The Fertile-Beltrami Boy’s Golf team captured its second straight Class A State Championship last week at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Becker, Minnesota. The Falcons shot a 632 as a team which was 30 strokes better than 2nd place finishing Duluth Marshall.
What might be the most unique part of the accomplishment, is that the six golfers that competed for the Falcons (Ethan Finseth, Daniel Ivanov, Masen Nowacki, Rylin Petry, Derek Sorenson, and Caiden Swenby), were the exact same six that played in the State Tournament a year ago when the Falcons won it the first time. “With the same group coming back this year, and four of those guys being freshman last year, we were pretty confident we could win it again this year,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “Last year before we even won the first State Tournament, they had brought up winning back-to-back titles, and I had to tell them to just focus on winning this first one, but credit to them because they did what they wanted to do.”
According to Pederson, this year was a little more challenging from the beginning due to the weather conditions, and the inability to get outside. “It was certainly frustrating getting stuck inside for practice so much this year after last year,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “Last year we were probably inside only half the time that we were this year. When you’re inside you’re obviously limited to what you can do and putting on a carpet is not the same as putting on a real green and being outside. Once we got outside the guys were ready to go and it showed winning every meet this year like we did last year.”
After winning Section 8A without much of a problem, the Falcons led the entire way at the State Tournament this year posting a score of 323 on day 1 for a 10-stroke lead. “Usually when we’ve been down at the State Tournament, we have one good day and one bad day,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “Like the other years we did shoot better on day 2, but the difference was that we put ourselves in a position the last two years to win the State Tournament, and before we had dug too far of a hole to come out of. So seeing the improvement from these guys on the first day of the State Tournament has been nice to see.”
Pederson also expressed how happy he was with the group for taking a lead after day 1 and handling the pressure. “I was just happy we had a lead after day 1 this year,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “We were tied for first place last year after the first day, but this year we didn’t leave anything up to chance and played very well both days.”
Another big reason this group has been so fun to coach for Pederson, and why they’ve had so much success, is because they love playing the game and putting in work outside of practice. “They are all really consistent golfers and that is because they all work very hard at being the best they can be,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “For the last few weeks of the season, all those guys were at the course 6-8 hours a day working and playing. When you have that kind of dedication, you’re going to have success. It’s not that the other teams didn’t do it, but this group has just been able to put everything together at the right time down at the State Tournament.”
While the Falcons did return all 6 golfers from the State Tournament last year, going into next year they will lose one Senior as Rylin Petry will be moving on after graduating high school. Pederson said Petry is a guy that can’t be replaced. “We will definitely miss his leadership that’s for sure,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “The last two years he’s basically been a third coach for the guys. He has been a great teammate and always works with the guys and leadership and mentorship will be deeply missed.”
Petry by far had the best individual performance at the State Tournament this year for the Falcons, taking 2nd place shooting a 146. It was one stroke off the State Champion Cole Witherow from New Life Academy of Woodbury who shot a 145 two-day total. Petry won the State Championship as an individual last year, and while it was another incredible showing this year, he was hoping for the back-to-back titles. “I think he was almost a little disappointed that he couldn’t do the back-to-back, but State runner-up isn’t a bad consolation either,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson.
It wasn’t just Petry that had a great performance in the State Tournament, the Falcons had four top 20 finishes this year as Ethan Finseth shot a 159 for a 14th place finish, Masen Nowacki shot a 162 for a 16th place finish, and Caiden Swenby shot a 164 for a 20th place finish.
Even though Petry will not be a Falcon next year, everyone else from the roster will be returning and the Falcons will have a great chance of winning the State Tournament for the third straight season. “I look at our roster next year and we could potentially have five guys that are shooting in the 70s,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “All those guys improved this year, and I would expect them to improve by next year as well. There just aren’t going to be many teams that can have that many guys shoot low scores like that so we should be in a good position next year.”
There is one other key reason why these back-to-back titles are so special. “These are the only two State Championships for any sport in school history,” said Fertile-Beltrami Head Coach Keith Pederson. “We’re just incredibly happy to be the first ones to accomplish that and get through that hurdle.”
And with the team that will be coming back next season, the Falcons may be adding to their State Championship collection.
Below are the Falcons with their State Championship Trophy. L-R: Hunter Doyea, Ethan Finseth, Daniel Ivanov, Derek Sorenson, Rylin Petry, Caiden Swenby, Masen Nowacki, Bjorn Messick, Head Coach Keith Pederson, Assistant Coach Karin Sorenson.
