GREENFIELD — When it came to dethroning a long-reigning county champion, all it came down to was the averages.
New Palestine didn’t play to their averages Monday when they lost head-to-head against Mt. Vernon. During Tuesday’s Hancock County Golf Tournament, the Dragons played to their season averages.
It was enough. The Dragons topped the Marauders, ending an eight-year winning streak for Mt. Vernon, by shooting a 167 as a team, seven strokes better than the Marauders’ 174. Greenfield-Central finished third with a 179, and Eastern Hancock fourth with a 225.
The seven-stroke margin of victory for New Palestine was the exact number they lost by Monday, a 170-177 defeat against Mt. Vernon.
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But having their top two golfers improve by a combined 14 strokes proved to be the difference for the Dragons.
“The only thing that happened today is we played our average scores for the season,” New Palestine coach Gregg Greene said. “Yesterday we were higher. Quinn (Dobbins) and Elijah (Domogala) were both higher.”
Dobbins, a sophomore, was medalist with a 36, four strokes higher than his runner-up teammate, Domogala, who carded a 40.
The rest of the top five were Mt. Vernon’s Sam McWilliams, with a 41, Greenfield-Central’s Noah Mohler, with a 41, and Greenfield-Central’s Zach Archer, with a 42.
Dobbins was the runner-up last year. Domogala was fifth.
“I’m very happy with how (Dobbins) played,” Greene said. “His stats looked outstanding, outside of having 17 putts. But that’s still less than two per hole. He had a stellar day.”
While Greene said that Mt. Vernon had been on a pretty good run with the eight-straight championships, he said he came into the tournament hopeful his team could pull off the win but without setting high expectations.
For his part, Dobbins said the team wasn’t concerned about the history. They simply were focused on playing their game.
“I feel great,” Dobbins said. “We all came out and played pretty good. You don’t think about them winning the last eight. You just come out and play your best.”
It was a stark contrast to last year’s tournament, where teams had to battle cold, windy weather.
While all the schools are used to played in rough weather this spring, Tuesday was sunny, hovering in the low 80s, with a light breeze.
The conditions weren’t a factor in the outcome. The mental game was.
“I told them today was 100 percent mental for us,” Mt. Vernon coach Tyler Wilson said. “We have the physical tools, we all have the scoring averages to back up the win. We made some silly mistakes, had some difficult positions, some hard greens. We had some unfortunate lies that you have to deal with.”
It was a tale of two very different days for Mt. Vernon, flipping results with a team they had just beaten.
“It’s why you come out and play the game,” Wilson added.
New Palestine’s scoring was rounded out by Chris Guhl’s 45, Josh Shinkle’s 46 and Austin Terry’s 53. Trailing McWilliams for Mt. Vernon were Haiden Rose with a 44, John Husar with a 45, Xavier Dunham with a 47 and Max Heitman with a 49.
Greenfield-Central’s scoring was rounded out by Kyle Arrowood and Canyon Palmer’s 48s, and Bradley Stine’s 51.
Eastern Hancock was led by Gage Deiser’s 52. Following Deiser were KC Smoak with a 55, Loren Matlock with a 57, Nick Pelger with a 61 and Peyton Gray with a 62.
While playing to their averages Tuesday was enough for the Dragons distance themselves from the rest of the county en route to the win, their sophomore standout felt confident about the team moving forward based on Tuesday’s trophy- and medal-earning results.
“We won county playing to our average,” Dobbins said. “If we all play our best we can do even better.”
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2018 Hancock County Golf Tournament
Team Scores: New Palestine 167, Mt. Vernon 174, Greenfield-Central 179, Eastern Hancock 225
Medalist: Quinn Dobbins, New Palestine, 36
All-County Team
Quinn Dobbins, New Palestine
Elijah Domogala, New Palestine
Sam McWilliams, Mt. Vernon
Noah Mohler, Greenfield-Central
Zach Archer, Greenfield-Central
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