Cole Murdock and his buddies from the Cedar Rapids Kennedy golf team turned the 2013 Rotary Pribyl Junior Tournament into their personal playground Friday.

Murdock fired an even-par 70 at Elmcrest Country Club and captured the Open Division with a 72-hole score of 293 in a battle with two of his teammates.

Conner Koberg finished second at 296 and Davis Sutton placed third at 300 as the three juniors grabbed the gold, silver and bronze for the Cougars.

"It kind of shows our strength this year, it shows how good we can actually be," said Murdock. "I think there's a very good chance we can challenge anyone for state this year if we play the way we have been. If all of us play solid, I think we're capable of taking the title."

The local Pribyl tournament serves as a prelude to the high school season, which starts next Thursday with the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet at Airport National.

The high school district meet will be held at Elmcrest Oct. 8 and the state meet will be conducted at Hunters Ridge in Marion Oct. 11-12, so the Cougars would be playing on familiar turf in the biggest meets of the year.

"I hope that we can compete at that top level," said Kennedy Coach Mark Wilden, an interested spectator Friday. "That's our goal, to be able to play at the state level. I think these guys can do that."

Kennedy has developed a strong tradition in boys golf in recent years, with high finishes at state meets with golfers who continue their careers in college.

"I think we all have a passion for the game," said Murdock. "We're working hard at it. We've all proved we can play at a high level."

Murdock, Koberg and Sutton, all wearing purple "Drew" shirts in honor of fallen teammate Drew Wall, played in the final group Friday at Elmcrest and enjoyed each other's company as they battled for top honors.

Murdock began the day with a one-stroke edge over Koberg and Sutton. It evolved into a two-way race as Murdock and Koberg both shot 2-under 33's for the first nine holes, but Murdock had a steadier hand on the final nine holes and won by three shots.

"I managed to make some big pars down the stretch. That was huge," said Murdock. "Shooting par in the round is good. I'm happy with it, very happy with it."

The golfers played 18 holes apiece at Ellis Park, the Cedar Rapids Country Club and Hunters Ridge before finishing at Elmcrest. Murdock finished at 7-over-par 293 for 72 holes.

Murdock captured the Novice 12-to-14 division in 2011 as an incoming freshman at Kennedy and has won two Pribyl titles in three years. "This tournament has been good to me," he said.

Matt Junge of Xavier placed fourth at 303 and Dominic Rodriguez of Washington was fifth at 306. Jordan Even and John Ingwersen, two Xavier teammates, tied for sixth at 308, with Even winning a playoff. Ingwersen was the 2012 Pribyl Open champ.

Kennedy golfers topped Xavier golfers in the Pribyl tournament, but both schools have strong teams and will meet several times during the high school campaign.

"They're going to push us all year," said Murdock. "They'll help us a lot with that competitiveness against people that we know and people we're friends with."

PRIBYL GOLF TOURNAMENT

OPEN DIVISION
Final Scores

1. Cole Murdock         73-77-73-70=293
2. Conner Koberg        79-73-72-72=296
3. Davis Sutton         70-77-77-76=300
4. Matt Junge           72-76-81-74=303
5. Dominic Rodriguez    76-80-73-77=306
6. Jordan Even          78-79-73-78=308
John Ingwersen       77-77-79-75=308
8. Ian Kelly            74-81-87-74=316
9. Seth Nutt            78-81-82-77=318
Zach Denny           77-82-79-80=318
11. Ben Sagers          78-83-83-76=320
12. Mitch Willems       81-78-82-80=321
13. Jacob Patterson     85-79-79-83=326
14. Jason Gingrich      83-79-83-82=327
15. Kellen Gray         85-81-82-80=328
16. Ben Myers           81-86-80-83=330
17. Jacob Sevcik        85-91-80-75=331
18. Tanner Stewart      86-85-79-82=332
19. Joe Slattery        80-86-85-83=334
20. Blake Seda          84-90-84-79=337
Maxwell Claassen    82-87-82-86=337
Owen Vander Velden  86-79-87-85=337
23. Jordan Weiss        80-89-83-86=338
24. Brent Larson        84-86-88-81=339
Cal Clark           82-79-94-84=339
Colin Vondracek     84-88-84-83=339
27. Bobby Charlton      89-93-76-83=341
Evan Jankwietz      87-88-87-79=341
Luke Winker         83-90-84-84=341
30. Ryan Doser          86-92-79-85=342
Barak Spittle       86-98-75-83=342
32. Max Thrune          87-98-79-80=344
33. Adam Van Oort       85-85-86-89=345
34. Jeremy Schnieders   89-85-88-84=346
Jacob Walvoord      87-86-90-83=346
36. Mitchell Lorenz     88-89-87-83=347
Cooper Reittinger   83-87-90-87=347
38. Adam McDermott      83-91-87-87=348
39. Mitchell Burger     85-88-98-82=353
40. Jabe Gonder         87-91-95-86=359
Mitchell King       85-98-95-81=359
42. Ben Mulder          90-89-90-91=360
43. Grant Sylvester     87-102-95-89=373
44. Reece Chadima       89-93-99-102=383
45. Nathan Fisher       90-97-108-98=393