Ever since capturing the 2A state title last spring, the Interlake golf team has worn a target on their backs as the team everyone else in the conference was shooting at. The only problem with that is the Saints had them outgunned from the start.

Interlake was perfect as a team in 2011, winning all but two of its matches by ten strokes or more and took the KingCo Medalist Tournament as well with a team stroke total of 394, 21 strokes ahead of second-place Bellevue. Coach Scott Marcum has a team loaded with talent, experience, cohesion and a desire to prove last season was no fluke.

“It’s been really special this year,” Marcum said. “We’ve had a lot of good players come through, but not a whole team.”

Each of Interlake’s top six players, Andrew Kennedy, Patrick Sato, Andy Liu, Grant Cole, Dawid Papenfus and Sam Fisher, shot in the 30s in at least one match this year as the team scores ranged from a season-low 183 against Lake Washington to 192 in a 20 stroke win over Liberty.

“It was really fun because everyone was shooting low scores,” freshman Grant Cole said of the undefeated regular season. “There were a lot of other really good teams but we have so many good players.”

Three of those, Kennedy, Sato and Liu, all placed in the state tournament last spring and have been buoyed by the infusion of young talent in Cole and Sam Fisher, another freshman.

While Cole and Fisher are new to the fold for Interlake, they are familiar commodities for many of their teammates and those around the team’s home course, Tam O Shanter. The majority of the team has either grown up living in the surrounding community or played extensively at the club throughout their youth, making for a seamless transition.

Senior Dawid Papenfus (pictured below) has lived near Tam O Shanter for most of his life and has taken a great deal of pride in watching childhood friends around the course become teammates and friends.

“That’s one of the things I really like, seeing guys go from junior golf to high school,” Papenfus said. “It’s a little different dynamic.”

Marcum added that unlike many other high school teams that often feel like visitors at their own home course, the Saints have a great deal of familiarity with Tam O Shanter. The club has adopted the Interlake teams as their own, even hanging a banner denoting the course as the home of the 2010 2A state boys golf champions.

“It’s just a great home course,” Papenfus said. “Teams come here and have a really tough time.”

Much improved Wolverines push bar higher

Coach Aaron Mead has noticed something different about his team this season. Actually, he’s noticed just about everything is different.

Just 2-5 as a team a season ago, the Wolverines stormed to a second-place conference finish with a 6-1 mark.

“It was really nice because all my guys got the bug during the summer and they all improved a ton,” Mead said. “It was fun to be a part of.”

The only loss of the year came against the undefeated Saints and even in defeat, Mead saw growth in his squad. Unlike in his first three seasons, where the coach says more of his players approached the team as a hobby, this year’s group has a vested interest in one another and enjoying success as individuals and as a team.

“It [the Interlake match] was a tough one,” Mead said. “But it was good because it brought our team together.”

Radleigh Ang has been the most consistently low scorer for the Wolverines, shooting 38 or better for each of his seven rounds during the regular season and firing a team-best 32 at Twin Rivers earlier in the year. Ang, a sophomore and member of the WJGA, has been a key to the team’s shift in mindset according to Mead.

“Radleigh is jut into the game,” Mead said. “He kind of brought that to the team and the seriousness and work ethic has spread throughout the team.”

Ang and fellow sophomore Chandler Hawk, who went over 40 only twice, have been the steadying force on the team.

“As sophomores, they’ve challenged the seniors to step up their game,” Mead said of Hawk and Ang, who both hope to make a trip to the district and state tournaments.

And of course, they are hoping to do it as a team. Mead said he has hopes of five players qualifying for districts and sending three to the 3A state meet, which will be played in the spring along with the girls tournament.

“That’s a lofty goal,” Mead said of sending three players to state. “But that’s one of the goals we have.”

Sammamish ended the season at 4-3 and were led by the play of Patrick Raschko and Connor Hood. Raschko shot the lowest mark of the regular season for the Totems with a 33 at Twin Rivers against Mercer Island and Hood was under 40 in four of the team’s seven matches.

Newport finished the regular season with a 5-5 record and was a perfect 4-0 at its home course, Newcastle. The Knights shot an average team score of 205.6 on the road and 199.5 at home, though the best team total came at Tall Chief Golf Course near Fall City.