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Minster's Bryce Prenger watches his putt during Saturday's Nate Niekamp Invitational at the Mercer County Elks. Prenger shot an even-par 72 to earn tournament medalist honors.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Area boys golf teams traveled to the Mercer County Elks on Saturday for the third annual Nate Niekamp Invitational, honoring the late St. Henry golfer who died of cancer in 2022.
The battle for the team title came down to a pair of Western Buckeye League teams in Shawnee and St. Marys. The Indians held off the Roughriders 317-318 to claim the championship in the 21-team, field. A pair of Shelby County teams finished close behind as Russia edged Lehman 323-325 for third place with Minster a stroke back of Lehman in fifth with 326. St. Henry tied for sixth with Botkins at 327. St. John's, Marion Local and Versailles tied for eighth with 335. Ottoville (339), Greenville (340), Van Wert (347), Fort Loramie (348) and Anna (351) rounded out the top 15. Fort Recovery (352), Coldwater (360), Parkway (368), New Bremen (375), New Knoxville (386) and Celina (427) rounded out the field.
The battle for tournament medalist came down to the reigning MAC Golfers of the year as Minster's Bryce Prenger dueled with St. John's Tyce McClain, who shared Golfer of the Year honors last season. In the end, Prenger shot an even-par 72 to not only claim medalist honors, but earn a $500 scholarship from the Niekamp family for low score for a senior golfer, McClain finished a stroke back at 73. Fort Recovery's Reece LeFevre shot a 75 for third place. Shawnee's Ashton Wright, Versailles' Brayden Wagner and Lehman's Henry Petersen tied for fourth with a 77.
Fort Recovery's Reece LeFevre hits the ball onto the green.
Three golfers, St. Marys' Caleb Rohrbach, Botkins' Will Monnin, and Shawnee's Brandt McGreevy, tied for seventh with 78. Marion Local's Marcus Schwieterman, St. Marys' Gaige Newbauer, Ottoville's Evan Altenburger and Russia's Leo Counts tied for 10th with matching 79s. St. Marys' Hayden Roby, Fort Loramie's Jack Cotner, St. John's Parker Will, Shawnee's Sullivan Hasting, Russia's Carter Hoehne and St. Henry's Cooper LaGuire tied for 14th with 80. Tying for 20th with matching 81s were St. Marys' Braylon Lampert, New Knoxville's John Gabel, Botkins' Treg Meyer, Anna's Rhylan Platfoot, Ottoville's Parker Langhals, St. Henry's Hudson Schmitz, Lehman's Carter Rigel and Russia's Grant Bergman.
Coldwater was led by Lance Vian's 88. Eli Schumm led Parkway with an 86. New Bremen's Brady Pape also shot an 86. Celina's Ethan Winner shot a 96.
St. Marys' Blake Dingledine chips the ball toward the green at the Nate Niekamp Invitational at the Mercer County Elks.
In addition to Prenger's scholarship, St. Marys' Blake Dingledine and Botkins' Carson Heuker won drawings for two $500 scholarships that was open for all senior golfers competing. One scholarship was donated by the Niekamp family with the other donated by the family of the late Marion Local golfer Jordan Moeller, whom the tournament originally honored from 2008 to 2022.
The WBL and MAC hold their league tournaments this week. The WBL will take place Thursday at Wapak Country Club while the MAC heads to Stillwater Valley on Saturday.
New Bremen 3, Anna 0
The Cardinals improved to 11-0 heading into Tuesday's key conference battle at Parkway by beating the Rockets 25-11, 25-23, 25-12.
Mary Rindler finished with 17 kills and eight digs for New Bremen. Ashtyn Eilerman added eight kills and three blocks with Charlotte Nelson recording 18 assists.
St. Henry 3, Fort Loramie 0
St. Henry traveled to Shelby County and won a battle of Redskins 26-24, 25-9, 31-29 for its 10th win of the season.
Karlee Buschur led St. Henry with 12 kills. Mylee Kramer added eight kills. Olivia Gast served up six aces, Addy Homan added 27 assists and Morgan Baumer tallying 18 digs.
