HIBBING—Eli Devich and Andrew Slatten are good friends.
The Rock Ridge and Hibbing High School golfers are usually paired together at meets, so they have a fun time trying to best each other.
That was the case Friday at the Hibbing Invite, and they didn’t disappoint as Devich, Slatten and Grant Faherty of Duluth East all fired 5-over-par 77s to tie for first place at the Mesaba Country Club.
The Greyhounds would win the boys title with a 311, followed by Grand Rapids at 317, Rock Ridge 326, Hermantown 328, the Bluejackets at 333, Proctor/Esko 336, Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin 363, Duluth Denfeld 375, International Falls 379, Mesabi East 424, Two Harbors 443, North Woods 484 and Northeast Range/Ely 503,.
Eventually, Faherty would win a three-player playoff to place first, then for second and third, they went by scorecards, and it would be Devich getting that No. 2 spot.
Their scores were remarkable because the weather cooperated at times, but for the most part it was windy and rainy, which did affect their games.
“It started off good, then toward the back nine, it started raining and it was windy,” Devich said. “Overall, it went well because my driver was really good. I hit a lot of fairways.
“I pounded it. I couldn’t make any birdies though, but pars were fine.”
Slatten had the same success with his driver and that’s what kept him contention.
“I started off kind of slow, but my tee shots were good at the beginning,” Slatten said. “They were finding the fairway a lot. I wasn’t getting much distance, but they were working the fairway.
“I chunked all of my irons, so that didn’t help. It was a sloppy finish on the front, then on the back I did better.”
How much better?
“I got two birdies in a row, which got me back up to speed a little bit,” Slatten said. “I bogeyed 17 and parred 18, so it wasn’t a bad finish, but it was sloppy overall.”
Devich had all he could do to keep up with Slatten.
“He was probably playing better than me,” Devich said. “I bogeyed 16 because I went out-of-bounds, but I had a good save. He bogeyed 17, and I parred. We went into 18 all-square.”
On the 18th hole, Slatten was on the bottom of the green. His first putt finished about five-feet short of the hole.
Devich was pin high, about 12-feet away looking at birdie.
Devich missed his putt on the short side and tapped in for par.
What was he thinking as Slatten stood over his knee-knocker?
“I didn’t want him to miss that one,” Devich said. “I wanted to make a birdie there and win. I didn’t want him to see him miss that.”
Slatten calmly knocked down his par putt to keep the pair tied.
“I was able to drill that one (five-footer),” Slatten said. “I tried to be confident in my line, get the speed and it went in. It was fun, especially when we were competing at the end. I couldn’t get the job done.”
Devich agreed.
“It was fun,” Devich said. “We both knew that we were close, but we were joking about it. We’re friends, so it was a good time.”
Finishing in the top 10 were as follows:
Zach Roy of Grand Rapids, Owen Johnson of Duluth East and Garrett Oak of Duluth East tied for fourth with 78s. William Shermoen of Grand Rapids and Holdyn Evjen of Hermantown tied for eighth with 79s and Colton Stupar of Grand Rapids, Jack Slattengren of Hermantown and Marco Rolle all tied for 10th with 80s.
The Bluejackets got 20th-place finishes from Ethan Sundvall and Gavin Schweiberger with 85s, Sam Gabardi ws 25th with an 86, Dawson Peterson was 29th with an 88 and Tim Ranta and Drew Bussey tied for 36th with 90s. Dylan Horvath had a 94 to place 45th.
Following behind Devich were Drake Klatkoski with an 81, Jace Kauppi 83, Ian Mikulich 85, Trace Nichols 87 and Easton Walters 89.
Mesabi East was led by Trevor Prophen with a 100, Jared Doherty 103, Logan Markfort 105 and Nicholas Butzke 116.
Jack Klamm and Louis Champlin had 89s for the Titans., Derek Gibeau had 92, Preston Troumbly 93 and Bryce Nielsen 107.
Gage Aune had a 101 for North Woods and Sawyer Glass a 103.
The Nighthawks got a 95 from Alex Merriman, a 99 from Wesley Sandy and 101 from Lewis Powell.
Grand Rapids won the girls portion of the tournament with a team total of 358. Cloquet was second with 384, followed by Northeast Range/Ely 404, Hermantown 406, Rock Ridge 418, Hibbing 431m Proctor/Esko 439, Duluth East 451, Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin 475, International Falls 482, North Woods491, Mesabi East 506 and Two Harbors 531.
Kelby Anderson of International Falls was the medalist with a 79, followed by Leanna Johnson of Grand Rapids 85, Maizy Sundblad of Northeast Range/Ely 86, Tori Olson of North Woods and Adison Johnson of Cloquet 88s, Brianna Dekich of Grand Rapids 89 and Mia Peters of Grand Rapids 91.
Abigail Stewert of Cloquet had 92, Sydney Burggraf of Grand Rapids 93 and Mylee Young and Erin Hughes, both of Rock Ridge, had 93s.
Blayke Swanger led Hibbing with a 99. She was followed by Kate Toewe with a 103, Heidi Rasch 113, Alexa Bougalis 116 and Opan Valeri 120.
Alli Lamppa of Mesabi East had a 98, and Abby Koivisto of Northeast Range/Ely a 101.
The Nighthawks got a 101 from Abby Koivisto, a 106 from Ruby Milton, a 111 from Carnea DeBeltz and a 114 from Cylvia DeBeltz.
Following Young and Hughes for the Wolverines were Jaelyn Parks and Alaina Husmann with 116s, Ava Dahl 120 and Daisy Andrews 131.
Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin was led by Reagan Powell with a 110, followed by Klara Finke 116, Alyizzia Roy 121 and Veronica Gangl 128.
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