Southwest District Boys Golf Preview

The Division III Southwest District Boys Golf Tournament is set. 12 teams and 12 individuals from non-qualifying teams will tee off Monday at PipeStone Golf Club in Miamisburg. From the field, just two teams and two individuals will advance to the state tournament. The Shelby County Athletic League will be well represented at PipeStone and if recent history means anything, there's a great chance we'll see a SCAL school at state.

Botkins, Russia and Ft. Loramie will account for 25% of the qualifying teams at the district tournament. Those three programs have all been to the state tournament in the past six years. Ft. Loramie qualified in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Botkins went in 2019 and 2021. Russia also made their first appearance ever in 2023.

The 2024 Sectional Champs (Picture via X)

Hottest of them all right now might be the Botkins Trojans. Head coach Brett Meyer's squad won the sectional tournament at Shelby Oaks in Sidney back on September 17th by eight strokes over Russia. Eight strokes also happens to be the same number Ross Dietz shot under par that day when the senior rifled an eye-popping score of 64 for individual medalist honors. Dietz is a two-time league Player of the Year, two-time state qualifier and just recorded perhaps the greatest round ever at the Sidney sectional. Standing in Dietz's shadow this year is teammate Carson Heuker. The junior and all-league honoree is having another solid campaign and registered the seventh best score of the field at sectionals with a 77. Lastly, a trio of Botkins freshmen is led by another all-league honoree in Treg Meyer, with classmates Will Dietz and Will Monnin not far behind.

The 2024 SCAL Champions (Picture via X)

The Russia program just keeps reloading. Coaches Paul Bremigan and Terry Daugherty's team won their third consecutive outright SCAL championship this season going unbeaten at 12-0. The Raiders also ran their league record during that three-year span to 35-1. A big key to all that success has been seniors Braylon Cordonnier, Vince Borchers and Dom Francis. Back in August, Cordonnier broke the 18-hole school record when he shot a 2-under 70 in the Ft. Loramie Invitational at Arrowhead. Borchers is a three-time all-league honoree that came up huge at the sectional tournament with a 78, second best on the team that day. And the veteran Francis will join Borchers as the only two Raiders on this year's team to play in their third district tournament. If all that wasn't enough, a couple juniors named Leo Counts and Michael Voisard can out-shoot the seniors on any given day. Counts did exactly that at sectionals with a 75 which wound up being the third best score of the entire competition.

The 2024 Ft. Loramie Invitational Champions (Picture via X)

Ft. Loramie understands tradition and consistency as well as anyone. The Redskins will make their 10th straight appearance in the district tournament under head coach Brad Turner and assistant coach Erin Turner. The team was 3rd-place at the sectional tournament, just five strokes behind Russia. Senior Beau Schafer and junior Jack Cotner have been arguably the best 1-2 punch in the SCAL this season after finishing fourth and fifth respectively in the all-league recognition. Schafer was individual runner-up at sectionals with a 1-under 71, which matched the last Redskin to have a sub-par round at sectionals when graduate Adam Ballas had an identical score back in 2021. Cotner has three junior classmates in Dawson Tennery, Wade Holthaus and Chase Bornhorst who round out their lineup. The entire group also carries the confidence of having beat both Botkins and Russia at invitationals in August and September.

Outside of the those three league rivals, the SCAL will also have Jackson Center's Blake Noble competing in Miamisburg. Noble was the top individual from a non-qualifying team at the Sidney sectional when the senior shot a score of 76. Finally, in Division II, Anna senior Jose Pulfer was also the top individual from a non-qualifying team when he shot 78 at sectionals in Springfield. Pulfer now advances to the D-II district tournament at PipeStone on Tuesday. For more information on the tournaments go to the following link: https://www.ohsaa.org/Southwest-Sports-Tournaments/Golf-Boys