Sweet Home’s boys team finished second in the Special District 2 championships last week at Tokatee and were 11th in the state championships Monday night at Eagle Crest, going into Tuesday’s final day.
The Husky girls narrowly missed qualifying as a team, leaving Haley May as their lone state competitor as an individual after she placed third in the district tournament.
“We were a little bummed that we couldn’t go as a team,” Coach Pat Davis said, “but we’re excited that Hailey got to go, for the third time, and we’re hoping for a top-10 finish.”
Monday night, May, a senior, was tied for 14th after shooting an 89 at the 4A/3A/2A/1A Championships at Quail Valley Golf Course in Banks.
The Sweet Home boys entered their district tournament a presumptive third-place team, but they outplayed Cascade, widely regarded as the second-best team in the field, by eight strokes on Monday, shooting 375, which “is a good round at Tokatee,” Davis said.
At the end of Day 1, freshman Brayden Keesee was in fourth place with an 86 and senior Jake Hindmarsh was tied for fifth two strokes back. Christopher May, also a freshman, finished the first round with a 100, followed by senior Seth Wright (101) and sophomore Carson Smith (115).
Smith came through for the Huskies on Day 2, with a personal-best 84 to help pace Sweet Home to a 352, their best round of the year, to beat a resurgent Cascade by six strokes.
“We were clearly the second-place team,” Davis said. “It was fun to do two good days together.”
Hindmarsh shot an 83 to lead the Huskies, followed by May (90), Keesee (95) and Wright (98).
Monday night, May 14, Keesee led the Huskies with an 85 after the first day of the 4A state tournament, which had him in a three-way tie for 22nd place. Hindmarsh was four strokes back, in a four-way tie for 33rd. May finished Day 1 with a 101, Wright with a 105 and Smith with 112.
Sweet Home was 11th in the team standings, trailing 10th-place Cascade by 13 strokes with a 380.
In the Special District 2 tournament at Santiam Golf Course May 7-8, the girls placed fourth, eight shots behind Waldport.
Davis noted that Salem Academy, the winning team, got a late-season boost with an addition, from Blanchet Catholic, of junior Katie Goodwin, who was the second-place individual finisher in the tournament with a 77-77 over two days, edging Taft, which would have been the presumptive winner before that development.
Taft senior Maya Hatton was the district champion, shooting 76-75. May shot an 85 on Monday and followed that up with an 82 to finish third.
With the exception of May, Sweet Home got off to a slow start Monday, shooting 60s on the front nine.
“But every one of them recovered and played much better for the back nine,” Davis said.
Sophomore Brook Womack shot a season-low 101 on Tuesday in the district tournament, in a strong finish, he said.