Trent Harvey led the Sweet Home boys to qualification for their first state tournament since 2018 Monday and Tuesday, May 11-12, at Tokatee Golf Club in Blue River.
The Huskies shot a two-day team score of 353-341-694 to place second in the Oregon West District Championship behind Cascade (329-332-661).
“They all played fairly well,” said Coach Ron Moore. His five golfers included two who had not played before this season. “We wanted to take first, but we couldn’t seem to put it together.”
Harvey, a junior, shot 85-78-163 to place second overall in the tournament, which would have qualified him as an individual for state if the team had not qualified.
But they did, with sophomore Evan Malabago, new to high school golf, finishing with 88-87-175 and sophomore Henry Gainer shooting 96-81-177.
Senior Lynkin Royer, also a high school golf rookie, finished with 88-95-183 and sophomore Blayne Schuster finished with 92-97-189.
“The first day was a little shaky for Trent and Henry,” Moore said. “It’s Evan’s first year of golf. He’s a natural. He didn’t play up to his potential, but he played well. He and Lynkin helped out a lot on the first day. It’s taken Lynkin a little while to get rid of his baseball swing.”
North Marion was third (380-356-736) , Stayton was fourth (392-367-759), Newport fifth (393-386-779) and Philomath was sixth (428-437-865).
The state tournament runs Monday and Tuesday of this week, May 18-19, at the Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell.
Seaside returns as the defending state champion after defeating Marist 640-647 last year. The Seagulls are led by senior Xanh Quang, who placed third last year and is the leading 4A scorer this season at .30 under par, well ahead of Elias Long of Baker/Powder Valley (2.10 over) and Madras senior Tate Alire (3.81 over), although Alire’s 75 was the lowest score in the Oregon 4A district tournaments.
Pendleton/Griswold (30.38-over), Marist Catholic (32.13-over) and Cascade (40.92-over) had the best team scoring averages going into Monday.
– Jerry Ulmer of OSAAToday contributed to this article