NORTH VERNON — Jennings County golfer Bryce Kirchner was awarded All-Hoosier Hills Conference after carding the fifth best individual score at the HHC meet on Saturday at St. Annes.
Kirchner led the Panthers with a 5-over par 76 to help Jennings finish five strokes behind Columbus East for fifth place with a 335 team score. The Olympians finished one stroke behind Bedford with a 330 to place fourth.
Floyd Central edged out Madison 313-316 for the conference title.
“It feels pretty good,” Kirchner said of being All-Conference. “I didn’t know if it was going to stay up there as the fifth score. I was second and then third, and then fourth. I was like, “Uh oh,’ but I’m glad the way it turned out.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
East’s Kody Reynolds finished one stroke behind Kirchner with a 77 that included a 1-under par 34 for the front nine. He holed a 135-yard shot on the sixth hole for an eagle that helped create his solid front nine.
“That’s great, and he can build on that,” East coach Tom LaBarbera said. “He had a great front nine. He just had some struggles on the back. We’ve got to get past those and stay in the moment.”
Avery Foist finished with an 83, and Adrian Adams shot an 84, while both Mark Mayhem and Leyton Eremeir carded 86s for the Olympians.
LaBarbera said East didn’t have its best showing on Saturday.
“I just didn’t think we were very competitive today,” LaBarbera said. “There were some challenges with the course, and we didn’t overcome those … We played well enough to get fourth, but 330 is just not very competitive at this point in the season.”
Jennings coach BJ Bingham said he was ecstatic with the majority of his golfers and was happy with the Panthers’ fifth-place finish.
Adam Leach was the second-best golfer for Jennings with a 79. Austin Roscoe added an 89, and Hunter Conrad a 91. Joe Kelly finished with a 98.
“To finish fifth in the conference is better than anybody expected us to finish, knocking on the doors of teams just ahead of us by five, six shots,” Bingham said. “We could have really done something special even more than what we did, but a 335 for us as a team is good.”
