Sweet Home’s golf team pulled off a big finish, placing eighth at the state 4A championships last week at Eagle Crest Ridge Golf Course in Redmond.
A week after giving up a 13-stroke first-day lead to Cottage Grove in the district tournament, to finish second to the Lions, the Huskies stepped it up on Day Two of the state tournament, their first appearance since 2008.
“We played with the big boys,” said first-year Coach Pat Davis. “We were the sixth-best team on the second day.”
Sweet Home finished the first round with a team score of 352, ninth-best, then followed that up with a 338 on Tuesday, finishing with a total of 690. Seaside finished 328-321 for a 649 to win the team title.
Cottage Grove was 11th, shooting 356-372-728. The Lions finished the first day four strokes behind Sweet Home, but “blew up on Tuesday,” Davis said – exactly the opposite of what happened last week. Sutherlin, which is joining the Sky-Em League this fall, was 10th (359-348-707).
“On Monday we shot an average round, if you took a composite of all of our rounds from this season,” Davis said. “That 352 is right there, pretty much exactly our average score. I was OK with that. We didn’t play horrible Nobody blew up. Nobody was outstanding.”
Back at the hotel Monday night, senior Michael Tolle, the Huskies’ top finisher on the first day with an 82, took ill.
“He spent the whole night throwing up, with chills and fever,” Davis said. “He played the first five holes on Tuesday in full raingear, while everybody else was in shorts and polos.”
Tolle finished his second round with a 79, also the best round for Sweet Home on Day Two, to finish tied for 15th, one place better than Tyler Huschka’s finish in 2008. The Huskies finished 11th that year as a team.
Davis said he and Assistant Coach Kevin Roberts followed Tolle around the course most of the second day feeding him Clif Bars and Gatorade.
The Huskies’ second finisher, senior Stephen Bishop, finished 84-81 for a total of 165, in 24th place. Davis said Bishop was bothered by the fact that a member of his four-some, the last-place finisher, slowed play down so much that Bishop later told the coach he probably would have improved by five strokes under different circumstances.
The individual champion was Brandon Ellwanger of Baker, who finished 71-73-144 for even par. Ellwanger then went to the 4A state track and field championships on Saturday and won the 100 meters.
The Sky-Em League’s top finisher was Johnny Hunts of Junction City, who has led the league all year, shooting 76-78-154 to finish tied for fifth.
Sweet Home’s third finisher was junior Chris Melcher, tied for 49th overall, shooting 91-86-177. Senior Bryce Daniels was fourth, with a 95 and 92 for a 187, to finish 61st, and junior Brenner Roberts finished fifth for the Huskies, shooting 99-107-206.
“We were hoping to jump up to seventh and finish in the top half, which would have been awesome,” Davis said.
“But to shoot our lowest round of the year, on a tough course, on the last day of the season, that was pretty exciting. We had a great time. We didn’t embarrass ourselves. The kids were awesome. They acquitted themselves very well.”