Ever since he joined the Montgomery County golf team in his sophomore year, Keaton Reagan has earned plenty of medals.

The MCHS senior brought home another medal on April 14 after placing fourth with a four-over-75 under sunny conditions at the Warrenton Invitational at the par-71 Country Lake Golf Club. He was the only Wildcat to win a medal at the tournament.

Reagan was tied for fourth with St. Charles West’s Ian Hollander with 75, but was awarded fourth place due to a scorecard playoff. He finished with two birdies and nine pars.

“The conditions were perfect,” Reagan said. “I left a few strokes out there on the front nine. I didn’t really get the putting down. Other than that, I thought I played a pretty good round.”

The Wildcats didn’t bring home another Warrenton tournament title. They finished with a four-player score of 348 in the tournament’s Red Division. Last year, MCHS shot a 339 to win the Red Division title.

Junior Robby Rodgers had the Wildcats’ second-best score with an 88 and seven pars, followed by senior Garrett Banks with a 90 and four pars, senior Alex Hartman with a 95 and four pars and senior Adam Czerniewski with a 104, a birdie and a par.

“I’m not totally comfortable with how (the tournament) went because I felt like we left a lot of strokes on the course,” first-year MCHS coach Cody Hasekamp said. “Not having one of our top kids (Maddox James) with us today definitely hurt our team score overall, but the kids played well and they handled the temperature.”

The Wildcats played their first tournament of the season after competing in dual matches for the last two weeks. They are 14-1 in dual matches.

“I feel like across the board the team has been performing,” Hasekamp said. “Obviously, in every match, we have things we want to work on and things we look to get better at.”

Reagan earned a fourth-place medal at Warrenton for the second year in a row. He finished with 10 pars and a birdie in the 2022 event, becoming one of four MCHS golfers to receive a medal.

“Last year, I came out here and shot an 81, so I got a little better,” Reagan said. “Honestly, it’s one of my favorite courses. I like how it plays. There are a few tough holes here and there, but that’s in every course.”

In this year’s tournament, Reagan shot a par-36 in the back nine. At one point, he shot par in five consecutive holes.

“I was trying to get the ball in the greens,” Reagan said. “My putting wasn’t the greatest. I was trying to get on the greens in regulation and go from there. The putts finally started to drop once I got to the back nine.”

From the first match he played on March 29, 2021, Reagan has been a valuable player for the Wildcats. He helped his team win two Eastern Missouri Conference titles. Besides Warrenton, Reagan also won medals at the EMO and Elsberry tournaments. His freshman year was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, Reagan earned medalist honors twice, including in a match against Wright City, Silex and South Callaway on April 6 at the Montgomery County Golf Club, where he shot a two-under-33.

“Keaton has been really rising to the occasion,” Hasekamp said. “There’s no reason that he’s not very much in the conversation to be our conference medalist and make a push to be in the top five overall in districts. The sky’s the limit for Keaton.”

Reagan said he hopes to end his high school golf career with a trip to the Class 2 state tournament in New Bloomfield. Last year, his junior season ended with a 98 in the district tournament.

“When we got to districts, I struggled a lot,” said Reagan, who plans to attend the University of Central Missouri next year and major in business. “That first hole really messed me up. I lost all of my confidence for the day. Hopefully, this year won’t be that bad.”