Reivers back-to-back champs

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This article was published 27/09/2019 (2292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kildonan-East Collegiate is now home to back-to-back provincial golf championship banners. 

The most recent banner, one of only five that hangs in the gym at 860 Concordia Ave., was secured by a strong round by the boys golf team on Sept. 20 in Swan River, Man. 

The team, made up of Grade 12 players Carter Johnson, Lachlan Allerton, and Landon Normand and Grade 11 golfer Trey Ross, combined for a score of 239, 13 strokes better than the runners up from St. John’s-Ravenscourt. (The top three of a foursome’s scores are added together to make up the team’s tally.)

“They’re a special group,” said first-year coach Karl Zborowsky, who took over for Curt Bauer, who retired last year. “These guys live, breathe, and eat golf, everything. And once again, they were able to take care of business.”

Last year, Johnson, Allerton, Ross and Reed Merner-Bannman won the Manitoba High School Athletics Association provincial golf championship with a combined 242, playing through a snowstorm at Hecla Island to capture KEC’s first-ever provincial golf championship.

This year, conditions were much more favourable in Swan River, though none of the four boys had ever played the course before playing a round to warm up on Sept. 19.

“I think we were the only part of Manitoba that had blue sky,” Zborowsky laughed.

“It was a good round,” said Normand, who shot 110 on the round. “We just had to make sure our shots were straight.”

“The greens are slower than we’re used to,” Johnson, who shot a team low of 78, said. “The back nine was pretty tight. Maybe don’t pull driver on every hole like we do at Rossmere.”

“We really came together as a team, kind of made sure we were all on our game and that everyone was doing the right thing,” Normand said.

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“I started off five over through the first four holes, but I was just one over the last 15,” admitted Johnson, who is a member and employee at Rossmere Golf and Country Club, along with Allerton and Ross.

To qualify for the provincial tourney, KEC won the KPAC title earlier this month. Last year, they lost the KPAC title to Miles Macdonell, who were unable to field a team for the provincial.

“That was one of our best rounds, we shot some low scores,” Normand said. “We were on our game that day.”

Both Normand and Johnson praised Zborowsky and Bauer’s impact on their game.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get there without them,” Johnson said. “They’re both really good, really supportive. They knew that we had a chance to win, so that helped us follow through and take home the back-to-back provincial championships.”

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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