THOMPSONVILLE — The Marquette boys golf team made a run at a downstate title before finishing two strokes behind champion Traverse City West at the two-day Traverse City Central Tee Off held at Crystal Mountain on April 20-21.

The Marquette No. 2 team also finished 12th in the large field of 30 teams and almost 200 golfers almost entirely made up of Lower Peninsula teams besides Marquette.

The MSHS girls also traveled to the meet, but were the only in-season team there as the MHSAA Lower Peninsula girls season is in the fall. The Marquette girls did play against some Traverse City-area players as Hayden Schetter and Kylie Smith had the Sentinels’ best scores.

“We went down there looking to get on the course earlier, do some team building and compete with schools and players we don’t usually see,” Marquette coach Ben Smith said in an email detailing the result. “It was a great experience, got a lot of holes in and battled TC West and others to the very end.

“I hope we can use it to kick start our season.”

The four-player score for Marquette No. 1 over the two days was 620 as TC West won with 618. Rockford was third with 622 and Grand Blanc fourth with 623.

Smith mentioned that Marquette No. 1 trailed TC West by three strokes after the event’s first day, then actually took over the lead for a few holes early on the second day.

The MSHS No. 2 squad had 672, three strokes behind TC West No. 2 and four strokes ahead of Big Rapids.

The Sentinels No. 1 group was led by sophomore Seve Swanson with a two-round total of 152 as he placed eighth individually.

Junior Boden Moore was 14th with 154, while senior Kaleb Chipelewski was one stroke after him in 16th with 155.

Junior Easton Aho came in 27th with 160, while junior Jack Pond was 33rd with 161 and junior Pavel McCutcheon 97th with 178.

For Marquette No. 2, freshman Lake Skytta was 47th with 165, sophomore Caleb Aho 49th with 166, freshman Dylan Pond 59th with 168, sophomore Mason Nygard 68th with 170, junior Trey Savola 75th with 173, junior Lucas Belkowski 101st with 180 and senior Zachary Leonard 110th with 183.

Story contents based on email received from MSHS golf coach Ben Smith. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.