(Sentinel photo by Ty Capron) Hinton's Nate Freed tees off Tuesday during the War Eagle Conference tournament in Akron. Freed led all area players with a 38, finishing fourth overall. [Click to enlarge]

The Hinton boys' golf dynasty took a minor stumble on Tuesday afternoon when they finished third in the War Eagle Conference Golf Tournament at Akron.

After winning the tournament for the past three years, the Blackhawks shot an impressive 163 but still fell to eventual champion Unity Christian, who shot a 153, and finished five strokes behind regular season WEC champs South O'Brien. The Wolverines finished with a 158.

Host Akron-Westfield finished seventh with a team score of 180, just narrowly beating Gehlen Catholic who had a 182. Remsen-St. Mary's finished tenth with a 200.

(Sentinel photo by Ty Capron) Gehlen's Travis Sitzmann sends a putt towards the pin Tuesday during the War Eagle Conference tournament at Akron Golf Course. [Click to enlarge]

The Knights also had the top individual finishers as Austin Schuiteman edged teammate Neal Malenke in a one-hole play-off to finish first and second with 37's.

There was also a four-way play-off for third place that included Hinton's Nate Freed who carded a 38 on the afternoon. In the play-off, Freed was able to edge out South O'Brien's Nic Steffens and Marcus-Merdian-Cleghorn's Jacob Lenhoff but could not overcome Jared Reinking of West Sioux. Reinking was the WEC's third place finisher and Freed finished fourth. Steffans and Lenhoff finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Freed's teammate Cory Westphal was next for Hinton with a final score of 40. Michael Mehrer shook off some early bogey's to play steady par golf the final seven holes as he finished with a 42 for the Blackhawks. Kevin Huggenberger and Zach Schoenrock each posted 43's on their scorecard.

(Sentinel photo by Ty Capron) Akron-Westfield's Justin Smith chips onto the green during his round Tuesday at the War Eagle Conference tournament in Akron. [Click to enlarge]

Dustin Kruse finished with a 45 but his score did not count towards the final team standings.

Senior Justin Koch led A-W to their seventh place finish with his round of 43. Teammate Justin Smith finished one stroke behind Koch with a 44.

The Westerners' Kyle Hughes recorded a 46 on his scorecard and was closely followed by Cale Banks with a 48 to round out the counting scores for A-W. Ben Brown and Andrew Allard were fifth and sixth for the hosts, with their scores of 50 and 51, respectively.

The Jays of Gehlen narrowly missed knocking off the Westerners but fell just two strokes short. Leading the charge for the Jays was Jeremy Rhodes who shot a team-best 44 on the nine hole course.

"I don't know what it was," said Gehlen's Cory Puetz, referring to his team's play. "I tried prying it out of them on the way home but they didn't have much to say. We shot about five strokes higher than what we've been averaging. I just hoped they'd shoot better going into sectionals on Friday."

Austin Sitzmann and Travis Sitzmann finished tied for second for Gehlen with their duplicate 45's. Jordan Sitzmann's 48 was the last counted score.

Alex Pick had a 52 and Devin Christoffel also had a 60 for the Jays.

The WEC golf tournament also gave some teams chances to make up postponed duals from earlier this spring. The Jays made up duals with MMC and West Sioux and went 0-2 on the afternoon. West Sioux's 166 was enough to beat Gehlen and MMC finished with a 173 to knock off the Jays.

MMC's Jacob Lenhart finished with a 38 and Jordan Petersen had a 42 to earn runner-up honors in the dual.

West Sioux's Jared Reinking, the WEC third-place finisher, was the medalist in the other dual with a 38. Dillion Musilek recorded a 40 to be honored as the runner-up.

Mike Suppess' St. Mary's squad limped to a last-place finish with their team round of 200, led by freshman Derek Gengler and Danny Begnoche. The duo each carded scores of 49's to help put the Hawks in contention.

"I was very pleased with Derek," said RSM's Mike Suppess. "This is the first time we've been able to golf at Akron and for a freshman to golf this short but challenging course for the first time, he did very well. I think he can really bring down his scores a few strokes over the next few years."

"He's really one to watch over the next few years - he has a lot of potential," added Suppess. "I'm very impressed with him. He's the only guy that has been on varsity every match this spring and outside of one match in Le Mars, he has shot in the high 40's or low 50's every time."

Brandon Loutsch was third for RSM with his final round score of 50; Louis Pick, the Hawks' senior leader, finished with a 52.

"Louis' game has kind of fallen off lately. He cracked his driver a few days ago and he's used to that old one and this new one is giving him some trouble," said Suppess. "However, this is case of riding that horse a little bit too long. His irons really struggled today which is why his score was higher than usual."

Drew Theisen recorded a score of 56 on his scorecard. Chris Harpenau finished just two strokes behind Theisen with his score of 58 to round out the non-counters for St. Mary's.

"I take partial responsibility," said Suppess. "Our practice opportunities have been limited as far as working on some aspects of their games - it's a little frustrating as a coach. If we could bring them down from sixes and sevens to fives and sixes, we'd be doing pretty well."

The Hawks also made up a dual with A-W on Tuesday while participating in the tournament. The Westerners' 180 was good enough to beat RSM in the dual. A-W's Justin Koch was the dual medalist and his teammate Justin Smith earned runner-up honors.

All four squads will be in action on Friday afternoon at Hinton's Deer Run Golf Course as they will tee off in the sectionals tournament.