March 29, 2024

Abell ends prep career with 15th place finish at state meet

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MARSHALLTOWN — Colfax-Mingo senior Jimmy Abell set a goal at the beginning of the season to end his high school golf career at the state meet.

But as the season progressed, it was apparent that Abell would be able to do much more than that when he got on the big stage.

Unfortunately, the ball doesn’t always bounce the right way.

After posting a medal-contending score of 76 after round 1, Abell went backwards on the leaderboard with an 80 and finished with a two-round total of 156.

And even though things didn’t end the way he wanted them to, Abell still finished 15th out of 57 golfers in the Class 1A Boys’ State Golf Tournament at American Legion Memorial Golf Course.

“It wasn’t what I was hoping for. I came in with a score yesterday that put me in the mix for a medal, and I was great for eight holes (Saturday),” Abell said. “The mental errors that I made put me out of reach for the top seven.”

The top-seven receive state medals. Abell was tied for 12th but just six strokes off the leader after Friday’s opening 18 holes.

He started off strong Saturday, shooting 1-over-par through his first eight holes.

Then a stretch of bogey-triple bogey-double-bogey ended his hopes for a top-10 finish.

“That’s what killed me. That’s seven strokes that I shouldn’t have had,” Abell said. “I probably would have been in the top five if I played those holes better.”

Shooting seven shots better would have indeed put him in a tie for fifth with Alta-Aurelia’s Josh McCormick, who finished with a 149.

But it was still a season to proud of for Abell, who had never participated in the state meet and never played the American Legion course.

“He’s been pretty steady all season, scoring in the 70s all season,” first-year Colfax-Mingo golf coach David Brahn said. “He’s had a really good year. It was our goal to get here and then go from there.

“He had what I thought I was a good starting round on a course that he had never seen before. We were hoping to make a bigger move today. He just had a couple of shots that didn’t go his way and it’s hard to recover after that.”

For the second straight season, the 1A individual champion was a freshman. Winfield-Mt. Union’s Kaleb Hagge won the title with a two-day score of 145. Last year’s champion, sophomore Chris Cooksley of East Buchanan, finished in a tie for third with a 147.

Led by individual runner-up Logan Capesius, Algona Bishop Garrigan defended its team title with ease.

Capesius, another sophomore, was one shot back of Hagge with a 146 and Garrigan shot 604 as a team and bettered state runner-up East Buchanan (624) by 20 strokes. New London (640) claimed the final team trophy in third.

Tying Cooksley in third with a 147 was senior Wes Buntenbach of Belmond-Klemme. Only five seniors finished in the top 15 positions though.

“It was a good experience. I was nervous. You want to play your best. Hopefully it will help me mentally,” Abell said.

The mental game is what Abell and Brahn thinks hurt the Tigerhawk senior the most.

After Abell made birdie on No. 10 to draw even, a bogey followed and then he struggled to stop the bleeding.

“The mental game was a factor. It was playing mind games with him,” Brahn said. “He was maybe swinging too hard to make up some ground. He knew he had to