Submitted by the Friday Harbor golf team
The Friday Harbor High School golf team had a surprise at the April 24 match against Orcas at the Orcas Golf Course.
At the end of nine holes, both teams had a final score of 256.
“In all my years of coaching, I have never come up with a tie score in a match against another team,” said coach Jack Rice.
The coaches decided to have a one-hole, sudden-death playoff with the top five kids from each team. Ten players teed it up on the ninth hole in the playoff to determine the winner of the day’s match. Friday Harbor was able to pull out the win with a team score of 24 to Orcas 25.
“It was great fun and pretty exciting for the 10 who got to play,” said Rice.
The Orcas team was kind enough to allow Friday Harbor to bring 14 players to the match. A team is made up of six or fewer players. Orcas only had five, so Friday Harbor countered their five lowest scores from the six selected to play against them.
“My biggest dilemma each week, as coach, is who to put into the top 6 positions,” said Rice. “We have so many players all at about the same skill level that it turns into a tough weekly decision. A perfect example is what happened yesterday. Sean Chevalier was left out of the top six and carded a great score of 42; he was medalist for the match, beating all players!”
Chevalier is a senior who came to golf after the Lacrosse team disbanded earlier this year.
Freshman Ethan Havel had a personal best with 50. Two other freshmen made the trip, Lucas Wickman, 59, and Tyler Fleming, 60.
Orcas has a small team but they are very competitive. Maia Shunk came in second for the day with a fine score of 43. Her twin sister Zoey wasn’t far behind with a 53. Serei O’toole came in fourth with a 48 — one shot behind Friday Harbor’s Senior Dylan Posenjak 47.
With the ferry schedule disruption, the team had four hours to fill while they waited for the ride back home. Since it was such a beautiful day the team voted to go to Moran State Park and have an afternoon picnic.
“Opening day of trout season is just around the corner and I’m here to report there was a lot of fish or something splashing in the lake,” said Rice.
After getting some fuel back into the oven, the team returned to the course and broke into three teams and played a nine-hole scramble match against themselves. The good news is that they got on the correct ferry this year and made it home just as the sun was setting.
On Thursday, April 26, the team plays their arch-rival Lopez in Friday Harbor. The last time they met on Lopez, a few weeks ago, their entire girls’ team nearly beat every guy on the Friday Harbor squad.
“Our goal is to turn that around on Thursday and we’re ready,” said Rice.
Scores:
Friday Harbor 256; Playoff Score 24
Orcas 256; Playoff Score 25
Friday Harbor golf team
Dylan Posenjak 47
Peter Kulseth 63
Ethan Havel 50
Ian Volk 51
Alen Melic 53
Levi Doenges 55; Top 5 256
Sean Chevalier 42
Chase Wilson 54
Joe Kaden 55
Weston Swirtz 56
Julian Brown 57
Lucas Wickman 59
Tyler Fleming 60
Aiden Shannon 63
Orcas Golf Team
Leaf Gustafson 50
Maia Lewis Shunk 43
Serei O’Toole 48
Zoe Lewis Shunk 53
Joe Brown 62; Top 5 256
