If there ever was a season where a model of consistency was to be rewarded, it would be the 2021 Western Athletic Conference boys’ golf campaign.
The race for team and individual honors was hotly- and closely-contested during the five league tournaments between Garden City and Great Bend, with the Buffaloes winning all five tourneys and the Panthers finishing second in all but one.
Leading the way for the WAC team champion Buffaloes was junior Theo Juhl, whose consistent play earned him Player of the Year honors with 68 points. He finished five points ahead of Great Bend senior Cole Streck (63) while Dodge City teammates Davan Smith (Sr., 59.5) and Cooper Scheck (Jr., 57.0) occupied third and fourth positions. Hays High’s Jason Krannawitter, a senior, took fifth with 54.5 points while Juhl’s junior teammate, Jack Koksal, nailed down the sixth and final first-team selection by scoring 49.5 points in the five league matches.
To explain how competitive the individual race was, one only has to look at the top four players.
Juhl won only one of the five league tournaments, that coming at Great Bend in the third tournament on the schedule. Dodge City’s Scheck captured the medalist honors at Hays and teammate Smith won at the Garden City Invitational. Great Bend’s Streck took the top spot at the season-ending Liberal Invite. In the second league tourney of the season, those four golfers shared the top spot to split all the points assigned to those places.
In the WAC individual standings, the low score earns 15 points, second 14, and third 13, and so on through the top 15 finishers. A perfect 5-of-5 would be 75 points. Juhl’s total came from a tie for second at Hays, the tie for first at Dodge City, his win at Great Bend, a runner-up finish at Garden City and a fourth-place at Liberal.
“At the five league meets, I just focused on keeping the ball in play,” Juhl said of his season’s performance. “I would adjust to the speed of greens and work on different kinds of shots.”
In golf, there are no two similar courses on which the players compete. So adapting to different layout designs, different grasses and of course in Kansas different weather conditions, all play a part in how a player performs.
“I play a lot at (The Golf Club at) Southwind,” Juhl said of his home club in Garden City. “So I get to work on many different kinds of shots that I think will work on different courses such as Sand Creek (Newton) and other places.”
The early season weather was not very cooperative for Juhl and the high school golfers in Kansas. Playing at times in 40-plus degree temperatures, with wind blowing 25-30mph and gusting to 40-45mph made conditions downright difficult.
“I was always trying to my best to avoid making high numbers,” Juhl said of his strategy.
He acknowledged just how tough the competition was coming from the next four players on the all-WAC first team.
“They’re all pretty solid players,” Juhl said of Streck, Smith and Scheck. “They all have the ability to shoot good scores and that’s what the results would tell you. The score that Davan (Smith) shot at Garden City (4-under for 36 holes, 70 at Buffalo Dunes, 69 at Southwind), was just crazy.”
Juhl said at the outset of the spring season, he wasn’t sure how he and his team would perform, especially considering they had all missed the 2020 spring due to the cancellation of that season for COVID-19.
“It was pretty tough to miss an entire year of competing. Last year, I was able to play a lot of summer KJGA (Kansas Junior Golf Association) events and that helped me stay sharp and keep my competitive edge.”
Theo Juhl, WAC Player of the Year
He also credit his dad, Jake, for playing a lot with him. As a single-digit player himself, his dad worked with the younger Juhl on the short game and the mental aspects of the game.
“He just worked with me a lot on keeping it together on the course,” the younger Juhl said of his dad. “We worked on putting, chipping and all areas of the short game and it all helped.”
The top WAC player also had high praise for his head coach, Trent Specht, for working with him and the team from the outset of the season with specific goals and objectives.
“Coach kept us on the right path, both mentally and physically,” Juhl said of Specht, who was voted Coach of the Year by his peers in the WAC. “He was always emphasizing working on the short game and the mental game while on the golf course.”
Between his freshman season on the varsity and his junior campaign, Juhl said he had grown both physically and mentally.
“I’m taller, and I’m stronger now and hit the ball a lot further than I did two years ago,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about course management and to keep my attitude good. I also think missing that season made me appreciate more the opportunity we actually have to play this year, so you’re just grateful for that.”
Juhl said he was honored to receive the WAC award for Player of the Year.
“It’s a pretty high honor considering how many good players there are,” Juhl said. “I think the last Garden player to win it was Sion (Audrain, who won 6A state medalist honors in 2017 and 2019). So I’m happy to be able to accomplish this.”
The second-team all-WAC was comprised of Great Bend senior Brantley Baldwin (45 points), Garden City senior Cayden Cundiff (44 points), Great Bend junior Scott Heilman (26.5 points), Garden City junior Aaron Allen (25.5 points), Hays sophomore Braden Hoskins (23 points) and Great Bend senior Cal Dunekack (17 points).
That close race individually shows up when tallying the total strokes for all five events. Juhl finished with 380 strokes (76.0 avg.), Streck at 386 (77.2), Smith at 387 (77.4), Scheck at 392 (78.4), Krannawitter at 394 (78.8) and Koksal at 398 (79.6). So seven strokes separated first from third in that player of the year race.
While Juhl’s team won all five league tournaments, Great Bend was hot on their heels in each one. In total, Garden City finished with 1,600 strokes on tourney scores (4 counting scores) of 336-332-326-311-295 at Hays, Dodge City, Great Bend, Garden City and Liberal. Great Bend, meanwhile, had team scores of 349-346-333-316-299 for a total of 1,643 strokes. Over that five tournament schedule, the Buffs averaged 320 while Great Bend came in at 328.6, or an average of just more than 2 strokes per golfer per tournament. Hays placed third, Dodge City fourth and Liberal fifth in the final team standings.
2021 All-Western Athletic Conference Golf
First Team
| Name | School | Year | Points | |
| 1 | Theo Juhl | Garden City | Jr. | 68 |
| 2 | Cole Streck | Great Bend | Sr. | 63 |
| 3 | Davan Smith | Dodge City | Sr. | 59.5 |
| 4 | Cooper Scheck | Dodge City | Jr. | 57 |
| 5 | Jason Krannawitter | Hays | Sr. | 54.5 |
| 6 | Jack Koksal | Garden City | Jr. | 49.5 |
Second Team
| Name | School | Year | Points | |
| 7 | Brantley Baldwin | Great Bend | Sr. | 45 |
| 8 | Cayden Cundiff | Garden City | Sr. | 44 |
| 9 | Scott Heilman | Great Bend | Jr. | 26.5 |
| 10 | Aaron Allen | Garden City | Jr. | 25.5 |
| 11 | Braden Hoskins | Hays | So. | 23 |
| 12 | Cal Dunekack | Great Bend | Sr. | 17 |
