Hoppe golfs his way to runner-up finish

SARTELL -- Brainerd's Jared Hoppe became the first Warrior boys' golfer to finish as high as second in a meet this season as he carded a 76 and finished runner-up to Alexandria's Derek Whiting in the final Central Lakes Conference meet of the season Monday.

Brainerd finished third with 324 strokes, its fourth-lowest score of the season.

"We made a nice run," Brainerd coach Brian Wallace said. "I am just hoping this carries over to the section meet."

The Little Falls Flyers finished sixth. They were led by Eric Knopik's 78 and Jeremy Nuehring's 79.

Brainerd finished fifth in the final conference standings and the Flyers were seventh.

Team scores -- 1-Alexandria 312, 2-St. Cloud Tech 320, 3-Brainerd 324, 4-Willmar 325, 5-Apollo 329, 6-Little Falls 330, 7-Sauk Rapids 339, 8-Sartell 345, 9-Rocori 360

Medalist -- Derek Whiting (A) 72

Brainerd results -- Jared Hoppe 76, Dustin Vickerman 82, Clinton Strothers 82, Zach Lundbohm 84, Jase Renneke 85, Josh Hanske 94

Little Falls results -- Jeremy Nuehring 79, Eric Knopik 78, Mike Copa 81, Derek Clough 92, Bjorn Headman 93, Chad Kofoed 102

Final conference standings -- 1-Alexandria 66.5, 2-Tech 66, 3-Willmar 53.5, 4-Apollo 45, 5-Brainerd 36.5, 6-Sauk Rapids 32, 7-Little Falls 30.5, 8-Sartell 21.5, 9-Rocori 8.5

Next meet -- Brainerd, LF in Section 8, Class 2A tournament at Perham 9 a.m. Friday.