{"id":27909,"date":"2025-08-04T19:53:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T23:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=27909"},"modified":"2025-08-05T21:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:11:26","slug":"bluffton-dominates-opening-golf-meet-of-season-ac-breaks-400-to-start-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/04\/bluffton-dominates-opening-golf-meet-of-season-ac-breaks-400-to-start-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluffton dominates opening golf meet of season; AC breaks 400 to start year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEYLON – The Bluffton Tigers picked up Monday right where they left off last season, winning the season-opening South Adams Invite at Wabash Valley with a 369. The mark was not too far off from their sectional-winning team score of 359 last fall. The Tigers finished well ahead of Adams Central, winning by 29 strokes, despite an outstanding performance by the Jets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Londyn Smith hits an escape shot with a little bit of help from coach Nick Smith on the Back Nine at Wabash Valley Monday. Smith played better throughout the day and finished in fourth place for the Jets. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Norwell had all three players Monday under the 100 mark, but did not have a fourth score to count for the event. They will be at full strength in Tuesday’s Bellmont Invite. Ellie Gatton captured medalist honors with a masterful round of 78. Gatton figures to be one of the top players in the area this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont finished in fourth with a 409, while South Adams was a bit further back with a 434, finishing one stroke behind Southern Wells in sixth place. Heritage shot a 475 and finished in eighth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proud to sponsor Heritage Athletics on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AC’s #1, Londyn Smith, got off to a rocky start to her morning on the back nine, but after hitting her tee shot long on the Par-3 15th, she settled down. Smith played the first six holes at +11, then finished her round at just +6 on the final 12 holes. She led the Jets with an 88 and secured a top-four finish with a birdie on her final hole, the Par-3 9th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adrienne Johnson, who set aside her volleyball uniform this year for a golf bag, made a solid debut at No. 2 for the Jets, shooting a 102. She played bogey golf for the first half of the day. Tenley Hendricks also started well for the Jets and finished at an even 100. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adrienne Johnson drains a putt on the back nine in her first high school golf tournament. The junior finished with a 102, tied for 13th place. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The standout performance for Heritage came from Morgan Comment at #4. Starting on the back, Comment made the turn with a 63, but came back to shoot a 50 on the front. Her round was highlighted by an eagle midway through her round. Comment reeled off a killer drive that rolled onto the green and then drained a long putt for the 2 on her scorecard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Morgan Comment hits her tee shot on the Par 3 No. 15. Later in her round, Comment scored an eagle for the Patriots. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Morgan can have some really good moments, “said head coach Amanda Minchski, “and that was one of them, for sure. It’s not something that even really shocks us, hearing that she made an eagle. She has those types of abilities. She keeps maturing and getting better with experience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“These tournaments are just so important for the girls in terms of their season,” said Amanda Minchski, who was juggling her coaching and teaching duties throughout the day as the school year gets underway this week for East Allen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The start of the high school sports season for 2025-26 was aided by a beautiful morning in southern Adams County – with a local bald eagle adding a special touch along the banks of the Wabash River. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“They need to learn how the game of golf can go one way one day, then turn around and be different the next day,” referencing the Patriots’ participation at Cross Creek Tuesday. “We are still really young and the opportunity to play 36 holes at the start of the year is an opportunity that we just can’t give up, even if school starts earlier and earlier each year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proud sponsor of local athletes on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont’s ace, Ella Hockemeyer, played much better after she made the turn herself. The senior was playing double-bogey golf on the front, but turned it around and did not record a score higher than 6 on her card on the back nine, finishing at 95 in 8th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All five girls improved over last year’s scores,” said long-time Bellmont head coach Mike Macke. “We shot 47 strokes better as a team over last year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lyla Post hits her third shot on hole No. 1 at Wabash Valley. The junior finished her 18-hole round 30 strokes better than last year’s event. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The biggest improvements came from juniors Lyla Post and Ava Billman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lyla dropped 30 shots from last year and Ava dropped 20!” exclaimed Macke after the tournament wrapped up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proudly supporting local athletes and their coverage on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“I thought it was a pretty good first outing,” said Macke of his team, who will host many of the same teams at Cross Creek Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kinley Martin chips towards the green on No. 3 for the Bellmont Braves. Martin finished with a 110 for BHS at Wabash Valley. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“I believe all five will break 100 some time this season,” predicted the coach. “Hopefully we can get at least four to do that on the same day.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Check out our website for your next car!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South Adams played fairly consistently with some new faces in the lineup. Brooklyn Green led the team with a 102.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Adams No. 1 Brooklyn Green hits the green on No. 4 for the Starfires. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Team Scores: 1st-Bluffton 369; 2nd-Adams Central 398; 3rd-Frankton 402; 4th-Bellmont 409; 5th-Southern Wells 433; 6th-South Adams 434; 7th-Canterbury 449; 8th-Heritage 475; 9th-Jay County 484; 10th-Bishop Luers 503; Norwell-No Score<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top Ten Individuals: 1st-Ellie Gatton-Norwell 78; 2nd-Emma Schwartz-Bluffton 81; 3rd-Kylia Buis-Frankton 85; 4th-Londyn Smith-AC 88; 5th-Savannah Simerman-Norwell 90; 6th-Addi Kaufman-Bluffton 91; 7th-Alexa Coble-Canterbury 91; 8th-Ella Hockemeyer-Bellmont 95; 9th-Eve Corkwell-Bluffton 97; 10th-Emma Burnam-Norwell 99<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aubrey Orr takes some swing instruction from coach Chris Toledo on the Front Nine at Wabash Valley Monday. (Photo by Dane Fuelling)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Heritage Scores: Liz Buuck 122, Natalie Sorg 119, Aubrey Stoll 121, Morgan Comment 113, Leah Koroncevicius 123<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams Central Scores: Londyn Smith 88, Adrienne Johnson 102, Tenley Hendricks 100, Lilly Johnson 108, Sophie Johnson 117<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont Scores: Ella Hockemeyer 95, Morgan Huss 104, Kinley Martin 110, Ava Billman 106, Lyla Post 104<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams Scores: Brooklyn Green 102, Sofia Orr 106, Kendall Minger 113, Aubrey Orr 113, Margo Bernard 116<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com CEYLON – The Bluffton Tigers picked up Monday right where they left off last season,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29,13,15,38,51,28,26],"class_list":["post-27909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-adamscentral","tag-bellmont","tag-featured","tag-golf","tag-heritage","tag-southadams","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DSC_0446.jpg?fit=2464%2C1632&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27928,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27909\/revisions\/27928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}