MARLBORO TWP. — Ace Greg Briggs buried his head into his arms while sitting on a golf cart near the clubhouse. Teammate Andrew Young rambled about what could have been.
The members of the Cloverleaf boys golf team had their hearts broken Wednesday, as two strokes separated them from history.
Attempting to rally and earn a share of the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division championship, the Colts shot 346 at Sable Creek Golf Course. The disappointment hit like a ton of bricks after they learned Norton (346) won a fifth-man tiebreaker 98-115 and Field (345) took the tournament.
The season standings read Norton first (18 points), Field second (17) and Cloverleaf third (15), but the Colts, who were second in dual play, would have stolen the title had they won the tournament.
“The team perspective is really frustrating just tying (Norton),” said Briggs, whose team would have lost a fifth-man tiebreaker to Field as well. “We had to win (the tournament) to win the league or be co-champs and for it to be just (two strokes) …
“I know I missed half a dozen 3-foot putts that could have made the difference and I know all of us had strokes we could have gotten back. It’s frustrating.”
The PTC uses a non-traditional 10-8-7-6-5-3-1 point system to determine the overall champion, with the regular season and tournament weighted equally. Entering the day, Norton (13-1, 10 points), Cloverleaf (12-2, 8) and Field (11-3, 7) were in a dogfight.
Post-round scoreboard watching was jam-packed and intense. The Falcons won the tournament due in large part to an 81 from No. 5 man Evan Dalziel, while Panthers No. 5 Mitch Zimmerman (86) proved to be clutch as well.
The Colts countered with their usual staple of Briggs (79), Jake Stevens (87), Young (89) and Jack Lewarchick (91), but their efforts weren’t enough to win the program’s first league championship since 1983, when eventual Class AAA state medalist Tom Kies led Cloverleaf to the top of the Pioneer Conference.
The news was tough to take for Briggs, one of the top players in Medina County who tied PTC Metro Division Player of the Year Mason Juersivich for the lowest score in the division.
“I can’t think about it like that (as a positive) right now,” he said. “I don’t think I ever will. It’s a hard loss.”
Ron Wachtel had a different view. Though the longtime Cloverleaf coach also expressed disappointment in his team not winning, he preferred to look at the bigger picture.
In their first PTC season, the Colts gave themselves a puncher’s chance in the Metro Division race. They also are on track to record their lowest team scoring average in seven years and believe they have a chance to compete at the Barberton Brookside Division I Sectional in less than two weeks.
That’s a 180-degree attitude shift for a squad that lost 38 of its final 42 Suburban League matches.
“Overall for the season, it’s been a real success,” Wachtel said. “The kids were excited that they had a shot that meant something. The last few years, we were in last going (into the SL Postseason Tournament) and there wasn’t a lot of hope.
“Whenever you have a chance, you feel excited. The kids are down right now, but when they look back at it in a few days, they’ll be proud.”
Results
MARLBORO TWP. — Results from the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division Tournament at par-72 Sable Creek G.C.
Overall standings: 1. Norton (13-1) 18, 2. Field (11-3) 17, 3. Cloverleaf (12-2) 15, T4. Ravenna (6-8) 11, T4. Coventry (6-8) 11, 6. Woodridge (5-9) 8, 7. Springfield (2-12) 6, 8. Streetsboro (1-13) 2.
Tournament standings: 1. Field 345, 2. Norton 346, 3. Cloverleaf 346, 4. Coventry 363, 5. Ravenna 377, 6. Woodridge 378, 7. Springfield 382, 8. Streetsboro 425.
Cloverleaf (346): Greg Briggs 79, Jake Stevens 87, Andrew Young 89, Jack Lewarchick 91, Brian Matheny 115, Frank English 119.