Members of the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs were the class of the boys division at the Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association’s (SHSAA) provincial golf tournament this year.
And the teams from southeast Saskatchewan swept the gold medals at the event.
Provincials were held at the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course on Friday and Saturday. Eighty-seven of the top young golfers in the province were entered. They braved cool, windy conditions each day in the quest for provincial titles.
For the first time, golfers were divided into teams based on regions instead of schools. They also competed for individual medals. The top three boys scores on each hole counted towards the overall team total, and the top two girls scores each hole counted towards the girls team score.
In the boys team event, Team South East finished first with a 436. They shot a 211 in the first round and a 225 in the second. North Central was second with a 485 and South West was third with a 491.
The South East entry was comprised of Chase Gedak and Jayden Dudas of ECS, Theoren West of Wawota School and Darien Herlick of the Weyburn Comprehensive School. Wes Kreklewich of ECS is their coach.
Dudas said the South East entry had a good weekend across the board. They all scored under 90 for their rounds, keeping their combined score low.
Gedak also won the gold medal in the boys singles event. He shot a 69 in the first round and a 74 in the second to finish with a two-day total of 143, 11 better than Dudas (74-80).
“For the weather, I feel like I couldn’t have played much better,” said Gedak. “It’s my lowest tournament score ever, so I’ll take it.”
The strong showing in the opening round gave him a little bit of a cushion, but he knew he couldn’t be complacent.
“Jayden crept in on me in the back nine, but I still managed to keep it together,” said Gedak.
He said it was important for him to keep the ball in the fairway and hit a lot of greens in regulation. The first day the conditions were OK, but in round 2, it was tougher to stay warm.
Dudas said he played well until late in the back nine of the second round, when he had a couple of high scores. He believes home-course advantage helped.
“The conditions were pretty tough, and the course was playing pretty tough today,” said Dudas after the second round.
Gaige Balkins of the South West entry was third with a 155, and West was fourth at 158.
Herlick finished tied for 10th with a 167.
Two other ECS golfers competed. Drew Fenwick finished tied for 10th with a 167, and Ryan Chernoff was 30th with a 181.
Gedak and Dudas, both in Grade 12, are no strangers to team success at provincials. They won provincial titles with ECS in 2016 and 2017. Gedak was part of the team that won silver last year; Dudas didn’t play due to an injury.
Dudas said he likes the new regional format, but he preferred the old system.
“We’d have four kids from our school playing, instead of two (ECS students) and the other two.”
Kreklewich cited several reasons for the success of ECS golfers in recent years. The biggest reason, he said, was the parents.
“If the parents are willing to take the kids to the course, buy them the clubs, buy them memberships and take them to all of these tournaments, that’s No. 1. Number 2 is our junior program. Our junior program here is second to nobody else in the province that I’m aware of, and that helps tremendously, particularly when you’re in your formative years.”
And ECS has a great program where they allow kids to enter tournaments.
He knew he had a special group of talents coming up when Dudas, Gedak and Jace Carlisle, were in elementary school. Carlisle graduated this past June and is now on a golf scholarship in the U.S.
“I did everything in my power to get them into high school tournaments when they were in Grade 7 and 8 to get a look at them and get them competing, and then hope when they got to Grade 9, that they can be contributors right away,” said Kreklewich.
As for the new format, Kreklewich said it allows all schools and districts to be competitive. While Team South East had a healthy margin of victory in the boys event, second to seventh were separated by six strokes.
As for the girls division, the top three teams were separated by two strokes. Team South East finished first with a two-day total of 371 (182-189). Battle West was second at 372 and Horizon Central was third with 373.
Members of the South East entry were Maddy Berry of Moosomin, Jade Krainyk of Redvers, Hallie Bourassa of Radville and Kaysha Turner of Carlyle. Tannis Schewan of Moosomin was their coach.
Lauren Fox of Team North East won the individual girls gold medal with a 160, followed by Autumn Neiszner of Regina with a 163.
