Tallen James ties for 1st Place; earns All-Conference honors with Evan Dunning
By Jim Beers
CHESTER – The 2023 Cahokia Conference Golf Tournament is in the books and the Chester YellowJackets are Cahokia Conference Illinois Division Champions. The conference golf tournament took place at Governors Run Golf Course in Carlyle.
Chester’s Tallen James, a freshman, tied for 1st Place with Sparta’s Mason Ethington, a senior. Both shot scores of 78 for the 18-hole event. To break the tie, there was a playoff. Both boys played holes until someone had a better score. It took two additional holes but Sparta’s Ethington finally got the better score to become the “Official “Champion of the 2023 Cahokia Conference, Illinois Division Tournament.
Evan Dunning (left) and Tallen James (right) are 2023 Cahokia Conference Illinois Division “ALL-CONFERENCE honorees. To earn this honor, they had to finish in the Top-10 of the 18-hole tournament held at Governors Run in Carlyle. Tallen finished tied for 1st Place with his score of 78 and Evan finished 9th with his score of 87. James is a CHS freshman while Dunning is a CHS junior. Photo by Christy James
The Top-10 golfers earned All-Conference honors and Chester’s Tallen James (1st, Tie, 78) and Evan Dunning (9th, 87) both earned 2023 Cahokia Conference Illinois Division “All-Conference” honors.
The complete list of “All-Conference” honorees included the following:
Mason Ethington (Sr.), Sparta (1st, Tie, 78)
Tallen James (Fr.), CHESTER (1st, Tie, 78)
Luke Tasker (Sr.), Wesclin (3rd, 82)
Gannon Meyer (Fr.), Carlyle (4th, 83)
Riley Clark, (Sr.) Okawville (5th, 84)
James Pillers (Sr.), Sparta (6th, 85)
Parker Lehde (Sr.), Okawville (7th, Tie, 86)
Jax Johnson (Fr.), Carlyle (7th, Tie, 86)
Evan Dunning (Jr.), CHESTER (9th, 87)
Shane Klausing (Sr.), Okawville (10th, Tie, 88)
Jack Muench, (Fr.) Red Bud, (10th, Tie. 88)
There were six teams that competed in the 2023 Cahokia Conference Illinois Division Tournament which was an 18-hole event. All were IHSA Class1A schools.
Pictured is the Chester High School Boys’ Golf Team. This group of young men won the 2023 Cahokia Conference Illinois Division CHAMPIONSHIP held at Governors Run Golf Course in Carlyle. (Left to right): Jaden Mott, Head Coach, Noah Homan, Brenden Malley, Evan Dunning, All-Conference Honoree, Lucas Thompson, Chester’s only senior, Tallen James, tied for 1st Place Medalist, All-Conference Honoree, Trevin Eggemeyer, Max Blechle, and Paul Zemlyn, Assistant Coach. Photo Provided
Conference standings were as follow:
1st CHESTER (346)
2nd Okawville (349)
3rd Sparta (350)
4th Carlyle (351)
5th Red Bud (359)
6th Wesclin (370)
The Chester High School YellowJackets won the 2023 Cahokia Conference title. Individual YellowJacket results are as follow:
Tallen James (Fr.) (1st Tie, 78)
Evan Dunning (Jr.) ( 9th,87)
Brenden Malley (Jr.) (13th, Tie, 90)
Noah Homan (Jr.) (16th, Tie, 91)
Lucas Thompson (Sr.) (28th, Tie, 99)
Trevin Eggemeyer (Fr.) (31st, 106)
The YellowJackets are coached by Jaden Mott, Head Coach. Mott is a former CHS standout golfer who played golf at Mineral Area College after graduating from Chester High School. He has returned to Chester to coach at his Alma Mater this year. He is assisted by Paul Zemlyn, another long-time Chester golfer.