WHEELING – The Trent Jones-designed Golf Course at Speidel Golf Club inside Oglebay Park was unforgiving Tuesday as 47 OVAC Class 4A golfers tried their luck on the spacious par-72 layout.

Of that total, just one – St. Clairsville’s Brodi Foster – managed to shoot under 80. The left-handed senior carded a 79 to earn medalist honors and lead the Red Devils to their fourth consecutive conference championship.

“It wasn’t a bad round. It was definitely playing hard out there,” Foster said of his 18-hole round. “Shooting 79 isn’t really good, but I guess it was today.”

Foster said he played the last five holes at 1-over par.

“If you know the Jones Course, the last five holes are probably the hardest,” Foster explained. “I’m glad I finished strong.”

The Red Devils’ Evan Fix was medalist runner up, shooting an 81. Also earning all-conference honors was St. Clairsville’s Mavrik Malin and Andrew Abel with 84 and 87, respectively, while Harrison Central’s Nash Roberts finished at 95. Malin won the Buckeye 8 title earlier this season. Abel was the OVAC 4A medalist a year ago. Those five, along St. Clairsville’s Ethan Turner (88) who didn’t figure in the Red Devils team score, were the only ones to shoot under 90 on the day. Eleven players finished under 100.

“It definitely could have been better,” Fix said of his 18 holes. “I kind of had to ground it out and throw a score down, but it definitely wasn’t the worst or as bad as it could have been.”

St. Clairsville shot a team score of 331, which was 56 strokes ahead of second-place Weir High. Beaver Local was third (391), followed by Indian Creek (419), Edison (422), Cambridge (424), Buckeye Local (429), Oak Glen (444), Harrison Central (445) and East Liverpool (464).

“We were pretty confident coming into today. We’ve been over here to the Jones Course a lot in the last month,” St. Clairsville coach Ryan Clifford said. “We’ve got a pretty good understanding of the course, but our scores are always higher here because the course is really hard. To have all five guys under 90 is really a testament to how hard they’ve worked all year.

“There weren’t many low scores today.”

This is the second conference title the Red Devils have won for the fourth consecutive year, capturing the Buckeye 8 earlier this year at the Steubenville Country Club.

“Winning this four straight times is what these seniors deserve for all the work they’ve put in during their careers,” Clifford added. “This is nice, but we’ve got bigger goals ahead, starting Monday at the Cadiz Country Club.”

He was referring to the Ohio Division II sectional tournament.

“It’s an exciting time of year, for sure.”

OVAC Class 4A

1. St. Clairsville 331

Brodi Foster 38-41 79; Evan Fix 40-41 81; Maverick Malin 37-47 84; Andrew Abel 43-44 87; *Ethan Turner 41-47 88

2. Weir High 387

Aiden Ferguson 46-44 90; Guy Meneely 46-50 96; Evan Kaczmarek 46-51 97; Isaiah Smith 58-46 104; *Justin Kaczmarek 52-54 106

3. Beaver Local 391

Mikey Drushel 42-51 93; Braxton Hickman 44-54 98; Britton Hickman 46-52 98; Andre Wiegand 49-53 102; *Owen Hill 46-57 103

4. Indian Creek 419

Garrin Clark 50-47 97; Tre Feist-Winland 56-49 105; Riley Guskea 49-57 106; Stan Amis 56-55 111; *Bo Paulman 58-55 113

5. Edison 422

Luke Ferrali 50-53 103; Cash Meadows 51-55 106; Brady haught 53-53 106; Isaiah Filburn 52-55 107; *Xander Haught 54-59 113

6. Cambridge 424

Austin Jenkins 45-51 96; Mason Gregg 49-48 97; Garrett Carpenter 51-55 106; Gavin Guiler 58-67 125; *Jax Van Dyne 60-67 127

7. Buckeye Local 429

Kamden Kinyo 41-49 90; Adam Blackwell 52-55 107; Kaleb Stang 58-58 116; Dugan Dobrovich 58-58 116; *Dom Kempton DNF

8. Oak Glen 444

Aiden Anderson 45-48 93; Gannon Cline 55-61 116; Cooper Comm 52-65 117; Zach Jenkins 58-60 118

9. Harrison Central 445

Nash Roberts 42-42 95; Logan Johnson 51-54 105; Chase Byers 58-54 112; Liam Roberts 70-73 143

10. East Liverpool 464

Carrett Cooper 54-56 110; Donovan Shallcross 56-56 112; Cooper Klein 54-63 117; Kam Engle 61-64 125