Minot North sophomore Teegan Dangel putts during the final hole of his round during the Turtle Mountain Invitational at Rolla Municipal Golf Course on Saturday, May 2. Dangel won medalist honors with a 76. Photo provided by Minot North Tennis

It’s been quite some time since the WDA visited Rolla Municipal Golf Course, and the nine-hole course proved to be a challenge for the 12-team field due to the lack of familiarity from its competitors.

Ten teams carded their highest round of the year, including both Minot North and Williston, but both the Sentinels and the Coyotes tamed the golf course better than the rest. The two teams tied for the best team score with a 328 at the Turtle Mountain Invitational on Saturday, May 2. Williston won the tiebreaker, having the better fifth score among the individual golfers. Drew Anderson shot a 93 as the fifth-best score for the Coyotes, while Minot North’s fifth best score was a 94 from Brandon Broderson.

“The big thing was the tournament ended up being very challenging,” Minot North coach Shane Hannegrefs said. “The golf course, we don’t have any experience playing there. Most of our kids have never seen the golf course before and there’s lots of penalty areas and trees and water everywhere. That probably cost us some strokes off the tee trying to figure out where you’re supposed to hit the ball and got in a little bit of trouble.”

Dickinson took third with a 332, followed by Mandan and Bismarck Century, who finished with a 339 and a 341, respectively. Minot High shot a 344 to place sixth, snapping its streak of five consecutive tournament victories to begin the season. The Magicians’ score was their highest by 29 strokes.

The Sentinels finished second as a team for the second time in the last three tournaments. They finished runners-up at the Jamestown Invite. Minot North has four top-five finishes this season.

While Minot North came up just short of winning its first tournament of the year, the Sentinels did produce the top individual score of the day with Teegan Dangel. The sophomore carded a 4-over 76 to capture medalist honors by three strokes over Dickinson’s Paxton Fridley. Dangel recorded two birdies on his round and had 11 pars.

“Teegan Dangel really controlled his golf ball and got it to where he wanted it to be and putted very well,” Hannegrefs said. “He just played phenomenal golf all day long. He never made any big mistakes. He made a few putts that kickstarted the round. He made a couple really good decisions at the end of the round when he maybe could have had an error. He played so well off the tee to keep it in play and minimize the penalties.”

With Rolla being a nine-hole course, every golfer played each hole twice during their round. Dangel started on the fourth hole, opening with three consecutive pars. He bogeyed the seventh before getting it back with a birdie on No. 9. He moved to 1-under with a birdie on the first hole. He would bogey the third hole twice, as well as the third and double-bogeyed the fifth.

Despite playing the same holes twice, the weather conditions greatly impacted the way the course played.

“The golf course got firm and fast today with the wind,” Hannegrefs said. “The wind certainly picked up and actually changed how you play the course from the first nine to the second nine.’

Kyler Weishaar, Kaden Carlson and Walter Langhans all finished tied for 13th with 84s. Weishaar and Langhans each recorded two birdies.

Minot North’s second-place finish comes just 24 hours after teeing off at their home course at Souris Valley as part of the Minot High Invite. Although they shot 17 strokes better as a collective that day compared to Saturday, they finished in fifth place. The Sentinels felt like they played relatively well, but were ultimately disappointed in their placing, as they are still looking to put together a complete round as a team.

“Collectively, we’re disappointed unless we all feel like we put it together,” Hannegrefs said. “Each tournament, we’ve had a couple guys who have broken through and found a groove, but we haven’t had the whole team quite do it yet. These kids compete very hard, so when things don’t go your way, they get frustrated. So it was a little disappointing finishing fifth at Souris Valley. The score wasn’t bad, but Minot High just played phenomenal and there were a couple other teams that played just a little bit better than we did.”

Parker Wallner led the Magicians with an 82 to finish seventh. Paxton Wallner also finished among the top 10 individually, carding an 83 to take 10th. Nathan Peterson (89) and Tripp Toepfer (90) rounded out Minot High’s team score.

Both the Sentinels and Magicians are back on the course on Tuesday, May 5, for the St. Mary’s Invite at Hawktree Golf Course at 10 a.m.