Welcome to Top Sports News

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Washburn Rural's boys golf team didn't quite get the day it was looking for in Monday's city boys tournament/Topeka West Invitational at Topeka Country Club, but there were two notable highlights for the Junior Blues.

Rural finished a disappointing fifth in the Topeka West tournament, held in conjuction with the city event, but the Junior Blues ran their streak of city team titles to 11 straight with a 32-stroke victory over runner-up Shawnee Heights while Rural junior Luke Leonetti turned in a dominating eight-stroke victory to claim his first city individual title despite fighting through a gusty wind all day.

"It was a battle out there today,'' Rural coach Jared Goehring said. "Luke gave us some spurts and we had some guys step up, but quite frankly we just weren't consistent enough today when it came to guys stringing some holes together. It would be one good hole and two bad holes and one good hole and three bad holes.

"Ultimately our goal was to come out and win the city today, which we accomplished and I'm proud of them for that, but the big goal was to win the Topeka West Invitational because we had won the previous two times. We didn't have enough in the tank and we didn't handle the conditions as well as we should have.''

Washburn Rural junior Luke Leonetti won the city golf title by eight strokes Monday at Topeka Country Club, leading the Junior Blues to their 11th straight city team championship. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Leonetti carded a 27-hole total of 114 strokes, while Seaman junior Tim Biggs placed second at 122 and Topeka West freshman Myles Alonzo was third at 124.

"It was interesting out there for sure,'' Leonetti said. "I didn't bring my best stuff ball-striking, but the short game was on today. The putter was hot. I got up and down from everywhere.''

In addition to Leonetti's win, Washburn Rural got fourth and fifth-place finishes from Cole Kucera and Joe Morse, who both finished at 125, while Giles Frederickson was seventh (126) and Turner Depperschmidt eighth (127).

Washburn Rural won its 11th straight city boys golf team title Monday at Topeka Country Club. [Submitted]

Leonetti said it was important for the Junior Blues to continue their string of success in the city tournament.

"City is a good event to win,'' Leonetti said. "Our guys usually do pretty well in this event and we know TCC pretty well. We get to practice out here pretty often. It was tough conditions, but the team was able to get it done today.

"City's always a good one to win. Coach loves it.''

Leonetti, who placed seventh as a freshman in 2019, said he began the day wanting to win the city individual crown.

"That was my goal,'' Leonetti said. "I came into this season with pretty high expectations. I'm feeling good, I'm playing pretty good golf and I wanted to come out here and do well in city, obviously, and hopefully play well in (Centennial) League coming up and regionals and state, and make a run.''

Sophomore Alex Valdivia led second-place Shawnee Heights with a sixth-place finish (126) while the T-Birds got a ninth-place finish from Aiden Jones (128) and a 10th from Ethan Rottinghaus (129).

Blue Valley ran away with the title in the 18-hole Topeka West Invitational by a 20-stroke win over Blue Valley Northwest (304-324), led by freshman individual champion Chase Rinkol, who shot a 69 to edge Blue Valley Northwest's Ian McCrary by a stroke.

Leonetti finished third in the West event with a 75, while Rural finished fifth but was just three strokes behind runner-up Blue Valley Northwest.

Leonetti was the lone city golfer to crack the top t0.

CITY BOYS GOLF TOURNAMENT

Team scores

Washburn Rural 485, Shawnee Heights 517, Seaman 533, Hayden 598.

Individual results (27 holes)

1. Luke Leonetti, Washburn Rural, 114; 2. Tim Biggs, Seaman, 122; 3. Myles Alonzo, Topeka West, 124; 4. Cole Kucera, Washburn Rural, 125 (won scorecard playoff); 5. Joe Morse, Washburn Rural, 125; 6. Alex Valdivia, Shawnee Heights, 126 (won scorecard playoff); 7. Giles Frederickson, Washburn Rural, 126; 8. Turner Depperschmidt, Washburn Rural, 127; 9. Aiden Jones, Shawnee Heights, 128; 10. Ethan Rottinghaus, Shawnee Heights, 129. 

Other Washburn Rural -- Tyler Higgins 131.

Other Shawnee Heights -- Tanner Zerger 134, Tyler Peterson 140, Kyler Ortiz 149, 

Seaman -- Gavin Wilhelm 131, Zach Weir 138, Reid Cowan 142, Jake Moss 148.

Hayden -- Trey Pivarnik 130, Brogan Scott 152. Carson Alfonsi 156, Dylan Foster 164, Marcel Pryor 166, Garret Borjon 170.

Other Topeka West -- Jacob Jachens 150.

Topeka High -- DeAndre Hicks 181, Raymond Labrador Perez 198.

TOPEKA WEST INVITATIONAL

Team scores

Blue Valley 304, Blue Valley Northwest 324, Shawnee Mission East 325, Olathe Northwest 326, Washburn Rural 327, Blue Valley West 333, Manhattan 342, Free State 345, Emporia 345, Shawnee Mission Northwest 352, Blue Valley North 354, Shawne Heights 355, Seaman 358, Olathe North 366, Dodge City 367, Salina Central 381, Hayden 392, Lawrence 408, Junction City 453.

Individual results (18 holes)

1. Chase Rinkol, Blue Valley, 69; 2. Ian McCrary, Blue Valley Northwest, 70; 3. Luke Leonetti, Washburn Rural, 75; 4. Patrick Neal, Olathe North, 77 (won scorecard playoff); 5. Eoin McLaughlin, Blue Valley, 77; 6. Thomas Gogel, Shawnee Mission East, 77; 7. James Ackerman, Blue Valley, 77; 8. Brad Eckart, Blue Valley North, 78 (won scorecard playoff); 9. Carson Baker, Blue Valley West 78; 10. Davan Smith, Dodge City; 80 (won scorecard playoff).

Other Washburn Rural -- Cole Kucera 80, Joe Morse 84, Giles Frederickson 85, Turner Depperschmidt 87, Tyler Higgins 88

Shawnee Heights -- Alex Valdivia 84, Ethan Rottinghaus 87, Aiden Jones 89, Tanner Zerger 92, Tyler Peterson 95, Kyler Ortiz 99

Seaman -- Tim Biggs 81, Gavin Wilhelm 88, Zach Weir 93, Reid Cowan 96, Jake Moss 102, 

Hayden -- Trey Pivarnik 83, Brogan Scott 98, Carson Alfonsi 104, Dylan Foster 105, Marcel Pryor 107, Garet Borjon 115.

Topeka West -- Myles Alonzo 86, Jacob Jachens 103.

Topeka High -- DeAndre Hicks 120, Reymond Labrador Perez 138.