Westside varsity boys golf competed at the Columbus Invite on April 19th. The team placed second overall behind Norfolk, with a third-place finish for Grant Jabenis with his total score of a 74, with a front nine score of 36 and a back nine score of a 38. Jacob Hellman and Kolby Brown tied for seventh place with 78 strokes each, scoring 40 and 38 on the back and front. The team as a whole shot 314 strokes resulting in their second-place finish.

Head Coach Brett Froendt was very impressed with the performance.

“Norfolk is a better team.  They are consistently really good and we played our best tourney.  So we were happy with our finish, but looking to improve,” Froendt said.

Star golfer Grant Jabenis believes that fixing up on some small mistakes that occurred during the invite can put them over the edge to first.

“I think what will really push us to the next level will be if we can get four scores the below 80,” Jabenis said. “For the Columbus invite, we had three out of our five guys in the 70’s, and if we could get only last score in that range it would make the biggest impact on our team score.”

In terms of specific improvements, head coach Brett Froendt thinks that what made the difference on the course was their performance around the green.

“One way I think we can get there is through improvement in our short games, which is something we have been working very hard on recently,” Jabenis said. Our ability to save shots from around the green, and our ability to recover from poor shots. These are things that will start lowering our scores.”

If their short game is fixed, the team should surely improve some of their scores, which in turn could put them over the edge to first.

Jabenis also believes that he could make a few individual improvements to his driving game, which could give him a more consistent top placement, which he achieved in the Papillion invite earlier this month,

“I am always striving to become a better ball-striker, which will help me give myself better looks at birdie, as well as limit my mistakes,” Jabenis said.

After this invite, the team believes they are making huge strides towards becoming a top team, especially after such a great placement. Jabenis has noticed the teams significant improvement.

“I think our guys are finally settling in, and becoming more confident with themselves,” Jabenis said. “We have great players this year, and it didn’t surprise me at all to see Kolby and Jacob shoot the scores they did. What made this tournament different is that we had a plan going into the day. From now on we will go into each tournament knowing exactly what we need to do to prepare for the round, as well as what we need to do on the course to stay focused.”

Froendt thinks that as state approaches, they should be very prepared to take their game to the next level

“We’ve worked hard on our short games and putting inside of ten feet,” Froendt. “We feel this will make the most difference as we get closer to districts and state in shaving strokes off our team score, and we’ll keep working our mental toughness through meditation and breathing exercises.”