It was a big day for local teams Tuesday at the annual Golden Hawk Boys Golf Invitational hosted by Mid-Prairie at the Kalona Golf Course.

For the first time in recent history, the Golden Hawk Boys were Hawk Invite team champs, beating conference rival West Branch by a single stroke 322 to 323. Mid-Prairie put four players in the top 10, led by third-place overall finisher Bryce Henry with a five-over 77, Andrew Rath at 81, and Grayson Gingerich and Tristan Koller each 82. Other scores for Mid-Prairie included Hudson Ehrenfelt 85 and Clayton Davidson 87. Following their team title, the happy group of Hawks spoke with KCII Sports about the win.

The Hawks said, “Early in the morning, the greens were not as fast. For later holes, the greens really firmed up and putting changed. It was a beautiful day. Sun was out. A little windy, but not too bad. Great day for golf! After the turn when we came into the clubhouse, the scores were up on the TV and asked coach if that was what it was actually at. They said it was not totally updated, but pretty close, so that got us excited. We were doing pretty well. We just needed to keep grinding. We had confidence that we were going to win when we stepped on the course today. We knew it was a win. There was no way we were losing this! We had been playing well lately, especially against Tipton last night. The team is coming together. We were all confident.”

The Hillcrest Academy Ravens finished third in the nine team field with their score of 327. Highlight of the day for Hillcrest was the individual championship for senior Rowan Miller, with his even par round of 72. He joined KCII post-tournament to talk about the day.

Miller said, “It was a little windy, but I’ll take the wind and the sun any day over what we had been playing in. Finding fairways off the tee has been a focus for me and that went well today. I think (the key) was the starting putt for me. I was able to put it on the green and had a 30 or 40 foot look at birdie. I made it! That set the tone.”

Other Ravens on the card included Lawson Schrock and Rylan Good with 83s, Ethan Yoder 89, Jack Turner 90 and Matthew Chalupa 100.