Mission accomplished: Palmyra holds on to lead, wins Class 2 boys state golf championship

SEDALIA, Mo. — Skeeter Kroeger’s teammates on the Palmyra boys golf team greeted him coming off the green on his final hole of Tuesday’s second round of the Class 2 state championships and were curious if he had looked at the leaderboard.

He hadn’t.

“I was like, ‘Let me sign my scorecard first, and then I’ll look,’” the Panthers junior said.

Once his score was official, so was the team result.

The Panthers were state champions.

“After I signed, I saw it,” Kroeger said. “It was pretty cool.”

Palmyra, which went into the second round tied with Springfield Catholic for the lead, posted a 343 team score on the Sedalia Country Club course and finished with a 673 total, one stroke ahead of Clarence Cannon Conference rival South Shelby and four strokes ahead of Springfield Catholic.

“It felt amazing, especially with it being my senior year,” Palmyra’s Jonas Janes said. “Finally getting to grasp that state title that I’ve really been wanting to get for the past four years felt pretty great.”

It is the Panthers’ second state title and fifth state trophy, but more important, the championship erases last year’s disappointment when a first-round lead evaporated and Palmyra finished third.

“We dealt with the pressure a lot better today than we did last year,” Janes said.

They accomplished their mission, which meant a mixture of relief and excitement.

“It was a little bit of both,” Palmyra junior Tony White said. “It was pretty exciting, but there was relief for not choking it away again after having the lead after day one.”

Janes agreed.

“There’s definitely relief,” he said. “It’s my last chance. So there is definitely relief that we finally did it.”

It made the celebratory steak dinner taste even better.

“(The steaks) were great, and everyone was happy and really talkative at the dinner,” junior Abram Getz said.

Kroeger led the Palmyra quartet with a tie for 16th, finishing at 165 as he shot a team-best 82 in the second round. White shot an 86 on Tuesday, while junior Abram Getz shot an 87 and Janes posted an 88.

Janes finished tied for 19th at 167, Getz tied for 30th at 170 and White tied for 32nd at 171.

All of the Panthers said they paid little to no attention to the leaderboard during their round.

“I didn’t look at it at all, actually either day,” Getz said. “It was just that I tried to play to my ability and not worry about anything else.”

They knew better than to stress about it.

“I tried to avoid looking at it to avoid the nerves that may come with knowing we were leading or not leading,” White said.

White was the first of the Palmyra quartet to finish, and that was the first time he took full inventory of what was transpiring.

“I looked at it and was like, ‘Oh, we have a chance at this as long as everybody finishes their rounds strong,’” White said. “Luckily, Abram and Skeeter and Jonas came in behind me with big pars on their last holes.”

The Panthers tried to keep calm as Kroeger played his final hole.

“It was tough trying to keep the nerves down and not try to put any pressure on him while he was coming down No. 18 since we were like, ‘If he makes par or bogey here, we win,’” White said. “It was pretty tough having to sit here and watch and not be able to do anything about it.”

Kroeger made par.

“It means a lot, it means a lot,” Kroeger said. “We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. It was fun.”