Twin brothers lead St. Henry boys golf team to 15-stroke victory in Region 7 tournament

By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter

With four team members in the top six spots on the leaderboard, St. Henry won the Region 7 boys golf tournament at Boone Links Golf Course on Monday, beating Ryle by 15 strokes.

St. Henry’s senior Ben Carter won the medal with an even-par 72, and his twin brother Will was third with a 74. Fifth and sixth place were taken by teammates Will Hammond (76) and Jake Montgomery (77).

“I felt like we played really well,” Ben said. “It was really a team effort. Unfortunately, we had a guy out, so that shows we were able to use our fifth man and still win by a big margin. We knew we worked and we just had to get it done.”

This is the third time in five years that St. Henry has won the District 7 tournament. But the only Crusaders to win a district medal since 1997 are Kevin Tobergte in 2022 and Ben on Monday. He finished one stroke ahead of Joseph Mangine of Covington Catholic.

Last year, Ben was a one-shot second in the district. He didn’t get off to a good start in Monday’s round. He was 3-over par through six holes when coach Jerod Cahill said his teammates were in much better shape.

“I looked at him and said, ‘I’ve got to make a move,’” Ben recalled. “I was able to put in a good performance on a couple of holes and put in a good performance late with birdies on 14 and 16 and kind of pulled through.”

St. Henry’s winning team totaled 299, and Ryle finished second with 314. Both teams will advance to the first round of the state playoffs and play teams from three other districts on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Shelbyville Country Club.

Earlier this month, St. Henry golfers won the All “A” Classic boys state tournament. They will need to finish in the top three teams in next week’s tournament to qualify for the postseason state championship tournament Oct. 7-9.

“None of us have played there,” Ben said of Shelbyville Country Club. “We’re going to go for a practice round on Sunday, and I think just seeing it once will help us. We know what we can do. We just need to go play golf, have some fun, be ourselves and do really well.”

Owen County and Gallatin County were the top two teams in the Region 8 girls golf tournament held Monday at AJ Jolly. Individual qualifiers for the first round of the state playoffs included Brossart senior Emma Laker, Highlands senior Jenna Richey, Campbell County eighth-grader Ella Pompilio and Campbell County senior Natalia Waggoner.

Laker finished fifth with a 9-over 81, and Richey finished tenth with a 95 to take the lead among local golfers.

REGION 7 MEN’S GOLF TOURNAMENT
BEST TEAM SCORES
St. Henry 299, Ryle 314, Covington Catholic 321, Walton-Verona 329.
GOVERNMENT MEMBER TEAMS
St. Henry — Ben Carter 72, Will Carter 74, Will Hammond 76, Jake Montgomery 77.
Ryle — Paxton McKelvey 75, Andrew Roach 79, Jake Roscoe 80, Thomas Leone 80, Hayden Li 81.
INDIVIDUALS WITH STATE QUALIFICATIONS
Joseph Mangine (CovCath) 73, Jacob Cottrell (Walton-Verona) 78, Trenton Wilson (Boone County) 79, Jack Woolwine (Dixie Heights) 80, Chase O’Keefe (Scott) 80, Max Brunkel (Conner) 80, Drake Brittingham (Conner) 80, Kyle Flynn (Dixie Heights) 82, Gavin Vonhandorf (Walton-Verona) 82, Sammy Klaene (CovCath) 82.