Wellington community celebrates first Kansas boys golf state championship since 1983
There’s not too many Kansas towns that would celebrate a boys golf team championship like Wellington, which has a tradition-rich program that has been starved for a title for nearly four decades.
Wellington claimed its 13th state championship in program history, but first in 38 years when the Crusaders captured the Class 4A team trophy by 32 strokes at Mariah Hills Golf Course in Dodge City.
And when the team arrived in Wellington after a three-hour ride home, a police escort was awaiting them to accompany them to Wellington Golf Club, where members of the community had gathered to welcome their state champions.
“It was such an amazing feeling driving into town, my stomach was actually more in butterflies for that,” said Wellington senior Blake Saffell, who finished runner-up individually. “It was something I’ll never forget.”
The experience was even more special for Saffell, whose father, Steve, was a member of that 1983 state championship team for Wellington.
The two shared an emotional moment when Blake walked off the 18th green on Tuesday.
“I’ve actually never seen my dad cry in my life,” Blake said. “But when I came off 18, I gave my dad a hug and he told me great job and great tournament. He had sunglasses on, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could tell that he was choked up and that made me choked up honestly.”
Steve Saffell said it was a surreal experience watching his son live out a championship dream that he did 38 years ago.
“They did something that we never did because they finished out the season undefeated,” Steve said. “They were undefeated state champions and it was so much fun to see these young men enjoy it. They were talking it all in. Like I told them all, ‘Now you are state champions and no one can ever take that away from you.’”
Private schools have typically dominated the state tournament in golf in recent years, as Wellington has had a number of runner-up finishes in recent history.
That’s why it was so satisfying to see the Crusaders, a public school, dominate the field like they did. They entered Tuesday with a 6-shot lead, but blew away the competition with a second-round team score of 297.
Junior Deitrek Gill won individual medalist honors with an even-par, 36-hole score of 142 with Saffell runner-up. Wellington had a total of five golfers in the top 20 with senior Jace Lawrence (12th, 162), junior Laken Smith (14th, 164) and junior Brett Wyckoff (17th, 166) all medalists. Senior Peyton Linker was the sixth golfer on the team.
“Wellington has a historic tradition and we enjoy a lot of support in this small town when it comes to golf,” Wellington coach James Ginter said. “A lot of these kids grew up around the golf course with parents who grew up around the golf course. You could see today how much this meant to our community with the police escort and the community coming out to celebrate with us. There’s a lot of family history there and a lot of school history.
“We’ve had so many talented teams come through here that have just not been able to break through for that state title. So this title is not just for those six individuals who played today, but it was for all of those teams who came close but didn’t quite get to that state championship.”
No one knew how much it meant to Wellington more than the Saffell family.
After hearing his father talk about the memories from winning state with his group of teammates, Blake said he’s already looking forward to reliving the last two days years down the road.
“I’ll never forget this for the rest of my life because this is such a great group of guys that I wouldn’t trade for the world,” Blake said. “I love this team. Me and Jace were actually just talking about it that maybe 30 years down the road if we’re back in Wellington and we have kids and they’re playing sports and we walk down the hallway and see our state championship trophy, that’s going to bring back so many great memories. It really was an unforgettable experience.”
Here is an update of how the rest of the Kansas high school boys golf state tournaments played out:
Wichita State signee Lucas Scheufler dominates for the 3A title
No golfer was able to crack 70 at the Hesston Golf Course other than Trinity Academy senior Lucas Scheufler, who finished the 36-hole tournament carding a 5-under total of 137 strokes to win the Class 3A medalist honors by 5 shots.
It was a dominant finish to the season for the Wichita State signee, as Scheufler shot in the 60’s his final six rounds of the season and averaged a score of 67 in that span.
“I swear, every time he looks at the cup it must look like a basketball gaol to me,” Trinity coach Derrek Ziesch said. “He really does believe he can make every putt and even chip everything in. He has this incredible confidence in himself and it’s so impressive to watch him work. He knew he was going low and it was fun to witness.”
Ziesch, who is retiring after this season, said it was a joy for him to watch a team that shot 395 at the opening tournament of the season shave 68 strokes off that score to win a regional with a team score of 327, then take third at state with a two-day team total of 668.
