The old gang of Kennedy golfers are all seniors now, heading down their final fairway together as high school athletes.
There are six of them - Davis Sutton, Conner Koberg, Cole Murdock, Tanner Stewart, Ross Grekoff and Seth Nutt - and they've accomplished some impressive things during their prep careers with major championships, conference titles and a pair of second-place showings at the state tournament the last two years.
The Cougars added another Mississippi Valley Conference title to their resume Monday, winning the Valley Division crown by a whopping 52 shots in the final round of the 54-hole event at Ellis Golf Course.
Sutton won the overall Valley championship with a 54-hole score of 217 with rounds of 65, 77 and 75 on three different courses. Koberg took medalist honors Monday with an even-par 72 and placed second overall at 225. Murdock placed third at 227, giving Kennedy a 1-2-3 sweep of the top honors.
The district meet will be held Oct. 7 at Hunters Ridge in Marion and the state meet is scheduled for Oct. 10-11 at the Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City, where the Cougars hope to end their prep careers with a state title.
They'll head their separate ways after that, with several Cougars planning to play golf in college.
"I'm a little sad that it's almost over, but then again this is where we've wanted to be for awhile," said Sutton. "We've been really looking forward to state this year and districts and getting there.
"So I think we're all excited," he said, "but then again we're like, 'Oh, man. It's almost over.' We've all been playing together for a long time."
It's been a special class of golfers at Kennedy, which has been one of the top golf schools in the state under Coach Mark Wilden for many years.
"The end is near," said Koberg. "I've thought about it before, how we've been a really good team, on and off the course.
"I guess it kind of hit me right now, that we don't know where we're all going to go next year. So hopefully we can end with some good scores."
Koberg has accepted a partial scholarship to play golf at Iowa State. Sutton has picked a college for golf, but does not want to reveal his decision until after the state meet. Murdock is trying to decide between basketball and golf, or perhaps he'll play both sports in college.
The other seniors have possibilities as well.
A few more weeks, however, and the old gang will be splitting up.
"That's going to be hard," said Koberg, "because they're some of my best friends."
Waukee is ranked No. 1 in the state and Kennedy is No. 2, followed by West Des Moines Valley, Dowling and Johnston. Sutton thinks it might come down to Kennedy and Waukee for the state title, but Koberg thinks a lot of different teams could wear the crown.
The Cougars want to finish on top this year after the two near-misses in 2012 and 2013.
"It's pretty much all I want and all we want," said Sutton. "I don't know if angry is the right word. Determined I guess is a better word, to get there and win it this year, because this is our last chance.
"We have been saying since we were freshmen that we were going to win a state championship. So we've got one last chance to do it."
VALLEY DIVISON RESULTS
COMPOSITE TEAM STANDINGS
54-Hole Total
1. Kennedy 284-310-300=894
2. Linn-Mar 303-330-313=946
3. Dubuque Sr 315-333-305=953
4. Wahlert 308-337-319=964
5. IC West 308-353-326=987
6. Cedar Falls 323-357-326=1006
7. Jefferson 363-386-358=1107
TOP 12 OVERALL
1st Team All-Conference
1. Davis Sutton, Kennedy 65-77-75=217
2. Conner Koberg, Kennedy 74-79-72=225
3. Cole Murdock, Kennedy 73-77-77=227
4. JD Goodfellow, IC West 74-79-77=230
Jakob Kirman, Dubuque Sr 76-81-73=230
6. Charlie Smith, Wahlert 76-80-75=231
2nd Team All-Conference
7. Trevor McCann, Linn-Mar 71-82-79=232
Tanner Stewart, Kennedy 79-77-76=232
9. Ross Grekoff, Kennedy 72-83-79=234
10. Ben Schmidt, Wahlert 73-85-78=236
11. Max Thrune, Linn-Mar 79-82-77=238
Gus Zaccaro, Dubuque Sr 79-86-73=238
MONDAY'S TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS
At Ellis Park Golf Course
Par 72
1. Conner Koberg, Kennedy 72
2. Jakob Kirman, Dubuque Sr 73
Gus Zuccaro, Dubuque Sr 73
4. Davis Sutton, Kennedy 75
Charlie Smith, Wahlert 75
6. Tanner Stewart, Kennedy 76
7. Cole Murdock, Kennedy 77
JD Goodfellow, IC West 77
Max Thrune, Linn-Mar 77
Jordan Bohannon, Linn-Mar 77
MONDAY'S METRO SCORES
KENNEDY - Conner Koberg 72, Davis Sutton 75, Tanner Stewart 76, Cole Murdock 77, Ross Grekoff 79, Seth Nutt 79.
LINN-MAR - Max Thrune 77, Jordan Bohannon 77, Trevor McCann 79, Brent Larson 80, Ben Greif 81, Jake Sevcik 82.
JEFFERSON - Adam Van Oort 86, Nile Happel 86, Kellen Brown 93, Reid Griffith 93, Connor Hammons 114, Carter Schmitz WD.
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