Led by brothers Brady and Blaise Barnum, the Dublin Jerome boys golf team won the Division I district title Oct. 7 at rain-soaked Apple Valley.
HOWARD – Led by brothers Brady and Blaise Barnum, the Dublin Jerome boys golf team captured the Division I district title Oct. 7 at rain-soaked Apple Valley.
Jerome (283), St. Charles (288) and New Albany (299) outlasted tough competition and two weather delays to advance to state Oct. 12 and 13 at Firestone Country Club in Akron.
Watterson’s Alex McMahon (70), Upper Arlington’s Will Mangas (71) and Teays Valley’s Deacon Kroeger (71) earned the three individual berths to state.
The Barnum sibling rivalry – it’s actually more of a friendly competition – saw Blaise, a freshman, edge Brady, a junior, for medalist honors by one shot, 68-69.
“This is always the hardest tournament of the year because there’s so many good teams in the Central District,” Jerome coach Brad Sparling said. “It’s always super competitive, so I’m really proud of the boys. They played exceptionally well, especially Blaise. That’s really impressive for a freshman. We’ve been working really hard and I’m just really happy for the guys.”
Blaise, who was playing as Jerome’s No. 5 golfer, couldn’t have picked a better time to earn his first high school win.
“Coming here as a freshman to district, this is the one I really wanted to get for my first high school season,” Blaise said. “It’s a roller coaster against my brother. I beat him once previously. This one is really good.”
Blake Hartman (71), Evan Menges (75) and Trent Thompson (80) also competed for the Celtics.
Mikey Pagnotto and Harry Hadden both shot 71 to lead St. Charles, ahead of Hudson Burkey (73), Beckham Martin (73) and Pierce Stealey (77).
“This is survive and advance out here,” St. Charles coach Brian Unk said. “It’s always a tough day. We’ve had a lot of weird things happen to use the last handful of years. We’ve made it out, but we’ve also felt that we had really good teams that didn’t make it out, so it’s just a relief to make it.”
New Albany rallied after the second weather delay to earn the final state berth. Elijah Hall-Bromberg led the Eagles (73), followed by Nolan Kniese (74), Ethan Hall (75), Shay Routhier (77) and Nicholas Thompson (79).
“I’m ecstatic, over the moon,” said first-year New Albany coach Ben Arthurs, who also coaches the school’s girls team. “My guys fought tooth and nail to get it done and post it low. We had a great (No.) 5 man (Routhier) step up and he got his score posted, so we’re really excited to have this opportunity.”
Olentangy Liberty (302), Upper Arlington (302), Thomas Worthington (303), DeSales (305), Worthington Kilbourne (309), Watterson (312), Mount Vernon (317), Dublin Coffman (318) and Marysville (333) rounded out the 12-team field.
High school sports reporter Frank DiRenna can be reached at [email protected] and at @DispatchFrank on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Dublin Jerome boys golf wins OHSAA Division I district title
Category: General Sports
