<p>CARMEL</p><p>Two years ago, the Center Grove boys golf team set the back nine on fire, torching the rest of the field to win its first state golf championship in convincing fashion.</p><p>The Trojans would have needed to go on a similar tear to rally past heavily favored Carmel in Wednesday’s final round at Prairie View Golf Club, and instead, it was the Greyhounds who pulled away, winning by 17 strokes for their second consecutive crown.</p><p>Instead, Center Grove settled for repeating last year’s runner-up finish, closing with a two-day total of 605 to finish tied for second place.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Despite coming up short for a second time — the Trojans finished just one stroke behind Carmel for the title in 2018 — Center Grove coach Matt Rodman told his squad how proud he was of their efforts and that they will end up going down as one of his favorites.</p><p>"I told them to leave a legacy of being proud of what they did out there today," Rodman said. "The kids went out and fought hard, played as good as they could, and we’re happy with where we finished. The kids played really well."</p><p>Ahead of the Trojans by just four going into the day, Carmel gave itself a little extra breathing room early, shooting a combined 4 under par over the first three holes to immediately double its lead. The margin stayed between six and 10 through the front nine before the Greyhounds got hot again after the turn, extending their cushion to 14 through 12 holes and coasting in from there.</p><p>At that point, the Trojans knew it was simply a matter of dueling the Millers for second.</p><p>"I think Carmel played their bad round yesterday," Rodman said. "We weren’t surprised by what they did today; they have five really, really good, probably Division I, golfers on their team, so we knew that even though it was four strokes, we knew that in order to be competitive we were going to have to be in the 290s or lower, and on a course like this, it’s a challenging number to throw down."</p><p>"I think we just tried to stay focused on our game and not let them affect how we played," junior Alex Heck added, "because we obviously didn’t want to press too hard with how low they were going out there. Just sticking to our games was the game plan."</p><p>Heck was Center Grove’s top individual performer, turning in back-to-back rounds of 73 to finish in a tie for sixth individually and earn All-State honors. Senior Luke DeHaven followed close behind, finishing 11th overall at 148 after carding another 74 on Wednesday.</p><p>"I could have hit the ball a little better," DeHaven said, "but we all have those days where you’ve just got to get around the course in a reasonable fashion, and I think I did that today."</p><p>Peyton Short placed in a tie for 25th overall at 78-76—154. He was followed by Mitchel Sanders (78-84—162) and Caleb Tidd (85-79—164).</p><p>Franklin sophomore Damon Dickey, who endured a rough first round on Tuesday, rebounded with a solid final round to finish at 82-75—157, tied for 34th overall.</p><p>"It was a lot of fun, but I just wish I could have played better," Dickey said of his first state finals experience. "I’ll try to prepare better next time."</p><p>Center Grove, which graduates DeHaven and Sanders but still returns plenty of capable players, will be setting its sights just as high next spring, with hopes of returning to the final pairing on the final day here and securing what would be its sixth top-three finish in a row.</p><p>"We’ll celebrate a little bit this evening," Rodman said, "but we’ll get right back to work in October or so, doing some conditioning. Our expectation always is to be back here, the last pairing on the second day of state, which, we’re going to have the horses, hopefully, to do it again next year."</p>
