COTTONWOOD FALLS – When wet and muddy conditions challenged the entire Sand Greens field, it came to nobody's surprise who handled the conditions the best.

Lakeside senior Jace Cunningham was the only golfer to finish under par on Wednesday's state meet at Cottonwood Falls Country Club, carding a 1-under 65 to notch his third consecutive state championship and lead the Knights to a fifth straight team title. 

“Jace adjusts real easily to most any course that you play,” Lakeside coach Cory Beougher said. “He’s got enough background – between the grass and the sand – to understand what to do.

“On a muddy course where you have to carry stuff and not bump and run, he can adjust and use wedges. It was a really good round. I know he wasn’t quite as happy with it as he would have liked, but if anybody would have played it they would understand. It was tough conditions.”

Cunningham birdied three holes on his first nine before going 2-over on the final nine in a workmanlike effort. 

“The driving wasn't the best today but my irons stepped up there,” Cunningham said. “Chipping also kind of stood out today. The greens were a little slower, but I thought I stepped up and overcame the wetness of the greens. 

“It was definitely muddy. There wasn’t a lot of rollout on balls, but you had to hit everything a little harder to compensate.”

Cunningham finished his career undefeated in Sand Greens state meets. He played junior varsity as a freshman on a loaded team. His sophomore title came at Leonardville Golf Course and last year’s meet was at Tipton Oaks. 

“It feels good,” Cunningham said of the three-peat. “I put a lot of hours into this. It feels good to have all those hours on the range and on the course pay off. 

“I started playing Sand Greens in high school and I’ve come to love the game and how unique it is. It’s special in our rural Kansas area.”
 

Cunningham, a Kansas Wesleyan signee, won by seven strokes over teammate Eli Schmitt, who shot a 72 to take runner-up honors. 

“Eli has really started to come along later in the year,” Beougher said. “He’s been pretty consistent length-wise, and that’s something we really had to adjust to on this course as well. It’s just a shorter course and you had to be more accurate with irons.”

Lakeside shot 301 as a team. Gabe Smith was a 10th-place medalist for the Knights with an 80 while Jackson Hardy was 17th with an 84. Tatum Miller added a 24th-place showing

“Overall, it was a good outing,” Beougher said. “We were kind of disappointed we didn’t golf as well as we have all year, but the course had a lot to do with that.

“On a sand course, we’re used to bump and run coming into greens, but if you bumped and tried to run it into the greens it would just stop dead. It made it a lot more difficult and a lot more unique to play today than it normally is. We adjusted well as they day went on.”

Lakeside loses three seniors off the state team but Cunningham expects the Knights to keep their tradition going strong. 

“It’s starting to bleed down to our younger kids, as it did when I was a freshman,” Cunningham said. “It gave me a little glimpse of victory to work harder, and that’s continuing with the younger kids.”

“Each year our team goal is to win state and individually they all just want to golf as well as they can golf,” Beougher said. “It’s something that they work on all year.”
 

Rock Hills took second as a team, 25 shots back of Lakeside with a 326 while Clifton-Clyde (342) was third in its first year of the program. 

Clifton-Clyde’s Oliver Nobert took third individually, followed by Beloit-St. John’s Grant Goodaker and Rock Hills’ Ty Vance. 

Other golfers in the top 10 included Rock Hills' Ethan Wirth (sixth), Riley County’s JW Lister (seventh), Beloit-St. John’s John Mick (eighth) and Pike Valley’s Sean Morgan (ninth).