Prairie golfers swinging for state this fall

CEDAR RAPIDS — After a devastating district meet last year and not qualifying for state, the Prairie boys’ golf team has one goal this fall.

Make it state.

And with senior Tanner Wachtl and freshman Henry Sobaski leading the way, the Hawks are hoping to not only make state but make a run in the tournament.

The Rotary Pribyl Junior Golf tournament showed just how promising Prairie’s season could be with five players scoring Top 20 finishes.

Wachtl, Sobaski, Connor Keenan, Jayson Kubik, and Matt Boyles all had good runs at the Rotary Pribyl event last week.

"I think the results are pretty encouraging,” sophomore Keenan said. “It shows that we have players that can place in tournaments and shoot (good) scores.”

Keenan shot 314 in the four-day tournament, tying for 10th place overall.

“One of our team’s main goals for this season is to qualify for state. I am pretty confident that we can,” Keenan said.

The whole team is confident the Hawks could score high at state.

“I think we have the people and what it takes to go far in state this year,” junior Jayson Kubik said. “Our Pribyl scores really show that.”

Kubik shot 317 in the Pribyl, 14th overall.

The Hawks lost four starting seniors last year (Payton Burns, Ashton Carmer, Jace Rickertson, Nicholas Scaff), but the addition of Sobaski could be huge

Sobaski shot 305 at Pribyl, finishing seventh.

“I think that I can bring some scores to the team and get us some higher finishes,” Sobaski wrote in an email. “I always try to be confident in myself and teammates, so as long as we do our thing we should be successful.”

The team is confident Sobaski will have a positive impact.

“I think that with Sobaski coming in, we have that second scorer behind Tanner that can really put some damage on the MVC conference this year and throughout the state,” Kubik said. “(Having him) will help us get a run going.”

Wachtl will have an obvious impact on the team. Last year, he finished first-team all conference in and had the third best 18-hole average at 74.88. He finished second overall in the Pribyl, scoring a 292.

Prairie opens the 2023 season Thursday in the MVC Super Meet at Thunder Hills Golf Course in Dubuque.