LAWRENCE— It was a battle all day long. The second Jayhawk Conference men’s golf tournament was a close contest the entire way at Alvamar Country Club in Lawrence.

In the end the Barton Community College men took fifth but were just 10 strokes from second place. Barton finished with a total of 639 for the 36-hole event played Tuesday – 21 strokes behind Dodge City.

Dodge City won the event by 11 strokes over runner-up Kansas City Kansas. Things got bunched up from there. Dodge shot 618, KCK finished with a 629, followed by Hutchinson at 631, Garden City at 634 and Barton at 639.

“As the day went along our kids didn’t feel like we were scoring very good,” Coach Doug Kaiser said. “Their scores were a lot higher than the first meet. But everyone was having the same difficulty with the conditions. It is a hard course.

“We just need to make sure we don’t get our spirits down in situations like that. You never know how everyone else is doing so you have keep grinding.”

The Cougars placed a pair of golfers in the top 10 as Natchapol Srinoon and Landon Fox both tied for sixth. Fox opened the first 18 with a 4-over par 76 and in a tie for second place. The sophomore from Winfield concluded the day with a 79 for a total of 155 – 11-over par.

Srinoon, a freshman from Thailand, shot a mirror of that score. He opened with a 79 then came back strong with a 76 for his 155. The two tied for sixth with Zach Kirby of Dodge City.

Dylan Coffer of Dodge shot a pair of 74’s to win individual honors by five strokes. His 4-over 148 bested that of Garden’s Skyler Tebo and Hutchinson’s Chase Coble at 153.

Koby Beougher, Barton’s only sophomore along with Fox, finished 14th. Beougher was steady during the day with a 79 in the morning round and an 80 in the afternoon for a 159 total.

Ellinwood freshman Jared Oelke finished tied for 28th. He struggled during the morning round with an 88 but came back to shot an 82 in the afternoon for his total of 170. Andrew Iverson rounded out the team with a 90-85—175.

Blake Huxman played as an individual in the event shooting 84-89—173 for 32nd.

The final conference meet – the Jayhawk Conference Championships – will be played at Sand Creek Station in Newton next week. That will also be the site of the NJCAA national tournament in May.

The Cougars will go back to Alvamar between those events for the District III Champions and the right to earn a spot at the national meet.