Five Barton men's golfers in Top-7 lead Cougars to first conference victory in Coach Kaiser era #GoBarton

It wasn't the outright victory the Barton Community College men's golf team sought Monday at Wichita's Crestview Country Club but nonetheless the 15th ranked Cougars will take it in tying 12th ranked Dodge City Community College for the title of the second conference meet of the season.

Monday was a sort of déjà vu for the Cougars as Barton held the first round lead by four in the first conference meet of the season two weeks ago only to have the Conquistadors storm ahead for the victory. Today, the Cougars again held the morning round lead, this time by five strokes in firing a 296 but maintained the afternoon round just enough in carding a 300 as Dodge City rallied for the tie with a 295.

The conference victory is the first in Head Coach Doug Kaiser's eight years at the helm as the Cougars have steadily made the climb up the rugged ranks of the KJCCC.

In a field of fifty golfers, Barton had five within the top nine of the leaderboard with Kylian Cavdar and Kelby Titus tying for third place overall with a thirty-six hole 3-over 147. Cavdar slid one place in the standings after the morning round 73 in shooting a final round 74 while Titus moved up from his 6th place 75 in firing an even par 72 to climb into the third spot.

Ryotaro Tsuji was tied with Cavdar at 73 from the morning but a 4-over 74 concluding the tournament in 6th place, one stroke ahead of Thitipong Homruen's 6-over 150 with rounds of 74 and 76. Joining Homruen in the 7th placing was Adrien Bonnet in moving up two slots in following the opening 76 score with a 74 in rounding out the five Cougars in the top nine golfers.

Jacob Roth gave the Cougars their second straight conference meet of having six or more within the Top-18 placings making the squad's largest jump on the leaderboard, following an opening 27th place 80 with an afternoon 2-over to finish tied for 16th at 10-over 154.

On the flip side of Roth's climb, Oscar Elfvin and Renan Laveissiere slipped in the standings to finish in the 26th and 30th spots respectively. Elfvin began the second round in 9th place with a 4-over 76 but carded an 82 in the final round to finish at 14-over 158 while Laveissiere's 27th place 80 was three strokes better than the afternoon play in concluding the tournament at 19-over 163.

Team Standings: 
1) #15 Barton CC (296-300) and #12 Dodge City CC (301-295) – 596 (+20)
3) #13 Hutchinson CC (307-293) – 600 (+24)
4) #24 Garden City CC (311-304) – 615 (+39)
5) Kansas City Kansas CC (324-305) – 629 (+53)
6) Allen County CC (323-328) – 651 (+75)
7) Coffeyville CC (347-343) – 690 (+114)

Complete KJCCC Meet No. 2 Results: Team   Individual

Barton's next action comes in the 54-hole KJCCC Championship held April 16-17 at Wichita's Auburn Hills Golf Course.