On October 2nd and 3rd, the Sentinel boys golf team and junior Maci Reiff headed out to Butte Country Club to play in the class AA Golf State Tournament. Reiff was the only girl from the team that went to state so she was purely competing for an individual score; however, boys were competing for the state title.
In the last couple of years, the boys have fallen short of winning the state title; they have been the runner ups in the tournament for the last two years. They battled both days of the tournament to attain and keep the first place spot. Ultimately winning by three strokes.
This year the boys had a perfect record meaning they didn’t lose a tournament for the entire season. Because of this, the boys are heading to play at Nationals in North Carolina next July.
State Finals
Going into the State finals, Sentinel was predicted to win. They had yet to lose a tournament and had the previous state champion senior Hudson Grosiki and third place runner up junior Jack Schaefer on their team. In the end, they came out holding the state title… but it wasn’t without a few obstacles on the way.
On the first day of the tournament, the weather took a turn for the worst and rain poured down onto the golfers towards the end of the round. The rain didn’t let up, but that didn’t stop the Sentinel from battling back from fourth place to reclaim the lead by the end of the day.
Schaefer was in a three way tie with John Gilbert from Helena Capital and Jack Pinski from Great Falls CMR. All three boys had a 2-over-par to end the first day. Reiff was representing the girls team by being in the top 30 with a score of 102.
The rain followed into the second day, which caused green conditions to be less than ideal. This didn’t faze Schaefer though. He kept the tie for first place through all 18 holes. After the last hole, Schaefer and Gilbert were still tied, forcing the tournament to go into a sudden elimination playoff. The boys kept matching each other’s level of play until the third hole. Gilbert won the third playoff hole with a birdie, causing Schaefer to take second. Even though he lost, Schaefer still kept a positive mindset, saying, “Obviously it wasn’t the outcome I wanted to have, but I’m still proud of myself”.
On the girls side, Reiff climbed up the leaderboard and ended the tournament in the 25th place with a final score of 199.
A Perfect Season
At the beginning of the season, Coach Sam Byod had the boys set an expectation of “[winning] every single tournament this year, win state and go to Nationals”. The boys completed every single expectation they set for themselves and even went beyond by having all of their golfers land in the top 15 at state.
Because the team had a perfect season and won the state tournament they automatically qualified for the National tournament. Nationals is a tournament that will take place at Pinehurst in North Carolina. Only one team from every state qualifies each year. Even though Sentinel automatically qualified they still have to send in a resume to the 2026 PGA HS National Invitational.
The Revival of the Girls
For the last two seasons, the girls team has either been almost all seniors or barely had enough members to make a full varsity team. However, this year was different; Sentinel had nine girls head out for tryouts which means they had a full varsity and almost a full junior varsity team.
In addition to having a full team, varsity is very young with no seniors on the team and their top golfer Reiff is only a junior. Reiff has big plans for the girls team as she’s “[Hopeful] that [the] team can grow even more”.
The girls have two freshmen this season, both of them played on varsity. One of the freshmen, Vivian Carls, had a stellar year by never being below 37th place and even got a top ten at the Missoula Inner City tournament. Carls kept her mindset positive at all times saying “If I had a bad hole before, the next hole will be my best hole”. Carls is also very grateful for the golf program and the “coaches [who] were always giving me great tips”.
Next Season
The boys this year are losing three of their varsity players this year due to graduation, but they do have some lower and upper classmen that can help fill the gaps. Freshman Derek Schaefer was on varsity all year, but really showed up at state. He tied for fourth with a final score of 150. Derek’s older brother is Jack so it’s possible that Sentinel will soon have an unstoppable brother duo.
Jack Schaefer is focusing on “ [winning] state individually and as a team”. He also says that the team “ [wants] to set a new state scoring record”
Junior Cole Jenkins was an alternate for varsity, which means that he didn’t play in the tournament but could step in for someone if needed. Jenkins moved up from JV so if he keeps making improvements he will have one of the five spots on varsity.
The girls team won’t lose anyone this year which is exactly what they need so they can build upon the momentum that they have started to gain this season. Reiff’s goals for next season is to “[place high] at many tournaments” and for the girls team “to make it to state as a team.
Carls has similar goals to Reiff with her wanting “to be on varsity again, make it to state, and shoot under 100”.
Overall both teams have done well this season, and all the hard work they put into the off-season and during the season has indisputably paid off. The boys have stated their dominance in the state and hopefully they continue this train of being undefeated into next season. For the girls each of them have improved throughout the season and have a real shot at competing as a team at state next season.
