March 23, 2018 By Chris Varney
It could be an interesting year on the golf course for Grinnell High School this spring. Both boys and girls squads have promising teams coming into the 2018 season.
On the boys side, can Senior Lucas Scherf put together a state championship type of year? He had a chance last year at state but could not overcome a bit of a slow start and finished in third place. Since then, Scherf has decided to focus only on golf, spending the winter travelling to warmer weather states and playing in tournaments where he can hone his game. Meanwhile, his main competition in the Little Hawkeye Conference Spencer Tucker of Oskaloosa was busy leading the Indians to the state basketball tournament. It will be interesting to see these two battle it out on the course this year.
While Scherf will be on a mission, the Tigers should not be counted out to make it to state as a team. They do lose Brady Ellis to graduation but Junior Matthew Cunningham will return, although he will be dual sporting it with track this spring. Grinnell has a couple of freshmen that might push Cunningham to the #4 spot. Head Coach Mike Baker says that Cole McGriff and Jordan Walker have a lot of potential to go low on the course. There’s also Senior Nathan Loucks and Junior Parker McAlexander that will be looking to improve their scores from last year and other freshmen that could have an impact this year.
On the girls side, the Tigers return everybody from last year’s 4th place state tournament team. Sophomore Bella Amador-Lacson finished in 4th place individually for Grinnell — she was 1 of 2 golfers last year that had a scoring average for 9 holes that was under 40 (the other was the state champ Sarah Nacos of Washington). Senior Alisha Ford is a two time state tournament qualifier and is back to be the leader of this year’s team. Plus, Sophomore Maddie Schrack was a dependable number three player for the Tigers. Junior Naomi Jackson and Sophomores Maddy Bolte and Mikayla Hatcher also return and Head Coach Mark Kivett says Freshman Maddie Elliott has tremendous upside.
Get all the information you want on Grinnell Tiger golf during our High School Golf Preview Show which airs tomorrow, Saturday March 24 beginning at 8:00 am on 1410 KGRN.