Grafton golfers battling for league title repeat

Grafton High School’s golfers are coming around and trying to get back into the North Shore Conference race led by Whitefish Bay.

After not playing its best in shooting 174 at the Bog, its home course, on April 27, the defending league champ Hawks bounced back by shooting 156 at Brown Deer Park on April 28.

“That was more us on Tuesday than Monday was,” coach Phil Trottier said.

Jake Leidel, last year’s North Shore Conference Golfer of the Year, shot 36, tying for first.

Kendyl Conrad shot 38. Parker Strozeewski shot 40. Braxton Boehlke shot 42 and Jack Birmingham shot 43.

Grafton was fourth of seven NSC teams. Whitefish Bay won with 148 strokes. Homestead had 154 and Slinger had 155.

At last Friday’s 18-hole Kelly Green Invitational at Hawthorne Hills in the Town of Saukville, the Hawks had 398 strokes and came in second of 15 teams. Whitefish Bay won with 369.

Leidel shot 74, good for fourth. Strozewski shot 78. Birmingham shot 81. Conrad shot 82. Boehlke shot 83.

The meet format keeps all five scores instead of dropping the highest one. Grafton’s top four shot 315, “which is good — that’s under an 80 average,” Trottier said.

That was despite chilly conditions.

“For 20 or 30 minutes, they played in — I don’t know what that was, snow flurries?” Trottier said. “I had wool socks on, on Friday.”

“We’re off to not a fast start, but just a medium start,” Leidel said before Friday’s round. “We’re picking it up. We’ve been working hard in practice. Next week we should get some more points for conference.”

Conrad, who broke 80 for the first time in a high school meet this season, stepped up her game.

“I was just working a lot this summer, trying to have a better season. I think my average is down by a couple of strokes already,” she said.

The Hawks’ goal is to qualify for state as a team. They missed it by one shot last season.

“After last year at sectionals, we had a bad taste in our mouth,” Leidel said.

Strozewksi qualified as an individual.

“It would be huge,” Strozewski said of going back. “It would be better if I could go with the team, of course.”

Last Saturday at the Ashenfelter Invitational at Riverside in Janesville, Grafton shot 314 and was fifth of 21 teams.

“We had two eights on the card, two quadruple bogeys, 11 three-putts. We could have easily been 305 or lower,” Trottier said.

Konrad shot an even-par 72, tying for sixth.

“Even Kendyl had two three-putts, a couple of putts that didn’t go in. She’ll tell you she could have broken 70 on Saturday,” Trottier said.

Leidel shot 77. Strozewski shot 79. Boehlke shot 86.

“We’re starting to get there. We hit our stride a little bit. They’re improving. You want to play your best golf when May starts to roll around,” Trottier said.

Grafton was to golf at the Ozaukee Country Club on Tuesday, May 5. They golf at Hidden Glen in Cedarburg on Thursday, May 7, and at New Berlin Hills on Saturday, May 9 and at Hartford Golf Club on Tuesday, May 12.

Port in a rebuilding year

Port Washington has a young team this season with potential.

“We’ve got a dozen freshmen and maybe a dozen sophomores and juniors who are all solid junior varisty players,” coach Rory Palubiski said.

Some work in the offseason should make for a bright future, he said.

“They’re all passionate about golf,” he said.

Palubiski tries to keep his team relaxed and with short memories.

“Let’s not worry about getting first place. Let’s just all have fun. Just try to be a goldfish and forget about a bad shot or a bad hole,” he said.

“They’re all kind, polite, gentle, respectful souls to me. I’m real excited for the future.”

At the Kelly Green Invite, Port was 13th with 451 shots. It entered a second team since Random Lake/Ozaukee dropped out, and it finished 15th with 480 shots.

Senior Jack Schowalter shot 77, tying for 10th of 80 golfers. Senior Eric Krentz shot 84. Cooper Giese shot 86. Gabe Jerome shot 88. Charlie Klein shot 90. Steven Schowalter shot 91. Riley Pack shot 95. Blake Maves shot 96. Sawyer Lorier shot 110 and Jack Lorier shot 114.

The meet is named for Green, who died from a rare medical condition at 58 on Sept. 2, 2017.

Green taught at Port High for 30 years and was involved with students in basketball, cross country, track and field and wrestling. He was also a mock trial adviser. He enjoyed golf and was a union leader for more than 25 years.

Port was to golf at West Bend Lakes on Tuesday, May 5. The Pirates golf at the Washington County Course in the Town of Hartford on Thursday, May 7, and at Hon-E-Kor in Kewaskum on Monday, May 11.