The St. Helens High School Lions boys golf team is off to a successful start in the Class 5A season, taking third place in the eight-team The Dalles Invitational Tournament at The Dalles Country Club.
SHHS junior Tyler Tolles putts on the green at The Dalles Country Club Mar. 18.
SHHS senior Mason Keely swings his club on a tee shot to drive the ball towards the putting green during competition in The Dalles.
The Lions, guided by assistant Coach Clark Lawrence, shot a four-player total of 400 to finish just behind the runner up La Grande High Tigers at 373 at the nine-hold event March 18. The Dalles Riverhawks won with a score of 368.
St. Helens junior Garrett Smith took home a second-place medal with a score of 84, finishing just two strokes behind first place medalist Joe Codding of The Dalles, at 82. Mo Cereghino of Molalla was third at 85.
“We weren’t really sure what to expect coming in and in past years, they’ve had some good teams there,” said Lawrence, whose dad Dave is the Lions head coach. “We’re happy with the results. A lot of the guys walked away knowing there’s some stuff that they have to work on. Overall, it was a good tournament for us. Garrett was concerned about all the different holes that he messed up on the front nine and he kind of had a rough time. We were a little surprised after seeing what he had on the front (46). He turned things around though and he played the way we expect him to on the back nine.”
Smith had two birdies and he shot a score of 38 on the back nine, which was the lowest nine-hole score of all of the 42 total golfers in the event. Codding shot a 39 on the front nine.
St. Helens junior Tyler Tolles shot a 98, junior Thatcher Lyman shot 106 and Logan Johnston shot 112. Senior Mason Keely, in his first year on the Lions golf team, was playing in his first-ever tournament and he had a non-counting score of 122. The top four scores are counted in team scoring.
“Garrett hits pretty consistently in the high 70s and he can have good days where he shoots lower than that too,” Lawrence said. “It shows his character pretty well and he’ll do whatever he can to get better. After the front nine, he was really focused in on what he wanted to do on the back. That front nine helped him a lot actually. While he didn’t play well, it helped him get focused again. When we play these other courses in our Northwest Oregon Conference matches, he’ll be ready and really locked in.”
Other team scores had the Madras High White Buffaloes fourth (414), followed by the Pendleton High Buckaroos (437), the Hood River Valley High Eagles (445). The Goldendale High Timberwolves took seventh at 458 and the Seaside High Seagulls took eighth at 480.
The Lions will compete in their next tournament Mar. 28. on the 18-hole, par 72 Stone Creek Golf Course in Oregon City. St. Helens qualified for the Class 5A state tournament last year and the Lions quartet of golfers is hoping to achieve that goal again this year. Last year’s tourney was unofficial since it wasn’t sanctioned by the OSAA because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Since the 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic, this year marks the first officially sanctioned OSAA state tourney since 2019. The Intermountain Conference/NWOC Regional Tourney will be held May 9-10 at Heron Lakes Golf Club in Portland. The state tournament is May 16-17 at Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis.
