Independence entered Monday’s Chagrin Valley Conference postseason tournament with plans to derail Kirtland’s bid for the league title.
The Blue Devils came up short by just 10 strokes.
Kirtland won the tournament, and the league crown, with a total of 346 strokes while Independence finished with 356.
“We gave them a pretty good run,” said Independence coach Mark Echstenkamper. “We missed it by 10 strokes and if a couple of guys scored where they normally do it would have been interesting.”
Carson Bianco shot an 84 to finish second. He also earned first team all-conference honors.
“That was the second-best score in the Valley Division,” Echstenkamper said. “He played really well. That was nice to see.”
Tyler Sagi shot an 89 and Ryan Zygmunt finished with a 91. Andrew Teribery came in with a 91.
“Sagi played really well,” Echstenkamper said. “He had a nice day and Ryan Zygmunt had a solid day. We had some guys that played pretty well. I know Andrew wasn’t happy with his day and I felt bad for him, but you have those days. It happened early on, he had a bad hole to start out and he couldn’t get it going after that.”
Despite settling for second place, the Blue Devils have played well down the stretch and are looking forward to next Monday’s sectional tournament.
“We have some good momentum going into next week for sectionals,” Echstenkamper said. “Carson is playing really well and Andrew will get things corrected. We’ll see what we can do as a team. If we get it all going at the same time, maybe we can make another run to districts.”
