Marquette Catholic’s Aidan O’Keefe is the Gateway Metro Conference’s first boys golf champion.
With four of the six schools in the two-year-old league competing in its first conference tournament for boys golf, O’Keefe shot 5-over par 77 to lead Marquette to a GMC title Friday at Belk Park in Wood River.
The Explorers used a 1-2 finish from seniors O’Keefe and Will Schwartz to shoot 322 and beat runner-up Father McGivney (331) by 11 strokes. Metro-East Lutheran (407) and Maryville Christian (435) completed the field, with GMC members Bunker Hill and Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran not sending teams to tourney.
McGivney was led by Brandan Reed’s 80 and used an 82 from Riley Knobeloch, 83 from Drew Villhard and 86 from Joey Hyten for its 331.
MEL got a 96 from Cole Renken and 99 from Jacob Kober, with Maryville Christian’s top score coming from Jeff McAteer at 105.
Six players received medals and were named All-GMC, with Marquette and McGivney each getting three. O’Keefe, Schwartz and Jones were named all-conference for the Explorers, with Reed, Knobeloch and Villhard earning that honor for the Griffins.