West Union’s A.J. Cooper held down third place in the individual standings after two rounds of the 2024 Southern Hills Athletic Conference Boys Golf Tournament. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
As this issue goes to press, the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Boys Golf Tournament had reached the halfway point, 18 of the 36-hole competition in the books. By the time many of you read this, the third round will be in the books, played on Tuesday, September 17 at Hilltop Golf Course.
Round One was played on Tuesday, September 10 at the Hillsboro Elks, with Round Two at Snow Hill two days later. The defending champions of the SHAC Tournament are the North Adams Green Devils and the two-time defending individual champion is the Green Devils’ senior Breestin Schweickart.
There were some changes in the leader board from Round One to Round Two, but after the first nine holes, it was the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs holding the team lead, two strokes ahead of the two teams tied for second, West Union and North Adams. The individual results after the first round produced a tie at the top Lynchburg’s Saxen Wilkin and North Adams’ Connor Young both coming in at 38. After that, four golfers carded 39- Lynchburg’s Braedon West, Manchester’s Thomas Barnhart, West Union’s Zach Shoemaker and North Adams’ Caleb DeAtley. Bunching up the leader board at 40 was West Union’s Landon McIntosh.
Round Two on September 12 at Snow Hill saw changes at the top as Wilkin fired a 34 to take over the top spot all alone with his two-round score of 72. Moving into second place was Manchester’s Parker Hayslip, the 2024 Adams County Cup champion. After a 41 in the first round, Hayslip dropped that to 39 in the second for a total of 80, eight strokes off the lead. West Union’s A.J. Cooper followed up a 41 with a 40 to sit in third place at 81. Schweickart, the defending champion, struggled through the first two rounds, shooting 41-42 to leave him 11 strokes from the lead at the halfway point.
“As a team, we are looking to have a strong final two days of SHAC to make a run at it,” said North Adams head coach Corey Richmond. “Our boys are taking it one hole at a time and trying to chip away at the lead.”
In the team standings after two rounds. Lynchburg increased its lead to 13 strokes over second place West Union and 16 over third place North Adams as the tournament moved to Adams County on Tuesday with the third nine at Hilltop. The 36-hole event will end on Thursday, September 19 when the final round is played at Buckeye Hills and the 2024 champions will be crowned. Also, the top 15 golfers will be honored as All-SHAC performers.
SHAC Boys Golf Team Standings (Two Rounds): Lynchburg 319, West Union 332, North Adams 335, Manchester 344, Fairfield 379, Eastern Brown 382, Whiteoak 388, Peebles 399, Ripley 458
