A day before Friday’s Class 1 District 2 tournament in Moberly, storms rolled through Missouri.

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The tournament actually had to be moved back a day, but Heritage Hills Golf Course was still wet for Van-Far under the daylong sun. That didn’t stop the Indians as they finished second with a score of 361 to qualify a team for the state tournament for the first time since their third-place team in 2019.

“The conditions were tough,” head coach Pat Connaway said. “As wet as it was, it was a grind and long day. It’s good to not play your best and still weather the storm so to speak.”

Van-Far finished only behind defending state champion Salisbury’s 326 and were led by the third-place score of 79, or nine-over par, shot by Pacey Reading. Canton’s Trevor Biggerstaff won the individual district title with a 76, and Salisbury’s Nolan Gordon had a 78.

The sophomore Reading will be making his second state appearance but will be joined by three other teammates instead of only one like last year. Kaleb Baskett, who shot a 90, Nikos Connaway, who had a 92, and Kasen Christian, who finished with a 100, will put Van-Far in the team race on May 13-14 at Twin Hills Golf & Country Club in Joplin.

“We were hoping to do this from Day 1 of golf,” Reading said. “Here we are today, and we accomplished the goal that we wanted. It feels pretty good, and we’ll be ready for Joplin.”

Connaway said Baskett and Connaway didn’t have their best days but liked how they pushed through the wet conditions to either fall within or just miss the state qualification cutoff score of 91. He also said Christian pushed through struggles to keep Van-Far’s team score low enough to just beat out Harrisburg’s 366 and Canton’s 367 to be one of the top two teams that qualified a full team to state.

“I’m pretty excited for all of us to go to state as a team,” Baskett said. “It’s going to be a pretty good experience.”

“It’s super fun to be able to have one more week of competing for Van-Far,” the senior Nikos Connaway said. “That’s super nice for me and then I get to hang out with these guys for another week. It will be a little crazy, but it will be fun.”

Pat Connaway said Van-Far knew it had a good shot at second place even though Canton did beat the Indians earlier in the season. He pointed to Baskett beating Canton’s Avery Uhlmeyer by a stroke as a key factor in the team scores, and Reading also closed the gap between him and Biggerstaff.

The fairways were wet, and everything was “muddy” and “chunking,” according to Connaway. With that additional variable added to the course Van-Far practiced on Monday and earlier in the year, Connaway said that higher numbers on holes were to be expected.

“We would tell them, and it’s bad to say, but play for bogey,” Connaway said. “Take the big numbers because it is a grind.”

Connaway said Reading was even “awful” during Monday’s practice at Heritage Hills but turned the switch on during Friday’s tournament.

“When it comes to tournaments, he just knows how to grind,” Connaway said. “He’s a winner, and he knows how to attack the course and stay out of trouble.”

“The course definitely played tougher today after raining an inch last night,” Reading said. “It was a little more sloppy today. The ball didn’t roll as far. Just be consistent, hit your irons well, get up the green and make putts. That was kind of the goal.”

Baskett and Nikos Connaway agreed with Reading that control was more out of the hands of the golfer with the wet ground, but the response to what happens is key.

“We weren’t going to get much roll today,” Baskett said. “A lot of things were going to plug. It definitely affected some of the scores so just having to carry some more greens, hit that number better and not being able to roll up as much.”

“My mindset was the course was playing the same for everybody,” Connaway said. “My bad shots were other people’s bad shots so I just couldn’t get super mad about it.”

Connaway admitted this is new territory for him as he took over coaching the golf program this season but is excited for what’s next. 

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Connaway said. “We’re probably go (to Joplin) to get a practice round in and go from there. It’s a great way to cap off the golf season so very proud of them.”