Interlake defended its 2A boys golf state title behind a five-man team of Andrew Kennedy, Sam Fisher, Grant Cole, Patrick Sato and Andy Liu, who each made the cut and scored enough points to give the Saints the state title by one over Clarkston.
Kennedy was the highest finisher for the Saints with a 79-82-161, which landed him in a three-way tie for 12th. Sam Fisher was 16th while Grant Cole and Patrick Sato tied for 20th.
The final member of the team to score a point was Liu, who finished ninth at last year’s state tourney and was an all-conference selection as well. After arriving two minutes behind schedule to the tee for his second round, Liu was given a two-stroke penalty en route to a round of 111.
Despite the unsightly total, Liu persevered to score what would be the deciding point for Interlake in its team scoring bout with Clarkston, which had the individual champion in Tyler Carlson.
Marianne Li paced the Newport girls to the highest finish of any KingCo team at the 4A girls meet, ending in fourth place behind champ Bellarmine Prep, Lewis and Clark and four points behind Kentwood.
Li shot a 76-73-149 and was the highest individual finisher of anyone from the conference and five strokes off the lead of Prep’s Alivia Brown.
Jessica Kent shot an 84-76-160 for the Knights and ended in a three-way tie for 14th, Isabel Chien ended in 28th, Maddie Dietz finished in 32nd place and Hannah Christian rounded out the scoring for Newport with a 40th place finish.
Kevin Zhao of Newport ended the day in a seven-way tie for 23rd with a 81-78-159 and was the only boy in the field for the Knights.
Radleigh Ang earned the highest finish of a Bellevue golfer in the 3A tourney with a 80-75-155 and a 20th place finish.
Bellevue’s Sam Johnson did not make the cut for day two.
Hannah Davenport of Bellevue finished in 29th place.
Andy Hood of Sammamish was only one stroke off making the cut. Bellevue’s Arden Phillips was also in the field for day one action.
Interlake’s Aleana Groenhout carried a three stroke lead into the final day but finished in third after Steilacoom’s Cherokee Kim fired a meet-best 74 on the second day. Groenhout finished in third place with a 75-84-159 to lead her team to a fourth place team finish.
Danielle Nieman finished 28th for the Saints while Katie Lee did not make the cut.
Spencer Findlay was 21st and Bo Foster 24th for Bellevue Christian at the 1A state meet. Olivia Waham was 22nd for BCS on the girls side and Carolyn Langdon was also in the field but did not make the cut.
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