By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS — South Rowan finished second to Marvin Ridge in the 3A Midwest Regional golf tournament held at the Club at Irish Creek on Monday.
Marvin Ridge shot 290, while South shot 295, and third-place Weddington finished at 305. Those three qualified as teams for next week’s two-day state tournament at Foxfire Golf Resort in Pinehurst.
South’s Davis Richards, a junior committed to N.C. State, shot 68 and was the regional medalist.
South also got outstanding rounds from Evan Neas (75), Brennan Lambert (76) and Josh Pope (76) and made the state tournament for the first time as a team entry.
“All those guys have worked really hard and they were motivated today and played great,” Richards said. “It’s awesome that we qualified as a team and that’s a lot bigger than anything I did today individually. Guys worked all year for this day.”
Richards made four birdies and one bogey.
“I wasn’t great today by any means, and I know I left a few shots and a few putts out there, but I was pretty solid,” Richards said. “I just kind of hung tough. I wanted to shoot well enough for us to have a cushion in case someone had a bad day, but no one had a bad day.”
Steve Beaver is South’s coach.
West Rowan finished in sixth place at 310.
Jake Kennedy shot 71 to lead the Falcons. Denny Triche and Chris Hassard shot 78s. Coyte Kyles shot 83.
East Rowan finished ninth. Scorers were Nick Lyerly (73), Logan Shuping (74), Ben Rollins (86) and Jacod Durham (91).
The individuals qualifying for the state tournament who were not on one of the qualifying teams were Stephen Carroll of Concord (69), Cody Varner of Southwestern Randolph (69) and Walker Cress of Concord (70).