot of people."
Jon Nixon fired an 85 to lead Whitko. The Wildcats' second-best score was turned in by No. 5 golfer Rob Wright, a freshman. He finished with an 86. Everyone else was in the 90s.
Ben Vineyard's 80 led Manchester, and Andy Parker added an 81. No one else shot below 95 for the Squires.
Valley is at Culver Tuesday. "It seems like we have two of the four guys really come on every week," Moriarty said. "We just need to get all four playing at that same level. They're all capable of doing it."
Manchester has a 4:30 p.m. Tuesday home match with Huntington North.
Whitko has a 4:30 road match this afternoon against Wabash.
WHITKO INVITATIONAL
1. New Prairie 316, 2. Fairfield 324, 3. Central Noble 333, 3. Wabash 333, 5. Tippecanoe Valley 335, 6. Northfield 338, 7. West Noble 341, 8. Whitko 353, 9. Manchester, 10. LaVille 368, 11. Southwood 386, 12. Eastside 406
Valley - Darren Parker 80, Jake Rucoi 80, Aaron Martin 88, Justin Leslie 87, Scott Cooksey 94
Whitko - Jon Nixon 85, Eli Butterbaugh 91, Nathan Wilson 91, Shane Henderson 97, Rob Wright 86
Manchester - Ben Vineyard 80, Andy Parker 81, Anthony Ritenour 95, Scot Croner 100, Neal Scott 106
