This season’s Riverside Brookfield golfers have some large shoes to fill with the loss of David Oswald.
Oswald graduated last year with an average score of 37 per nine holes. It’ll be up to senior returners Jon Prihodke, Nick D’Abolio and Joe Ruge to fill in the gap Oswald left.
The three have already shown their up to the challenge. In the season opener last week at the Nazareth Invitational, the trio led the Bulldogs to a fourth place finish. Prihodke led the team with an 82. D’Abolio holed an 84 and Ruge an 88 as RB outplayed four other teams. Junior newcomer Matt Meindl made a good first impression on his teammates by scoring an 83 at the invite.
“We lost a phenomenal golfer in David Oswald, but hopefully our returning guys can make up for the departure,” said RB head coach Larry Rocco. “We need Prihodke and D’Abolio to lower their scores a bit, but I think that’ll happen as the season goes on.”
Rocco has a slew of other players to count on as the team tries to improve on last season’s second place Metro Suburban Conference finish. Seniors Tyler Balderman, Rob Lebeau, Anthony Lee and Scott Rysz have plenty of experience between them. Juniors Ben Kohler, Christian Hitt and Eric Dinn are expected to make a significant impact this season.
The Bulldogs travel to Addison Trail today for an invitational before heading to the Lemont Invitational on Friday.
-Brad Spencer