Fort Scott High School golf team brings home third place after 18-hole invitational meet

INDEPENDENCE -- Fort Scott High School's golf season opened with a third-place team finish at the Independence Invitational Thursday.

The Tigers, defending league champs, finished the first of the season's four designated Southeast Kansas League tournaments with a score of 341. Chanute was team champ with 324 with Pittsburg just four strokes behind.

Paul Norris was Fort Scott's best scorer with a 77, shooting 37 on the front nine and 40 on the back. That was good for fourth place behind Chanute's Mitchell Hale, who shot 36-39--75, Pittsburg's Jon Nichols, 34-42--76, and Channute's Jeremy Gant, 34-43--77. The tie between Gant and Norris was broken with the handicap-hole tie-breaker.

"Paul Norris had a career tournament best with a great round in difficult conditions in the last few last holes," Fort Scott head coach Ken Klassen said. "He was excellent in every phase of his game and led our team to its third-place finish. I don't want to put too much pressure on Paul, but he's a rising star that I now know can compete with the best players in the SEK. "

Chris Brown finished in eighth place as he shot 37-45--82. Cole Murrin won a tie-breaker and earned the final medal position, 10th place, after shooting 38-47--85.

"Chris played slowly and deliberately, which unfortunately kept him out on the course for about 45 minutes longer than most of his fellow competitors," Klassen noted. "Meanwhile, the temperature dropped 30 degrees and the wind from the north swept in at gusts of 30 m.p.h. Chris persevered, but lost strokes due to the weather."

Dylan Renfro had the fourth score that counted toward the team total, shooting 44-53--97. Nolan Stark shot 49-50--99 and Tanner Beckham rounded out Fort Scott's scoring with his 48-53--101.

The Tigers will go back into action Tuesday at Coffeyville, which is also the second SEK designated meet.

TEAM SCORES

1. Chanute (CH) 324 (Hale 75, Gant 77, Gard 85, Miner 87), 2. Pittsburg (PT) 328 (J.Nichols 76, Williams 81, Casey 84, T.Nichols 87), 3. Fort Scott (FS) 341 (Norris 77, Brown 82, Murrin 85, Renfro 97),

4. Girard (non-league school, G) 348 (Heatherly 79, Scallions 87, Paoni 89, Boultinghouse 93), 5. Coffeyville 353 (Standbury 87, Yeubanks 88, Moore 89, Vacca 89), 6. Iola 358 (Walden 88, Manbeck 88, Burris 89, C.Ellis 93),

7. Parsons (PA) 359 (Walters 80, Heenan 89, Hoisington 94, Chandler 96), 8. Independence 382 (Bolts 89, Berbick 95, Webster 99, Goad 99), 9. Labette County 394 (Carter 91, Sparks 94, Fentress 95, Boss 114),

10. Columbus 395 (Chancellor 93, Kitch 93, Schoech 99, Norris 110).

MEDALISTS

1. Mitchell Hale, CH, 36-39--75; 2. Jon Nichols, PT, 34-42--76; 3. Jeremy Gant , CH, 34-43--77; 4. Paul Norris, FS, 37-40--77; 5. J.D. Heatherly, G, 38-41--79;

6. Kel Walters, PA, 38-42--80; 7. Landon Williams, PT, 43-38--81; 8. Chris Brown, FS, 37-45--82; 9. Travis Casey, PT, 42-42--84; 10. Cole Murrin, FS, 38-47--85.