WHS Golf

The travel weary Wahkiakum Mules golf team was in dire need of some home cooking and good weather, and they had it at their March 24 match at Skyline Golf Course. Conditions were perfect, 65 degrees with a soft breeze. The thought was the first group with Wahkiakum’s Logan LaBerge and Toutle Lake’s Zach Swanson would duke it out for first place. The battle ensued with LaBerge parring the first 4 holes and building a five stroke lead, not knowing that Wahkiakum’s number two player Kaleo Silva was staking his own claim by finishing second, shooting 47. LaBerge ran into some trouble at the top of the course but finished first with a 45. Swanson finished third with a 49; Winlock’s Joe Welch finished fourth at 50, and Columbia Adventist’s Braiden Ermshar finished sixth with a 52.

The Mules' best four score was 204, moving their season record to 8-1 as Toutle Lake, Winlock and Columbia Adventist all fielded incomplete teams. A 27 stroke improvement from Monday’s match at Riverside was remarkable. The bulk of that improvement was second place finisher Mules senior Silva who had an 18 stroke improvement from Monday. It makes sense since, because outside of medalist LaBerge, he has logged more practice than the guys that just started two Mondays ago.

One of those guys was Colten Vik who improved by 11 strokes shooting 55. Also scoring for the Mules were Kyler Sauce 57, Avery Wiltse-Hiatt 58, and Braxton Johns 59. It took three matches to get the entire team shooting in at least the 50s, and I’m thinking it will take three more matches to get the players in the 40s. We are steadily improving with more playing time, and that’s what I’m hoping for. If we can get one or two more guys shooting in the 40s before the district tournament on April 28, we’ll have a shot at recapturing the district trophy.

The Mules' next match is April 12 at Winlock.