Hiland’s Hummel earns Div. III title, Mishler an All-Ohioan
Carter Mishler, left, and Brookston Hummel enjoyed the fruits of their labor at the Div. III state golf tournament. Hummel earned medalist honors, Mishler placed fourth and both earned first-team All-Ohio status.
As the Hiland Hawks tried to track down Canton Central Catholic during day-two action at the Div. III state golf tournament at NorthStar Golf Club in Sunbury on Saturday, Oct. 17, another battle was brewing that eventually brought with it plenty of high drama that came down to the final shot.
While Hiland couldn’t overcome Central’s 13-shot day-one advantage, eventually settling for runner-up honors, the battle for state medalist honors was taking shape in a fight that included not one but two Hawks.
All day long on Saturday, Hiland one-man Carter Mishler and two-man Brookston Hummel clung to the hope that they might find themselves atop the leader board.
In their way was Max Leppelmeier of Pettisville, Carsten Judge of Columbus Wellington and Alex Swinarski of Gates Gilmour Academy.
Swinarski came in as the day’s leader, having fired a 72, but a double-bogey on nine and another on 12 sent him reeling, and a pair of bogeys to finish the day left him settling in at fifth.
Leppelmeier just played steady on both days, his 74-73 good enough to win on some years, but a bogey on 16 sent him to 3 over par.
Mishler, who had shot 75 on day one, was right in the hunt with a host of pars on day two. The Hiland junior rattled off 16-straight pars to open the day, but after bogeying 17 and 18, he would have to settle for 75-74, his 149 good for fourth place.
That left Hummel and Judge, and those two seemed bent on not letting go of hope of a title.
Hummel opened the day at 2 over par, and two birdies dropped him to 1 over through nine.
Meanwhile, Judge, who opened the day at 3 over, scorched the front side at NorthStar with a 33, and after bogeying 11, he started producing pars. Hummel, playing ahead of Judge by three holes, would bogey 11 and then knock out seven-straight pars, a feat considering the difficulty of the final-four holes.
Scrambling all day long, Hummel would two-putt the 17th and chip up and save par on 18. He was now the clubhouse leader at 2 over par, and only Judge was left to contend, leading him by one stroke.
Judge bogeyed the par-3 17th, and now there was a two-way tie on the leader board. Judge hit a strong drive on the extremely intimidating final hole. His approach shot came up 20 feet shy of the green, and his pitch shot rolled to a stop 4 feet shy of the pin. With a tricky side-hill putt left to tie Hummel, the entire Hawks team and a large contingent of fans watched as Judge’s put turned right of the hole.
Hummel had captured the Div. III state individual championship. Hummel said he didn’t have any idea where he stood until the final-two holes, and the nerves ticked up a notch or two when he heard the news.
“I really didn’t feel any nerves until I found out I was one back on the last two holes,” Hummel said. “Then I got a little nervous, but I finished par-par, which was good.”
Those nerves were nothing compared to the wait that was to come as Judge finished up, knowing he could do nothing but watch and wait.
“That was awful,” Hummel said. “I was just praying for it to be over one way or another. I feel bad for Carsten. It was a great week for him, and second place isn’t bad. I’m just happy I came out on top.”
Considering Hummel had fashioned an even-par 72, tying Judge for low score on the day, it would be difficult to know that, the way Hummel described his round.
“I played awful golf,” Hummel said. “I was erratic and didn’t hit very many greens. It felt like I just couldn’t ever get anything going, but I was able to scramble and make a lot of saves.”
What did save Hummel was his putter. The junior and two-time All-Ohioan couldn’t miss inside of 10 feet. It was almost like his putting was so good that an 8-footer was anyone else’s tap-in.
As his dad and Hiland assistant coach Jason Hummel said after the round, “Today, Brookston was the best putter inside of 10 feet in the state of Ohio.”
That made back-to-back All-Ohio honors for the Hiland junior, who admitted he wanted to get first-team this season, but being medalist wasn’t something he was thinking about, nor was shooting a stellar 2 over par.
“I hit the ball well yesterday, which gave me some momentum coming into today,” Hummel said after his win. “But I never gave any thought to actually winning the individual title.”
For Mishler, the biggest goal was repeating as state champions, and on an individual level, the goal was to make All-Ohio honors, something he barely missed last season as a sophomore.
Reeling off 16 pars in a row on day two showed his ability to manage his nerves under pressure, allowing him to grab a first-team All-Ohio berth.
“I couldn’t get anything going, but it was just fairway, green, two-putt all day,” Mishler said. “It was kind of boring golf, but I’ll take a 74. Getting on first-team was definitely a goal of mine, and next year it’s a state title and individual medalist.”
With the work ethic this team has shown, led by their two All-Ohioans, all of those dreams are well within reach.
“We are going to work our butts off in the offseason, and hopefully, we will win another state championship,” Mishler said.
That might be the easy part. The more difficult task might be wrestling the individual medalist honor away from his teammate, but both would be thrilled for the other, and both would rather have the team title.
Having lost two key seniors from last season’s state title team, the Hawks were elated to have a shot at repeating this year. It didn’t quite happen, but with everyone returning, led by the two All-Ohioans, rest assured expectations will be enormous.
“This was a bit of a rebuilding year, so to finish runner-up, I am not going to complain,” Hummel said.