By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
With four team members among the top six scorers on the leaderboard, St. Henry won the Region 7 boys golf tournament by 15 strokes over Ryle on Monday at Boone Links Golf Course.
St. Henry senior Ben Carter took medalist honors with an even-par 72 and his twin brother, Will, placed third with a 74. The fifth and sixth place finishers were their teammates Will Hammond (76) and Jake Montgomery (77).
“I felt like we played really well,” Ben said. “It really was a team effort. Unfortuntely, we had a guy DQ (disqualified) so it just shows we were able to use our fifth man and still won by a large margin. We knew we put in the work and just had to get it done.”
This is the third time in five years that St. Henry has won the Region 7 tournament. But the only Crusaders who have been region medalists since 1997 are Kevin Tobergte in 2022 and Ben on Monday. He finished one stroke ahead of Joseph Mangine of Covington Catholic.
Last year, Ben was region runner-up by one stroke. He didn’t get off to a good start in Monday’s round. He was 3-over-par through six holes when coach Jerod Cahill told him his teammates were doing much better.
“I kind of looked at him and said, ‘I’ve got to get it going,’” Ben recalled. “I was able to get kind of hot for a few holes and got hot late with birdies on 14 and 16 and just kind of cruised in.”
St. Henry’s winning team total was 299 and Ryle took second place at 314. Both teams advance to the first round of the state playoffs and will play teams from three other regions on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Shelbyville Country Club.
Earlier this month, St. Henry golfers won the All “A” Classic boys state tournament. They’ll have to place among the top three teams in next week’s tournament to qualify for the post-season state championship tournament on Oct. 7-9.
“None of us have ever played there,” Ben said of Shelbyville Country Club. “We’re going to go down Sunday for a practice round and I think just seeing it once will help us. We know what we can do. We should just go play our golf, have some fun, be ourselves, and we should do really good.”
Owen County and Gallatin County were the top two teams in the 8th Region girls golf tournament on Monday at A.J. Jolly. The individual qualifiers for the first round of the state playoffs included Brossart senior Emma Laker, Highlands senior Jenna Richey, Campbell County eighth-grader Ella Pompilio and Campbell County senior Natalia Waggoner.
Laker placed fifth with a 9-over 81 and Richey placed 10th with a 95 to lead the local contingent of golfers.
REGION 7 BOYS GOLF TOURNAMENT
TOP TEAM SCORES
St. Henry 299, Ryle 314, Covington Catholic 321, Walton-Verona 329.
STATE QUALIFYING TEAMS
St. Henry — Ben Carter 72, Will Carter 74, Will Hammond 76, Jake Montgomery 77.
Ryle — Paxton McKelvey 75, Andrew Roach 79, Jake Roscoe 80, Thomas Leone 80, Hayden Li 81.
STATE QUALIFYING INDIVIDUALS
Joseph Mangine (CovCath) 73, Jacob Cottrell (Walton-Verona) 78, Trenton Wilson (Boone County) 79, Jack Woolwine (Dixie Heights) 80, Chase O’Keefe (Scott) 80, Max Brunkel (Conner) 80, Drake Brittingham (Conner) 80, Kyle Flynn (Dixie Heights) 82, Gavin Vonhandorf (Walton-Verona) 82, Sammy Klaene (CovCath) 82.
