Sobotta leads Raiders to back-to-back Coulee titles

As coach Mitch Sobotta prepared for the first day of practice ahead of the 2023 boys golf season in April, he described his feeling about the upcoming season as “giddy.”

Sobotta and the Raiders are probably feeling that same level of excitement today after putting the finishing touches on their second consecutive Coulee Conference championship last Thursday.

Arcadia finished with a perfect 7-0 record in conference meets this spring and took the top spot at Thursday’s 18-hole title match at Drugan’s Castle Mound with 340 strokes, 17 clear of second-place Westby/Viroqua.

The Raiders attacked the course with the same consistency they have all year — Arcadia had four of the top 11 scores on Thursday, including an event-best 76 from senior Cole Sobotta.

“The special thing about golf is each round you can always save a stroke or two no matter how good you’re playing,” Mitch Sobotta said. “That was kind of the mentality this season. After every match we said, ‘Where is a stroke we can save? What can we learn for future tournaments?’”

“The end of the season here, that one stroke could be crucial in a pivotal moment, and they really learned that and it really showed with the consistency of their scores.”

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau finished sixth at the event with 380 strokes, just behind Black River Falls (373) and West Salem (371).  Luther finished third on Thursday at 363.

The Red Hawks saw a solid round from Nic Jumper, whose 83 was good for the third-lowest score at the conference meet. Teammate Mason Kromrey tied for 14th with his 92, and G-E-T’s other golfers included Maddox Scow (96), A.J. Johnson (109), Domanick Knott (109) and Thomas Ziegler (111).

Both G-E-T and Arcadia were set to play at an invitational tournament in Black River Falls on Wednesday, and the Raiders will also play in an invitational in Lake Wissota on Friday. The county teams will face off again at the regional tournament May 23 at Trempealeau Mountain Golf Course.

Sobotta cards eagle for top spot

Sobotta’s 6-over finish at the par-70 track in Holmen was the best performance of any golfer and helped him to a 2023 first team all-conference award along with teammates Sid Halvorsen and Joey Theis.

Sobotta was tied for second place with three other golfers at 5-over par through nine holes on Thursday and was one stroke behind eventual conference player of the year in Viroqua’s Brooks Hoffland (39).

The Arcadia senior followed up the tight front nine with one of his best finishes of the year, going 1-over on the back nine with three pars and a birdie. His best hole came on the 340-yard 16th hole, where Sobotta holed out his second shot for an eagle.

“Every time I saw him he was in the middle of the fairway off the tee,” Mitch Sobotta said of Cole Sobotta. “He got his driver going well and we saw some nice putts out of him today. He’s a very good ball-striker and a very good golfer. When he gets the ball rolling, I don’t see many that can beat him.”

Halvorsen shot an 87 to tie with three other golfers for fifth place. Teammates Dustin Klonecki (88, T-10th) and Kaiden Rotering (89, 11th) also finished in the top 15 for Arcadia, and Theis (96) and Caleb Pronschinske (99) rounded out the team scores.

Arcadia earned the conference crown as a team, their coach said.

“It’s just an all around team effort,” Sobotta said.

Rotering earned second team all-conference honors for his regular season, averaging a nine-hole score of 52. Jumper did enough to garner honorable mention all-conference honors, averaging a score of 55 for G-E-T.