Bison golfers roll into top three at Lexington

McCook senior Gabe Vielma rolls a putt during last year’s Class B state tournament. Vielma helped the Bison earn a top three place in Lexington Tuesday.

Courtesy photo

Editor's note: McCook coach Rick Haney provided this report as the McCook golfers competed at Tuesday’s Lexington Invitational

"The Bison had another good outing today at Johnson Lake Golf Course.

Leading the Bison were a pair who carded scores of 79.

Both Brady Esch and Gabe Vielma scored in the 70sagain to medal in seventh and eighth place in the individual race. Their efforts were very respectable due to the conditions of the greens and level of competitors at this meet.

It was a really nice day so it was enjoyable to watch those to score well.

Coming in right behind those two was Hunter Hays with a 83. We expect any time that Hunter will break out and lower his score into the 70s. He certainly has the potential to do so and we expect him to be there soon.

Both Trevor Oberg and Tanner Unger had solid outings to day by scoring 85 and 87.

Much like Hunter these two are ready to go lower and improve to scores in the 70’s. When they clean up some of the mental errors and gain confidence they will surprise folks.

It is nice to see as a team that all five of our players were in the top 25 in a tough field of competitors.

In the team race, we placed third.

North Platte had a stellar day today. They shot a 296 which is really tough by all standards. Second was Broken Bow who had a very nice day to beat us by one stroke with at 325.”

A further look at team scores and other resultsd from Lexington:

Team scores — 1. North Platte 296, 2. Broken Bow 325, 3. McCook 326, 4. Grand Island Northwest 330, 5. Cozad 336, 6. Holdrege 350, 7. Kearney 374, 8. Ogallala 379, 9. Grand Island 382, 10. Lexington 392, 11. Gothenburg 405, 12. Minden 412.

Full Bison results: Gabe Vielma 39-40-79. Vielma’s three on hole two was matched only by Iziah Nez of Grand Island, who went on to shoot 104 for the tourney.

Vielma went on to hit three or fours on 11 of 18 holes.

Brady Esch 39-40-79. Esch was amazingly consistent down the stretch, hitting five straight 4s and a 3 during the last six holes.

Hunter Hays 43-40-83. Hays overcame three 6s in the first six holes.

Trevor Oberg 44-41-85. Oberg’s best holes of 3 finished both the front and back nines.

Tanner Unger 46-41-87.