FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon head coach Tom Kirby has a number in mind for Thursday morning’s IHSAA boys golf regional tournament.
The question, however, is can his Marauders get close enough?
In order to par an 18-hole round at The Players Club at Woodland Trails a competitor needs to shoot a 72, which means a foursome could theoretically total a 288, if they individually and collectively hover near the mark during the Muncie Central Regional.
Obviously, that figure would be hard to beat and would mean a probable trip to the state finals at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel with the top-three teams and top low-five individuals without a team moving on.
Kirby believes something around that total is possible for his sectional championship squad, if they continue their current trajectory.
“I need my No. 1 and No. 2 to be around par. And, they are fully capable of doing it, shooting around par between them. But, I also need my No. 3 and 4 to shoot 80s. If they can do that, then that puts us at 304. I think that’s a very competitive number to actually win a regional,” Kirby said. “Hopefully, we’re not in the 330s again, and we’re instead sitting around the 310-320 mark.”
At sectional on Monday, the Marauders were within range, shooting a combined 315 at Hawk’s Tail of Greenfield to win the program’s first team championship since 2016 over rival New Castle (319) by four strokes.
Mt. Vernon senior No. 1 golfer Sam McWilliams shot a 2-under-par 70 for second best behind New Castle’s Derek Tabor, who carded a 3-under-par 69 for medalist honors.
Aden Cappalletti, another Mt. Vernon senior, fired a 5-over-par 77 for fourth best on the leaderboard as the team’s No. 2 golfer.
The Marauders’ No. 3 and 4 golfers, Kyran Maxfield and Asher Cotton, were the determining factors at sectional with 84s, respectively.
“It’s a good group of boys playing here, so it’s relatively easy when you have the right horses,” Kirby said. “This was the best effort we’ve had from all five guys who were playing.”
Another strong effort will be necessary with schools from the Indianapolis Cathedral, Monroe Central, Noblesville, Norwell and Richmond sectional sites feeding into the regional.
Richmond won its sectional with a 328. Fishers was first at the Noblesville Sectional with a 307, followed by Hamilton Southeastern at 308 and Tipton at 314.
Monroe Central ran away with its own sectional behind a team score of 307. Cathedral won with a 311, and Bellmont seized the Norwell Sectional title with a 323.
Individually, Norwell’s Landon Chamberlain shot a 72 at sectional, Cathedral’s Ryan Ford tallied a 70, while Park Tudor’s Ian Harris carded a 71.
Monroe Central’s Shawn Roderick posted a 73, and HSE’s Lane Zedrick and Cole Starnes came in at 70 and 72, respectively.
The key for the Marauders, beyond momentum after winning their 10th Hancock County title in 12 years and first Heritage Conference championship en route to a sectional title, is familiarity.
“We’ve been up there (at The Players Club), I think, around five times this year. I credit Brandon Ecker, our (athletic director), for doing that for us because he knows that’s our regional course,” Kirby said.
“The setup we that we had when we played the conference there was from the tips. With pin placements in what I call the Sunday pin placements, the harder ones. Again, at the Muncie Central Invitational, we played from the tips, so our guys are used to playing the course the way it is.”
During their HHC title run on May 15, the Marauders totaled a 335 to beat Yorktown (336) by one stroke.
McWilliams tied for second with a 3-over-par 75. Tabor was medalist with a 4-under-par 68.
“We have learned something every time, and we’ve learned some things we’ve been trying to get them to buy into and they really didn’t the last time we played,” Kirby said. “We’re hoping to practice some of the things we talked about when playing that course.”
Repetition is something McWilliams is used to, playing competitively for several years with the potential to go sub-70, while Cappalletti can easily drop below 75.
“Sam McWilliams has been a great leader all year long. He’s a polished player. He’s a good kid. He and Aden Cappalletti playing at 1-2 have always led this team, and they simply have allowed us to be a competitive team very quickly,” Kirby said.
The duo helped the Marauders get past New Castle at sectional despite the Trojans’ top-three staying at 77 or lower.
“New Castle has always been very good, and they have three great players,” Kirby said. “The other kids are great kids, but they just picked up the game to help them out this year, so we knew their top-three players were going to be very good. But, we also knew their last score wasn’t going to be very good.”
That’s where in-season experience comes into play, Kirby noted, especially with Maxfield and Cotton who rose to the occasion at sectional.
“That was a very pleasant surprise. My No. 4 is a freshman, and his 84 was probably the highest score he could have had,” Kirby said. “My No. 3 is a junior, and he also shot an 84, but he was actually playing much better than that as well. An 84 is probably the highest score he should have shot. He was playing well enough to be in the 70s, but a few swings got away from him.”
As a team, the Marauders utilized their driving power to situate their short game, which kept them ahead of New Castle and New Palestine, which finished third at 330 to advance to the regional on Thursday.
The Dragons were led by Matt Barada, who shot a 77 to tie with Cappalleti and New Castle’s Matthew Gerth (77) for fourth best among the regional-qualifying teams.
Mt. Vernon’s last team state finals appearance was in 2004-05, while New Palestine last qualified in 2003-04.
Taking that step would be the perfect conclusion for the Marauders’ boys golf program and the school, which has successfully captured all six spring sport sectional titles in 2021.
“It’s a unique year and what a spring the school had here with getting all six spring sectionals. It’s amazing,” Kirby said.
