A year ago, the Carlton Crusaders male golf team came away with a silver medal at the provincial high school championships in Estevan.
Now they have a chance to finish one spot higher on the podium.
Ben Zultok, T.J. Baker, Cole Jenkins and Cody Huntley punched their ticket to next weekend’s provincials in North Battleford as the Crusaders squad finished well ahead of the St. Mary Marauders to take first place in the team event at the North Central district championships Thursday at Cooke Municipal Golf Course.
“We golf together all of the time,” said Jenkins, who is in Grade 11. “We’re super competitive with each other and I think that allows us to be a good team.”
Baker, Jenkins and Zultok are all back from last year’s Crusaders lineup, while Huntley is replacing Bryce Ahenakew.
“We didn’t have a great practice round in Estevan last year and it took a little bit for our putting to get going, so that’s something we’re going to be focused on for next weekend,” Jenkins said.
“It’s a pretty open course in North Battleford, but the greens are faster and there’s lots of water around there, so we have to be ready for that.”
Jenkins also won the male individual title Thursday as his round of 71 was one shot better than Noah Parent of St. Mary.
“I thought I had a pretty consistent round today,” Jenkins said. “I had a lot of pars out there, which helped me out a lot.”
With his runner-up finish, Parent will be joining the Carlton team in North Battleford.
Meanwhile, Grade 11 Canwood student Cassidy Anderson captured the female title and earned a spot at next weekend’s provincial championship in the process with a round of 110.
“I haven’t been able to go the last two years when I qualified, so hopefully the third time is the charm,” Anderson said.
“I had a pretty average round, but I felt like my putting was pretty good. The greens were pretty fast today, so I think that helped me out a little bit.”
