BY MIKE MARZOLF

Special to the Tribune

GOTEHNBURG, Neb. – There is little doubt the Barton men’s golf team had one of, if not the toughest, district to advance out of. 

It featured the No. 1 team in the nation. Two more ranked in the top nine and five ranked in the top 15. Barton was the sixth team in the pecking order, ranked No. 20.

So getting out of the district and on to the NJCAA National Tournament was going to be a tough task. The top three automatically earned a spot. Two more had a great chance to advancing with at-large bids. But not all six could make it.

Barton was that sixth team.

“We knew it was going to be tough,” Coach Doug Kaiser said. “We played pretty well that first day. The weather was great and our kids hit the ball really well.

“Then on the second day for the last 18 holes we didn’t handle the weather. It was 36 degrees when we teed off. We didn’t handle that as well as the other teams did.”

Indian Hills (Iowa) showed why its ranked No. 1 in the country as it shot even par as a team over the 54-hole event at Wild Horse Golf Course in Gothenburg, Neb. The Falcons finished first with an 864 – 18 strokes clear of the field.

Iowa Western, ranked 6th, was next with an 882 followed by Jayhawk schools Hutchinson at 890, Dodge City at 891, Garden City at 897 then Barton at 929.

The Cougars were in the mix until the final 18 holes when they shot a 323 – 20 strokes worse than their score the first two rounds. Barton was just a couple shots out of fifth place after 36 holes with back-to-back 303’s.  But on the final day Garden City fired an impressive 293 to separate itself from the Cougars.

Jackson Bugdalski of Indian Hills won medalist honors, shooting a 6-under 210. Thirawat Chantrakantaond of Dodge City led going into the final 18 holes, but shot a 3-over 75 and ended in second with a 4-under 212.  Skyler Tebo of Garden also finished under par, shooting a 1-under 215.

The highest Barton finish was turned in by Jakkapat Horsangchai at 8-over 224. He was in the top 10 going into the final 18 holes at even par but fell to 14th with his closing 80.

Natchapol Srinoon shot a 228 for 23rd. Seokunh Kang shot 234 for 34th, Blake Huxman 246 for 38th and Jared Oelke, 251 for 40th.

In addition Barton had two play as individuals with Andrew Iverson shooting a 248 for 39th and Dakota Soukup at 259 for 41st.

District III Championships

At Wild Horse Golf Course – Gothenburg, Neb.

Par 72

Team Scores

1 Indian Hills (Iowa), 291-279-294 – 864 (E)

2 Iowa Western, 294-294-304 – 882 (+18)

3 Hutchinson, 299-284-304 – 890 (+26)

4 Dodge City, 298-281-312 – 891 (+27)

5 Garden City, 306-298-293 – 897 (+33)

6 Barton, 303-303-323 – 929 (+65)

Top 10 Individual

1 Jackson Bugdalski, Indian Hills, 72-68-70 – 210 (-6)

2 Thirawat Chantrakantaond, Dodge, 73-64-75 – 212 (-4)

3 Skyler Tebo, Garden, 70-73-72 – 215 (-1)

4 Alister Balcombe, Iowa Western, 73-70-73 – 216 (E)

5 Trevor Ullestad, Indian Hills, 75-69-74 – 217 (+1)

6 Lewis Schenk, Hutch, 75-69-74 –218 (+2)

7 Eric Gilpin, Indian Hills, 72-71-76 – 219 (+3)

7 Jack Dugoid, Indian Hills, 72-73-74 – 219 (+3)

9 Jakob Barnes, Indian Hills, 73-70-77 – 220 (+4)

10 Caleb Height, Hutch, 75-71-75 – 221 (+5)

Barton

14 Jakkapat Horsangchai, Barton, 71-73-80 – 224 (+8)

23 Natchapol Srinoon, Barton, 73-76-79 -- 228 (+12)

34 Seokunh Kang, Barton, 78-73-83 – 234 (+18)

38 Blake Huxman, Barton, 81-84-81 – 246 (+30)

*39 Andrew Iverson, Barton, 83-79-86 – 248 (+32)

40 Jared Oelke, Barton, 85-81-85 – 251 (+35)

*41 Dakota Soukup, Barton, 89-80-90 – 259 (+43)