By BUTCH HARMON
The DeWitt boys’ golf team has been the dominant team in Division 2 the last two seasons. Under coach Dave Koenigsknecht, the Panthers have qualified for the state tournament the last four seasons and have won the last two Division 2 state titles.
While the Panthers graduated three of their top five golfers from last season’s squad, the cupboard was not bare this spring, and the team has turned in a solid season.
“The season has been pretty good,” Koenigsknecht said. “Obviously we are not quite as good as we were the last couple of years because we lost a lot, but we’re still a very good team. In our league we won five out of the six jamborees, and we finished second at a couple of tournaments. We also finished sixth at the Rockford tournament, which has some very strong teams from the west side.”
Senior Tyler Polulak, a three-year varsity player, has been leading the way.
“Tyler is having a good year,” Koenigsknecht said. “He is averaging 75. He shot 72 a couple times and he has shot 75 a couple of times. He works very hard at his game and is very straight and accurate. He hits a lot of greens and rarely has a double bogey.”
The Panthers have also been receiving strong play from seniors Mitchell Overway and Peter Von Spreecken.
“Peter is averaging around 81 or 82 and has had a couple of rounds of 77,” Koenigsknecht said. “Mitchell has had a low round of 36 and is doing a nice job. Our freshman Owen Beyer is averaging close to an 81 or 82 and has been doing well. He has really helped us out.”
While the Panthers may not be favored to win the state this season, they have what it takes to make it back to the state meet, and they could finish strong.
“I knew we’d have a pretty good team, but it was going to be very difficult to be as good as we were last year,” Koenigsknecht said. “We’ve had a freshman, a sophomore, and a couple of juniors playing this year. We hope to make it back to state this year. I think we have a pretty decent chance if we play well. If we don’t play well, we might not make it. We will need a couple of rounds in the mid 70s and a couple of rounds near 80 at the regional, and we should be ok.”