Botkins 3, Celina 1
The Bulldogs dropped to 2-3-2 on the season in losing to the Western Ohio Soccer League-leading Trojans, who improve to 8-0-2 with the win. Hudson Meyer had two goals for Botkins with Trent Paul adding a goal.
Nelson Chapman scored the lone goal for Celina, which travels to Shawnee tonight.
Miller City 4, Coldwater 1
The Cavaliers took the loss to the Wildcats at Cavalier Stadium.
Mia Byer had the lone Coldwater goal. Claire Bertke had the assist.
Troy Twilight Invitational
Area teams traveled to Troy to run along the Great Miami River in the annual evening meet held at the regional meet course.
The New Bremen boys finished second in the Gray Division as Fort Loramie won by a 99-109 margin.Fort Recovery ran two of its runners in the division with the rest of the team competing in the White Division.
Fort Recovery's Alex Roessner finished fifth overall with New Bremen's Simon Shroyer taking seventh. Cardinal Caleb Wittenbrink was 15th.
In the girls' Gray Division, New Bremen was 13th with Marion Local 14th. New Bremen's Riley Suchland finished fifth overall. Marion Local's Maria Dirksen was 13th.
The Parkway girls placed sixth in the White Division with 220 points with Fort Recovery placing 20th. Parkway's Jordyn Schaefer and Tabitha Meyer finished 10th and 11th. Madison Heitkamp placed 34th.
In the boys White Division, Parkway finished 13th with Fort Recovery 15th. Parkway's Isaac Menchhofer finished 11th with Ethan Stolly placing 21st. Fort Recovery's Russell Hart was 25th.
The Coldwater girls ran in the Scarlet Division, finishing 26th overall. Abby Alig led the Cavaliers with a 53rd-place finish with Fort Recovery's Makenna Huelskamp running as an individual and placing 55th. Coldwater's Audrey Alig was 58th.
Minster Classic
The host Wildcats held off MAC rival Versailles 25-39 to take the high school girls team title at Four Seasons Park.
Anna was third with Crestview fourth. New Knoxville did not field a full team.
Minster's Claire Bohman won the race with a time of 20:02.6, 33 seconds ahead of Crestivew's Emily Heth. Minster's Maria Niekamp was third followed by Versailles' Ava Rismiller and Blair Schellhase to round out the top five. Minster's Annie Hemmelgarn, Amelia Bergman and Catelyn Cedarleaf finished sixth through eighth with Versailles' Corynn Goubeaux and Lillian Selhorst rounding out the top 10. New Knoxville's Ariyah Pfenning finished 15th.
Versailles won the high school boys race with 26 points with Crestview second. Minster was fourth with New Knoxville fifth and Coldwater sixth.
The Tigers' Jackson Spitzer and Tony Moorman finished first and second. Collin Cedarleaf finished eighth with Jack Strasbaugh taking 17th. Will Lammers led New Knoxville with a 20th-place finish. Coldwater was led by Noah Obringer's 28th-place finish.
Celtic Clash
Celina traveled to Dublin Jerome for an eventing race.
The Bulldog boys finished 12th in the High School Varsity Division with 328 points as the host Celtics won the team title. Collin Buening finished 14th with Caleb Lehman placing 23rd.
The Celina girls were 17th in the High School Varsity Division with 427 points with Gahanna Lincoln winning the team title. Jennalee Dameron finished 13th with Elle Miesse placing 44th.
O-G Blue/Gold Invitational
St. Henry finished second in the high school boys division in Ottawa. Bryan won the team title with 25 points with St. Henry edging Tinora 90-91 for second. St. Marys finished 20th. Bryan's John Deitemeyer won the race in 16:19.40
Michael Rindler led the Redskins with a seventh-place finish. Zach Heath was 13th with Michael Kunkler placing 15th. Gavin Luebke led St. Marys with a 58th-place finish.
The host Titans won the high school girls division with 56 points. St. Henry was 10th with St. Marys 12th. Gwen Huddle of Napoleon won the race with a time of 18:13.27. Quinn Lefeld led St. Henry with a 30th-place finish. Audrey Huelsman finished 40th.
Piper Reams was 47th for St. Marys with teammate Kacey Regedanz 48th.
