With a chance to advance to Districts on the line eight schools gathered at the Kalona Golf Course on May 9 to battle it out in the IHSAA 2A Boys Sectional Golf Tournament. 

Mid-Prairie was the host of this event where the top two finishing schools would move on to the District Tournament at Heritage Oaks for a chance to qualify for the State Tournament. In addition to teams advancing, two individuals outside of the top two teams with the lowest scores would also be eligible to advance to Districts.

The Golden Hawks would finish fifth in the team rankings and with no individual Mid-Prairie golfer cracking into the top two best scores outside of the qualifying teams, this would spell the end of the 2023 golf season for the Golden Hawks. 

“We hosted a loaded Sectional with a lot of quality teams and golfers.  We knew it would be tough but our golfers were ready,” Mid-Prairie coach Kelby Bender said. “We went in shorthand with our low average scorer Drew Schlabaugh out with an illness.  Our golfers stepped up to the challenge and shot a 352 which is two strokes below our average and finished 5th. It was a battle at the top with the first four teams separated by just six strokes.”

As Coach Bender mentioned the scores were close all around, the difference between first place and second place at this District Meet was only one stroke. Tipton grabbed first place with an overall score of 333 and West Liberty took the runner-up spot with a score of 334. 

The top performance for Mid-Prairie came from senior Warren Scarff. Scarff, in what would become the last golf meet of his high school career, shot a 40 on the front nine and a 45 on the back nine to arrive at a personal best score of 85. This score gave him a 10th place finish.

“[Scarff] played well enough to give himself a chance to advance but came up 2 strokes short,” Bender said. “He had back to back birdies on the par 4 3rd and 4th holes enroute to a front 9 score of 40. Warren had a great career and was a great leader for us. He qualified for the District meet last season and played well for us all year. I am proud of his effort and how hard he worked the last three years.”

Senior Aiden Bush and freshman Bryce Henry were the other top performers for Mid-Praire at Sectionals. 

Bush would finish the meet with a score of 86, shooting matching 43’s on the front and back nine, to place him in 12th overall. Henry shot a front nine score of 44 and a back nine score of 43 to reach his final score of 87 and end the meet with a 16th place finish. 

With this 2023 Golden Hawk campaign coming to an official close Mid-Prarie will say farewell to six seniors. 

“We say goodbye and will miss six seniors,” Bender said. “Warren Scarff, Aiden Bush, Alex Bean, Ben Mattes, Shawn Dodds and Mose Yoder. It was great having them on the team. They all worked hard, wanted to get better, were competitive, and best of all were great teammates and leaders to the younger golfers.  Thank you seniors for all that you have done for the Mid-Prairie Boys Golf program.  We are all proud of you.”