The Greenwood Blue Jays held on to record a three stroke victory at the 'Ozark Invitational' on Thursday. The tournament took place at the Fremont Hills Golf Course.
The Blue Jays fired a 334 at the invitational to grab the win, a tournament that fielded twelve teams. Close behind were the runneup Nixa Eagles who registered a 337.
Tom Montileone's 77 paced the Blue Jays at Fremont Hills. Montileone recorded a 39 on his front nine then followed it up with a 38 on the back side. His 77 was also the tournament's low score which earned him top medalist honors.
The Greenwood junior, who placed tenth at state as a freshman and fourth last year as a sophomore, bagged twelve consecutive pars en route to his 77.
"Tom has a history of sometimes starting out slow," Blue Jay head coach David Oatman said. "But after a few holes he usually finds his rhythm and his game starts to flow. He hits the ball with a lot of power and accuracy and when he gets it going he's really a lot of fun to watch."
The win made it two in a row for the Jays who finished atop the leaderboard at the 'Logan-Rogersville Invitational' on Monday.
Needless to say back to back wins has set well the Blue Jay head coach.
"Back to back says a lot about our kids. They're working very hard and it's showing- just like it did today for the Ozark Invitational," Oatman said. "Our boys played hard, they played as a team and they supported each other, all the kind of things that coaches like to see their kids do."
But there was another thing that seemed to please the Blue Jay head coach.
"We had a few kids post higher scores than they did last week but other kids carded lower ones," Oatman pointed out. "So it's not necessarily always the same guys stepping up. When some kids are a little bit off their games others are picking theirs up."
"Our kids are hanging in there and getting better one tournament at a time," he said. "Our goal is to keep improving to get ready for our district tournament, sectionals and the state tournament."
Rounding out the Blue Jay scoring Thursday was Tony Brandt 44-39-83, John Ankrom
41-47-88, Jacob Kassing 45-43-88 and Matt Rowe 37-49-86.
The runnerup Nixa Eagles were led by Seth Kovak. Kovak fired rounds of 38-42 to card an 80. Joining him in the Eagle effort were Jacen Clark 40-41-81, L. Turnbull 44-44-88, L. Ramsey 42-46-88, and R. Johnson 47-42-89.
Finishing third were the Springfield Catholic Fightin Irish. Tops on the Irish card was Nick Bailey who recorded rounds of 40-38 for a 78. He was followed by Nick Walz 42-39-81, J. Walz 41-44-85, N. Palmer 44-52-96 and J. Gambon 55-52-107.
The Blue Jays have two tournaments scheduled next week. On Wednesday, April 20, they'll be teeing off in Marshfield, and on Thursday in Millwood.
Ozark Invite Team Results
1. Greenwood 334
2. Nixa 337
3. Spfld. Catholic 340
4. Webb City 348
5. Carthage 351
6. Ozark 357
6. Strafford 357
8. Republic 370
9. Willard 371
10. Branson 380
11. Hillcrest 400
12. Joplin 421
Ozark Invite Medalists
School Name Score
Greenwood Tom Montileone 39-38-77
SGF Catholic Nate Bailey 40-38-78
Nixa Seth Kovak 38-42-80
Ozark Austin Timberlake 41-40-81
SGF Catholic Nick Walz 42-39-81
Nixa Jacen Clark 40-41-81
Carthage Elijah Rehrer 41-41-82
Webb City Chance Sticklen 42-40-82
Greenwood Tony Brandt 44-39-83
Webb City Boyd Resa 41-43-84
