Orcas Island High School took a record eight players to the 1B/2B State Golf Championship in Bellingham last week. Five boys and one girl made the championship round of the two-day, 36-hole tournament. The Vikings’ boys team won the second place trophy, finishing 23 points ahead of their league rivals, LaConner, and a scant six points behind the State Champions, Northwest Christian of Spokane.

Senior Anthony Ghazel made his pre-season goal of finishing in the top 10 by shooting a score of 165 to take seventh place. Sophomore Taylor Diepenbrock took tenth place, carding a 168 – after failing to qualify for last year’s State Tournament by one stroke. Sophomore Henri Bredouw bested his appearance at State last year to finish in fourteenth place with a score of 170. Roy Miller shot a personal best of 39 on the back nine on the second day, to finish in seventeenth with a two-day total of 173. Sophomore Alan Coe carded a 186 to finish in thirty-seventh place.

The boys’ team very nearly knocked off the eventual winners of the team championships. All five members of the Vikings squad made the cut to play in the second day of the tournament. “There is power in numbers,” said coach Bobby Olmsted. “It just shows that the individual players don’t necessarily have to finish in the top five spots to make a run for the championship trophy.”

In the past seven years, the Orcas boys’ team has finished fifth in State once, fourth twice and now second.

Senior Melissa Moran-Hodge placed eighth in the girls’ State Golf Championships. Moran-Hodge trimmed five strokes off her first-day score of 99 to finish with a 194. Cetacea Stanton finished in twenty-sixth place overall. Orcas girls’ alternate Maddy Smith followed play as a member of the gallery.

“We had a great year,” said coach Olmsted. “I’m really proud of the team. Over half of the team qualified for State. It shows what hard work and determination can do.”