photo by: Chris Duderstadt

Free State's Andrew Park watches his tee shot during the Olathe East Invitational at Sycamore Ridge Golf Course on May 2, 2018.

SPRING HILL — It wasn’t difficult for Free State sophomore Andrew Park to pinpoint what did and didn’t go well for him at the Olathe Invitational on Wednesday at Sycamore Ridge Golf Club.

Overall, Park was quite pleased with shooting 2-over-par, 74. But after looking at the leaderboard, the few shots he wanted back stung a little bit more. The Free State sophomore just missed out on earning a medal after finishing 11th.

“I just had a couple of bad shots,” Park said.

Park finished with two birdies, two bogeys and one double bogey to help the Firebirds tie for ninth place. The bogeys came back-to-back on holes No. 2 and 3, but he found his groove after that. Park carded his birdies on No. 7 and 13.

Consistently hitting fairways and greens wasn’t much of a problem for Park. The X-factor, however, was what he was able to do after getting to the green.

“I feel pretty good with putting,” Park said.

A big part of Park’s success had to do with his club selection. Park felt he managed the course well with the exception of the par-5 18th.

“Today, I just made one bad decision that cost me about two strokes, which would’ve put me at even,” Park said. “Then, I had two bad iron shots, which would’ve put me at 70 at 2-under-par.”

With 70 being the score posted by champion C.C. Ghilardi and runner-up Joe Bultman, both of Shawnee Mission Northwest, it was that much easier for Park to think back on his rare miscues. The more Park thought about his overall round, though, the better he felt about it.

“It’s pretty good when you only have three bad shots,” Park said.

Park’s scores have drastically dropped over the past week-and-a-half. After carding a round of 92 at the Topeka West Invitational on April 23 at Topeka Country Club, Park bounced back by shooting 80 on Monday at Lake Quivira Country Club.

Junior Landon Berquist came in as the No. 2 golfer for Free State after tying for 34th place with a round of 79. The Olathe East Invitational marked the third tournament that Berquist has shot 79 or lower this season.

Will Cook finished one shot back of Berquist to tie for 46th. Rounding out the golfers for Free State were Tate Steele (tied for 67th place, round of 85), 85. Dylan Sommer (85th, 89) and Alex Gard (tied for 91st, 91).

Brungardt leads Lawrence High

Lawrence High junior Ross Brungardt fired a round of 85 for the second straight tournament to serve as the low man for the Lions.

“I felt like I played actually pretty OK,” Brungardt said. “I hit some really good iron shots, but just couldn’t get it going putting wise and left a lot of putts out there that I could’ve made.”

With the putter being Brungardt’s kryptonite on Wednesday, he’s planning to spend more time on the practice greens prior to future tournaments.

Despite the struggles with his putter, the round of 85 for Brungardt was just two shots off of his season best. Brungardt was one of many golfers who acknowledged that it was nice to have favorable conditions to play in.

“We’ve had some tough weather conditions, but with all of the weather conditions, I feel pretty confident about my scores,” Brungardt said. “They’re basically everywhere in the 80s.”

Chris Conway and Jack Malin added respective rounds of 93 and 104 to finish 95th and 108th. The Lions have been without a fourth golfer at back-to-back tournaments, but Brungardt said they should be at full strength going forward.

“We’ll get a fourth. On Monday, one of our golfers was busy, so they couldn’t make it and, today ,one was taking an AP test, so he couldn’t either,” Brungardt said. “We will have four for regionals.”

The Lions and Firebirds will play next at 3 p.m. Monday at Falcon Ridge Golf Course.

Olathe East Invitational

Wednesday at Sycamore Ridge Golf Club

Team scores — 1. Blue Valley North 298, 2. Shawnee Mission East 303, 3. Olathe East 305, 4. Blue Valley Northwest 307, 5. St. Thomas Aquinas 308, 6. Blue Valley West 309, 7. Mill Valley 310, 8. Olathe Northwest 317, T-9. Free State 318, T-9. Shawnee Mission South 318, 11. Olathe West 320, 12. Shawnee Mission Northwest 323, 13. Blue Valley 325, 14. Blue Valley Southwest 325, 15. St. James Academy 326, 16. Olathe South 331, 17. Shawnee Mission West 374, 18. Olathe North 389, 19. Bishop Miege 411, 20. Gardner Edgerton 426, 21. Leavenworth 463, 22. Shawnee Mission North 469.

Free State results — 11. Andrew Park 74, T-34. Landon Berquist 79, T-46. Will Cook 80, T-67. Tate Steele 85, 85. Dylan Sommer 89, T-91. Alex Gard 91.

Lawrence High results — T-67. Ross Brungardt 85, 95. Chris Conway 93, 108. Jack Malin 104.