The Prescott Cardinals finished 18^th out of 21 teams on back-to-back days in the two-day Battle on the Border Invitational at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo on Wednesday and Troy Burne Golf Course in Hudson on Thursday.

With much larger school districts like Edina, Alexandria and Stillwater taking the top three spots in the tournament, Prescott was not a favorite to win the tournament. However, gaining this kind of experience in a higher profile event against more elite competition than they are used to can only help the Cardinals players.

Prescott finished at +77 in Round 1, with Tyler Reiter leading the team in scoring with an impressive -1. After starting out +1 after the par 4 hole one, he came back and birdied the par 5 hole two. Two more pars and another birdie had him sitting -1 after five, but a bogie on six had him sitting even on the day after the front nine.

The back half of the course was cleaner for Reiter, who parred three straight before giving up a stroke on a par four to put him at +1. He then parred 14, 15 and 16 with the culmination of the course in two par fives sitting in front of him before the end. He birdied both, going first to even and then to -1 where he ended his day.

This is the exact kind of performance that Prescott has come to expect from its top shooter. However, the difficulty of the course hampered most of the players on Wednesday, and the rest of the Cardinals struggled to varying degrees along with the rest of the teams in attendance.

Sam Vesperman shot an 83 from the #2 spot, while Luke Kinneman and Cayden Johnson finished with consecutive 88 and 89 scores. Harris Linderholm rounded out the scoring for Prescott, shooting a 101.

Kinneman led the team in round two with an 85, shooting at the #3 player. Reiter and Vesperman each shot an 88, and Linderholm shot an even 100.

Prescott’s golfers have another two-meet week on tap as they play a pair of Middle Border Conference rounds on back-to-back days to open the week. First up is a meet at Krooked Kreek Golf Course in Osceola on Monday at 1 p.m., then they will travel to Bristol Ridge Golf Course in Somerset on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. tee time.

River Falls

The River Falls Wildcats played three rounds this week, finishing secind at Lake Wissota on Monday, then third at The Golf Club on Wednesday and finally finishing second at Erin Hills on Saturday.

Monday was a good round for the Wildcats who finished in a second place tie with Hudson with a 154.

Number one shooter Ryan Swanson led the way by a margin for River Falls, finishing with a 35 on the day. Connor O’Malley has been shooting well lately from the 3-hole, and he leapfrogged Will Benedict in this one finishing second in scoring with a 38. Benedict finished just behind with a 40, Archimedes Xiong shot a 41 and Ty Wise finished out the scoring for the Wildcats with a 43.

Wednesday’s Viking Invitational was much the same for the talented River Falls shooters as they took third out of 17 teams. O’Malley continued his strong season, taking top score in this one from the same #3 spot with a 77. Benedict came in second with a 79, while Swanson and Xiong each finished with an 82. Ty Wise clocked in with an 88 after 18 holes of play.

The last round of the week for the Wildcats was the MACC Fund Invitational at Erin Hills on Saturday morning where they continued their strong play with another second-place finish.

Swanson played out of his mind in this one finishing with a -5 (67) on the day. He birdied early and often, parring the hole one par 5 but birdying three straight par 4’s after that. Swanson would bogie hole 6 and hole 9 but he still chipped in another birdie on hole 8 to finish -2 on the front portion of the course.

If anything, he made the back half of the course look even easier, birdying 10, 14, 15 and 18 while bogeying just once to finish at five under on the day.

The rest of the team scored in order of position this time out, with Benedict shooting a nice round at 76. O’Malley’s 80 and Xiong’s 83 carried the rest of the day for the Wildcats as they finished second out of 28 teams.

River Falls will look to keep their hot streak going this week when they play another three-step of golf tournaments.

First up, they will head to New Richmond on Monday for a 3:30 p.m. tee time, then it’s off to the Eastwood Invitational at Eastwood Golf Course on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. and finally they finish up with a long drive to Rice Lake for an invitational with a 9 a.m. tee off.

Ellsworth

The Ellsworth Panthers played in the Battle on the Border two-day tournament this week, finishing 21^st at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo on Wednesday and then finishing 19^th at Troy Burne Golf Course a day later.

Up against 20 of the best programs from across the Twin Cities metro area, the Panthers benefit greatly from the elite level competition, even if they don’t finish on the podium.

Round 1 in Lake Elmo was both better and worse than Round 2 for Ellsworth. While they finished worse in overall standings, they shot quite a bit better. The Panthers’ top golfer Trey Wittenberg finished with an 80 in this one, while the other four scorers, #2 Thomas Tober, #3 Cooper Olson and #4 Rowan Nelson, all finished in the 90’s.

Wittenberg did a great job of limiting damage, only double bogeying one hole and making up for that with a birdie; he finished tied for 46^th out of 124 golfers.

Of the two courses, anyone will tell you that Troy Burne is one of the most challenging in the area, and the scores reflected that on day two. Wittenberg was the top shooter once again, finishing with a 96, while Tober, Olson and Nelson finished in the low to mid 100’s on the day.

Coming up next for the Panthers is a pair of Middle Border Conference meets, first at Krooked Kreek Golf Club on Monday at 1 p.m. and then at Bristol Ridge Golf Course on Tuesday.

Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Cardinals played their sixth Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet of the season at home on Tuesday where they finished fourth.

It’s been the motif for the Cardinals squad this season as they’ve finished fourth at every conference meet they’ve played. It was also their only meet of the week this time out, and as fans of Spring Valley “boys” golf will probably have guessed, it was Sam Steinmeyer and Mara Ducklow who led the way in scoring at their home course.

Steinmeyer shot a 44 while managing to limit the damage throughout. His +8 on the day was good for a top 10 finish, and he leads the Cardinals in scoring on the season.

Ducklow’s box score looks very similar to Steinmeyer’s except she had two holes that got away from her. Usually very adept at limiting damage, her two triple bogeys dogged her final line. That said, she still finished second on the team in scoring and 17^th overall.

Tyler Paulson came in third at 53, while Chase Glaus’ 55 and Maxx Wittmer’s 56 rounded out the scoring for the Cardinals.

Up next for Spring Valley is another short week with just one Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet on the docket. That comes on Thursday when they travel to Colfax for the Whitetail Invitational. The tee time for that round is at 10 a.m.