By Dan Karpiel
The Surveyor

Since they officially began practicing just over three weeks ago, the Berthoud High School (BHS) boys golf team has made steady improvements.

In their latest tournament on Aug. 30 at Highland Meadows Golf Course in Windsor, the Spartans enjoyed their best finish of the season by claiming second place with a team score of 231, just two strokes behind tournament champion Sterling and one in front of third-place Roosevelt.

The improvement the Spartans have made has Head Coach Mike Burkett confident the team is trending in the right direction and their stated goals for the 2016 season – defend their conference title and qualify as a team for the state tournament – are within reach.

State qualifier in 2015, Josh Schumacher hung a three-over-par 74 to claim third place, junior Jack Hummel shot a 78 to tie for seventh, and Cameron Poll’s 79 was good enough for 11th place. Caleb Schumacher’s 89 and Ridge Overholt’s 92 rounded out the scores for the Spartans.

Hummel and Poll were singled out by praise from Burkett.

“We’ve had conversations with our number-two through number-four golfers and discussed the importance of how their rounds figure into the team scoring,” Burkett said. “Cameron Poll and Jack Hummel really take that to heart; both really grinded out some good scores today.”

Having each of the team’s top three golfers shoot in the 70s was a first for Berthoud this season.

“Today was a great day for us. Josh was steady – as usual – and we got really good rounds across the board,” said Burkett. “Anytime we get three in scores in the 70s, we’re going to be happy.”

The Spartans play their next tournament on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at Ute Creek Golf Course in Longmont.