“When we started this season, it was absolutely the worst team that I’ve had in 11 years,” Ziesch said. “For these kids to turn it around and go to state and finish third, it was just crazy. It was by far the most impressive season ever. So it turned out to be a good year to go out on. It was just super fun.”
Cheney finished in second place as a team, 14 strokes off the winner from Santa Fe Trail with a team score of 653 strokes. The Cardinals were led by a third-place finish from junior Harrison Middleton, who carded a 36-hole total of 9-over, 151. Freshman Aiden Lynch also took home a medal after tying for 14th place with a 36-hole total of 163. Hesston senior Lucas Roth tied with Middleton for third place.
Kapaun senior spurs come-from-behind 5A title
Following a subpar opening day of the Class 5A state championship, Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior Brent Reintjes was determined not to let his final golf tournament be a disappointment.
After shooting a 6-over 78 on Monday, Reintjes came back on Tuesday with an 8-under 64 at Sand Creek Station in Newton to finish third overall in the 5A field and lead the Crusaders to a come-from-behind victory in the team standings.
Kapaun trailed St. Thomas Aquinas by 4 strokes entering the final day, but erased that deficit with a tournament-low team score of 294 on Tuesday to edge Aquinas’ final team score of 609 by 2.
Reintjes birdied six straight holes at one point on Tuesday and left his coach Corey Novascone wondering if an 8-under 64 round had ever been shot before at a state tournament.
“You would have to go back through the record books because I’m not sure there’s been a player to do that,” Novascone said. “It’s awesome because as a coach, I’ve known he’s had that in him this entire year. He was just on a whole other level on Tuesday. He made every putt he looked at but one. He was always in the fairway to give himself an opportunity, then he just capitalized on a lot of those opportunities. He’s a pretty even-keeled guy, so it was pretty cool to see him fired up when he got done.”
Coaches from Kapaun and Aquinas tried to frantically track the team race during the final holes on Tuesday. At one point, Novascone thought Kapaun trailed Aquinas by five strokes in the final four holes.
Reintjes’ big day certainly helped, but Kapaun also won thanks to the play of freshman Asher Whitaker, who delivered a steady, even-par score of 144 to finish fourth overall. Freshman Noah Pirtle (157), sophomore Quaid Oliver (164), sophomore Gabe Grier (168) and sophomore Spencer Seachris (183) rounded out the team.
“As coaches, we just told the guys to not give up after the first day,” Novascone said. “We’ve been pretty much a back-nine, last-round team all season. We got off to a pretty rough start on Monday. We told them we can’t win the tournament on the first day, but we can certainly lose it. I think they just looked at Tuesday as a fresh start and went back to work.”
Maize South finished in third place as a team with 613 strokes, 6 behind Kapaun’s winning total. The Mavericks had all four scoring players medal in junior Taben Armstrong (ninth, 151), sophomore Grant Waggoner (11th, 152), junior Layton Love (14th, 154) and junior Kyle Kasitz (20th, 157).
Other individual medalists from the area included Arkansas City senior Trent Sutherland (seventh, 149), Andover junior James Hill (13th, 153), Andover Central senior Austin Goodrum (14th, 154), Bishop Carroll sophomore Noah Holtzman (14th, 154), Maize sophomore Grier Jones (14th, 154) and Eisenhower freshman Carson Wright (14th, 154).
At the Class 6A tournament played at Quail Ridge in Winfield, Hutchinson sophomore Ty Adkins finished in a tie for sixth place with a two-day score of 9-over 153.
At the Class 4A tournament played in Dodge City, the area’s medalists included Winfield senior Jacob George (fourth, 151), Augusta junior Chadd Brown (eighth, 159), Buhler senior Will Yates (eighth, 159), Winfield senior Gabe Heger (12th, 162) and McPherson sophomore Trakker French (16th, 165).
At the Class 2A tournament played at Salina Municipal, Berean Academy senior Jonathan Hoover finished with a 36-hole total of 15-over 155 to finish in a tie for fifth place overall.
At the Class 1A tournament played at Emporia Municipal, Classical senior Luke Buckingham and Hutchinson Central Christian senior Connor Langlais, who both shot a 15-over 86, tied for ninth place.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 6:05 AM.
.jpg)