Pritchard leads Newton boys golf to season-best score

OSKALOOSA — Five career-best rounds led the Newton boys’ golf team to its season-best score on Tuesday.

The Cardinals played their best 18-hole round of the season with a 360 during the Oskaloosa Invitational at the par 70 Edmundson Golf Course. Newton finished 13th in the 15-team field.

“We continue to show improvement,” Newton head boys golf coach Pat Riley said. “We still do things that show our inexperience though. We have good swings and hit good shots, but we are still learning how to play golf and how to move around a course.”

Kinnick Pritchard turned in a career-best 78 to highlight the Cardinals’ day. He had nine-hole splits of 38-40.

Career-best days from Peyton Rozendaal (90), Lane Rozendaal (94) and Carter Maki (98) completed Newton’s scoring golfers.

Colin Cummins and Ethan Pageler had non-counting 100s. That was a career-best round from Cummins.

“It’s not always about hitting the perfect shot, it’s about not getting into a situation that leads to sevens and eights,” Riley said. “It’s still a work in progress.”

Norwalk won the team championship with a 287. The Warriors were 19 shots better than runner-up Washington (306) and Pella Christian (314), Winterset (317) and Oskaloosa (320) completed the top five.

Pella (328), Williamsburg (329), Nevada (335), Fairfield (342) and Sigourney (353) were the next five and the rest of the field featured Grinnell (354), Mount Pleasant (357), Newton (360), Fort Madison (378) and North Mahaska (380).

Norwalk’s Cael Sherwood was the meet medalist with a 66. Washington’s Roman Roth carded a 71 as the runner-up medalist.

Sixteen golfers had scores better than 80 and 41 turned in an 85 or better.